Georgian Pork Soup with Rice and Tkemali
Ingredients
2 servings
- Pork ribs 400 g
- Cold water 1.5 l (plus more for the first boil)
- Onion 1-2
- Carrot 1
- Butter 1 tbsp
- Tkemali sauce 2 tbsp
- Rice 2-3 tbsp (27–41 g)
- Garlic 1-2 cloves
- Imeretian saffron (marigold) 0.5 tsp
- Boiling water 100 ml (to infuse the saffron)
- Salt (Svan salt) 1–2 pinches and to taste
- Khmeli-suneli, dried hot chili peppers to taste
- Dill for serving
Step-by-step recipe
Preparing the ingredients
The hardest part of making pork soup is choosing the ingredients. The meat must be ribs. Most often the sour base of the soup is tklapi (ტყლაპი), a sour lavash made from sun-dried tkemali (cherry plum) puree. In fact, if you have tkemali sauce homemade, it will work and may even be better.
Khmeli-suneli (ხმელი-სუნელი) means “dry spice”: a very aromatic but not hot blend of seasonings. Khmeli-suneli contains basil, hot red pepper, parsley, celery, dill, coriander, bay leaf, summer savory, mint, marjoram, fenugreek, hyssop, Imeretian saffron (marigold) or saffron.
Instead of ordinary salt you can use Svan salt (Georgian: სვანური მარილი), a traditional Georgian spice blend. Besides salt, it contains fenugreek, dried garlic, dill seeds, coriander, caraway and more.
Prepare the ribs: cut them into pieces so that each piece has a bone. Rinse the meat well and remove bone splinters.
Prepare the vegetables: peel the carrot and dice it, peel the onion and cut it into thick strips.
Broth
Make the broth. Put the pork ribs in a pot or cauldron and cover with cold water. Bring the water almost to a boil, then drain at once and rinse the meat.
Cover the ribs again with 1.5 l of cold water, set on the heat and add 1–2 pinches of salt or Svan salt blend. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to the minimum. Cover with a lid and cook the meat over the lowest heat for 1 hour, until tender. It is important that the broth does not boil hard, just barely at the edge of a boil.
Soup
While the broth cooks, fry the onion and carrot in butter over medium heat until soft and lightly browned.
Infuse the saffron: put 0.5 tsp of Imeretian saffron (marigold) in a glass and pour over 100 ml of boiling water. Let it steep until the water takes on its color.
As soon as the pork ribs are cooked, add the sour base to the soup, tkemali sauce. Cook the soup for 10 mins.
Add the fried carrot and onion. Cook the soup at a gentle simmer for another 10 mins, by which time the vegetables will be nearly done.
Add the rinsed rice to the soup and cook for 20 mins at a gentle simmer, until the rice is done. It is best to use long-grain rice with low stickiness that does not overcook easily. Parboiled or basmati is excellent, or any other kind.
5 mins before the end of cooking, season the soup: add khmeli-suneli to taste, pour in the infused saffron and, if you like, add one or several dried hot chili peppers. Chop the peeled garlic very finely with a knife and add it to the soup. Taste and add more salt if needed.
As soon as the soup is ready, take it off the heat and let it stand under a lid for 10 mins.
Serving
Ladle the soup into bowls and be sure to sprinkle finely chopped dill right in the bowl.
Pork soup is quite thick. It is best eaten with a wooden spoon.
Georgian lavash or fresh bread goes very well with it.
Calories and macros
555 kcal
Serving ≈ 930 g
- Protein25 g18% of kcal
- Fat39 g64% of kcal
- Carbs24 g18% of kcal
100 g60 kcalProtein 2.7 gFat 4.2 gCarbs 2.6 g
Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.