Sheshamadi is a Georgian lobio soup. Red bean lobio: classic recipe Lobby soup

Today, Orthodox believers celebrate the beginning of Lent, which this year will last until April 11. As a huge lover of meat and dairy products, I can well imagine how difficult it is to abstain from these products for such a long period of time, and it is for this reason that, as a gift for my Orthodox friends who are going to fast, I decided to start publishing delicious and interesting Lenten recipes dishes - those that could diversify the menu of believers these days. I will try to apply as much of my knowledge as possible from various national cuisines so that those who are fasting can have a full and varied diet. I also introduced the tag #lenten_recipe on Instagram, under which any of you can join this idea.

Those who have been reading my blog for a long time (all these khinkali, khachapuri, satsivi) or have looked at the section know or guess that I was born and spent part of my childhood in Georgia, so when I talk about delicious food, I first of all mean Georgian cuisine . But Georgia is not just delicious food, Georgia is amazing centuries-old traditions and an amazing story about deeply religious people: nowhere else in the world, for example, have I seen all the passengers while driving a bus near some temple or church, let even located far from the road, somewhere on the top of a hill, they were baptized.

It is for this reason that I decided to start the Lenten menu with an authentic Georgian dish using lobio (beans); Today for lunch is real Georgian soup, which at home we call “Sheshamadi” / “Shechamadi” / “Shechamodi”.
Shashamadi is a very simple soup in its essence, in which the main ingredient is lobio - beans, and everything else is left to the discretion of the housewife who prepares it.

So, let's go!

Ingredients
red beans (lobio) - about 500 g (you can use dry or canned)
onion - 1 head
vegetable oil - 3 tbsp. l. (not during Lent, it’s better to cook with butter)
cilantro - one small bunch

Optional
khmeli-suneli - 0.5 tsp.
tomato paste - 2 tbsp. spoons
potatoes - 4 pcs.
garlic - 3-4 cloves
salt and black pepper to taste

Preparation

1.If you use dry beans, then the night before or a few hours before cooking, you need to soak them in cold water, then change the water and boil the beans until tender. To save time, I often use canned beans - in their own juice or in tomato sauce. Boiled or canned beans only need about 500 g (1 can) for 4 servings.
2. So, after you have dealt with the beans, you need to start on the onion - it should be chopped quite finely and sautéed in hot oil over low heat for about 10 minutes. Attention: the onion should not be fried, it should just become soft, almost transparent with a slight yellowish tint. That is why it should be sautéed over low heat. In general, already at this stage you can add beans to the prepared onions, then add spices and herbs, and this will be a wonderful independent dish.

3. Add potatoes cut into small pieces to the onion, pour in 100 ml. water, cover with a lid and cook until the potatoes are ready. This will take another 10-15 minutes.


4.After the potatoes are ready, add beans to them. If you use canned beans, then you need to put them in the pan along with the juice in which they were in the jar, but if boiled, then it is better not to use the water in which they were boiled, but pour plain water into the pan.
5. If desired, you can add a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste for a noble color, then cook the soup over medium heat for another 7-10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. In addition to salt and pepper, I also use suneli hops, thanks to which any bean becomes a real Georgian lobio. If you don’t have this seasoning, then simply add chopped garlic to the soup before serving (however, garlic must also be added when using khmeli-suneli).

The main thing in preparing lobio according to the classic recipe is the right type of bean. Red or variegated cream beans from the current year's harvest are best - they will have enough starch and at the same time they will not be too dry.

Place the beans in a large bowl and cover with water. The water is cold.
If some beans float to the surface, touch them with your fingers; they may be empty in the middle. These beans should be thrown away.
Leave the red beans to swell for 6-8 hours.

Then drain the water, place the beans in a deep saucepan and add fresh water so that the water completely covers the beans. Set the pan over high heat to bring to a boil.
As soon as the water boils, you need to get rid of it - pour it out and fill it with cold water again (a ratio of 1:4 would be ideal). Cook over medium to low heat, stirring occasionally, for 50 minutes to an hour and a half. The beans should become soft.

Mash some of the beans a little with a fork directly in the pan. Just don't overdo it; there should be a lot of whole beans in the dish.

Sort the nut kernels from the husks and shells. Nuts must not be rotten or spoiled.

Grind them in an accessible and convenient way for you - using a blender or meat grinder.

For lobio according to the classic recipe, take two large onions weighing approximately 180-190 grams or three medium-sized onions. They need to be peeled and cut into not very small cubes. The onion in the dish should be felt and visible.

Prepare a frying pan (preferably a large diameter one with high sides) – heat it up and pour in vegetable oil.
Spread the onion in an even layer and fry it over low heat on the stove burner until translucent, with a light golden color.

Blanch fresh tomatoes. First, wash the tomatoes well, make cross-shaped shallow cuts with a sharp knife near the stalk and on the opposite side and, lowering the tomatoes into boiling water, count to ten. You should not keep vegetables in boiling water for more than 10 seconds. If there is a bowl of ice nearby, you can instantly cool the tomatoes in it; if there is no ice, hold it under running cold water. Use the blade of a knife to pry the skin and remove it without much effort. That's it, our tomatoes are blanched.

Cut a bunch of cilantro with a knife. The greens should not be chopped very finely. Finely chop the garlic cloves into cubes. You can grind them through a press, but chopping them with a knife will still be more correct.

Add tomato cubes to the transparent onions, season with spices - suneli hops, black pepper, a small amount of dried red pepper. Control the amount of hot pepper to your taste. In principle, the dish should be spicy and piquant, but at the same time edible in its spiciness.

Add beans, nuts, cilantro, garlic and a little broth in which the beans were cooked to the onions and tomatoes. Add salt.

Stir and simmer for 3-4 minutes. If you see that the dish is a little dry, you can add more water from the beans.

If you serve lobio hot according to the classic recipe, then this is the main dish. And if it’s cold, it’s a snack.

The three soups I make most often at home are lobio red bean soup, white bean soup with mushrooms and lentil soup.
Each of them is good on its own. Each represents national cuisine.
Usually they don’t like soups; they eat them because they have to, because that’s how it’s done in the family. I remember how, as a child, I fiercely hated borscht, and only after a trip to Abkhazia, when my mother added adjika to it, I realized that you can eat borscht too. And now I love it, I cook it, but I try not to let my family get tired of it. And I have three soups, three bean soups, which everyone likes and eats willingly. Nutritionists believe that legumes must be included in the diet, because they contain vegetable protein that is easily digestible by the body; trace elements: iron, manganese, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus; all the vitamins a person needs. In addition, they are rich in fiber, which provides quick satiety and protects against many diseases. During fasting, if you observe it, legumes are generally irreplaceable, but on ordinary days they are a good alternative to meat soups.
Despite the simplicity of preparation, there are secrets that have been passed down from generation to generation for centuries. For example, red beans are considered healthier than white beans, but when preparing them, you must drain the first water and it would be good to soak them in advance. Lentils do not need to be soaked and they cook quickly, in 20-30 minutes, and there is no need to talk about their benefits, it is written about in the Bible. And what a delicious soup can be prepared from white, crumbly, sugar beans.
But today we are preparing lobio, one of the most common dishes in Georgian cuisine and a favorite in my family.

Ingredients
2.5 tbsp. red beans
2 pcs. onions
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2-3 cloves of garlic
A few sprigs of greenery:
cilantro, celery, savory, mint
To taste hot red pepper, salt, natural wine bite
2l water
A handful of walnuts, optional

Preparation
Lobio is often prepared as an appetizer. But there is also lobio soup, a very tasty and satisfying first course. I like it hot, sizzling with flatbreads, pickles, pickled cheese (such as suluguni, chanakh, goat cheese), I think that the recipe will also be useful for those who are fasting. You can cook lobio on the stove, preferably in a pot or cast iron, and lately I've been cooking it in a slow cooker.
Therefore, I am writing a recipe for cooking in a Panasonic multicooker SR-TMH 18
Beans - soak 2.5 cups in cold water for several hours.
Place in a multicooker pan and let it boil for 5 minutes on the “steam” mode. Pour out the first water, so bean dishes are better digestible.
Finely chop the onion and lightly simmer in vegetable oil. Add beans and add water to mark 6. Set to “stew” mode. The stewing time depends on the type of beans. On average it is 2 hours.
Grind the greens in a blender or mortar (do not overuse mint and add it in very small quantities or do without it), garlic along with salt and red hot pepper. If you don't have fresh herbs, you can use dry ones. But now it’s not a problem to buy fresh cilantro all year round, and if you wish, you can also buy other greens.
As soon as the beans become soft, they need to be mashed, but not to the point of puree; it is good if there are individual bean grains. I make sure that all the liquid in the pan takes on a “milky appearance”; if the beans are not cooked, it will not only taste bad, but will not do any good, and will only cause bloating. If desired, you can add 0.5 cups of walnuts. If you like puree soup, you can grind everything in a blender.
Add the prepared greens, simmer for another 10 minutes and turn off. You can leave it warm for a while.
At this time, add a spoonful of natural wine vinegar. By the way, acid promotes better absorption of calcium, so in folk cuisine everything is balanced and taken into account.
Vinegar can be replaced with sour plum-tkemali or add a spoonful of ready-made tkemali during stewing.

I like to cook lobio from beans like this, the husks don’t float around separately, they boil well and are not rough.
Although there are a huge variety of beans, you can try and choose them to your taste.

“Lobio” translated from Georgian means “beans”, and the same name is given to dishes prepared based on this ingredient. Legumes are supplemented with various vegetables, herbs, seasonings, and consumed both hot and cold.

There are many ways to prepare lobio with the addition of various components.

But for a traditional Georgian dish you will need the following products:

• 600 g beans;
• 150 g walnut kernels;
• 100 g leeks;
• bulb;
• garlic cloves;
• several stalks of celery;
• Bay leaf;
• salt.

Sequence of work:

1. Boil the pre-soaked beans until soft, adding bay leaves and adding water if necessary.
2. Add chopped celery to the prepared beans and reduce heat to low.
3. Chop leeks, onions, cilantro, pass garlic through a press and place in a saucepan.
4. Crush the nut kernels with a rolling pin, add to the dish and keep it on the fire for another quarter of an hour.

Georgian lobio is best eaten hot, but even after the dish has cooled, it will still remain tasty.

Red bean lobio: classic recipe

The classic recipe for making red bean lobio involves the use of a large amount of spices, as well as Tkemali sauce.

For cooking you will need:

• 500 g red beans;
• 380-450 g white or red onion;
• a bunch of cilantro;
• several garlic cloves;
• hot pepper;
• dried coriander and suneli hops;
• Bay leaf;
• Tkemali sauce to taste.

Sequence of work:

1. Place the beans in a thick-walled bowl, add cold water, sprinkle with salt and cook until tender, adding a bay leaf.
2. Drain the liquid from the cooked beans, mash them a little with a fork, then add boiled water and simmer.
3. Chop the onions and simmer them in another frying pan over heated vegetable fat, and then add chopped cilantro and seasonings.
4. Transfer the roast to the beans, add Tkemali sauce and simmer under the lid for some more time.

Important! To make the beans soft and tender, they should be soaked for at least 10-12 hours before boiling.

White bean lobio: traditional version

White bean lobio according to this recipe is easy and quick to make, which is why this cooking method is popular.

To create a dish you need:

• 500-600 g white beans;
• several large onions;
• garlic cloves;
• cilantro;
• hot pepper and suitable seasonings;
• Bay leaf;
• salt.

Operating procedure:

1. Drain the water from the pre-soaked beans, transfer to a container with thick walls, add cold liquid, salt and bay leaf, boil until soft.
2. Cut the onion into thin half rings and fry in vegetable oil until golden brown.
3. Add crushed garlic and chopped herbs to the roast, fry a little and add the mixture to the beans.
4. Sprinkle the dish with seasonings and simmer over low heat for a quarter of an hour.

If desired, you can supplement the lobio with tomato paste or fresh tomatoes.

Green bean lobio

To prepare green bean lobio, you can take the main ingredient fresh or frozen.

For the dish you will need:

• 500 g pods;
• egg;
• garlic;
• hot pepper and Caucasian seasonings;
• greenery;
• salt.

Sequence of work:

1. Peel the onion and garlic cloves and fry in a pan until soft.
2. Rinse the bean pods, strain off the liquid, if necessary, cut into several pieces with a knife and send for frying.
3. When the beans are ready, sprinkle them with salt and seasonings, break the egg on top and continue frying, stirring constantly, and after a few minutes remove from the heat.

Serve the dish hot or cooled, sprinkled with chopped herbs.

Lobio in Megrelian

The homeland of Megrelian lobio is the western part of Georgia. This dish differs from others in that the beans are not boiled too much, and in addition to cilantro, other types of greens are added, for example, basil or parsley. You can use white or red beans as a base.

For cooking you will need:

• 400 g beans;
• 150 g walnuts;
• 3 onion heads;
• 4-5 cloves of garlic;
• salt and hot seasonings;
• a bunch of cilantro and other greens.

Operating procedure:

1. Rinse the soaked beans, place in a deep bowl, add water and cook. When it becomes soft, place in a colander and let cool slightly.
2. Peel the onion and garlic, chop and fry in vegetable oil.
3. Remove the container from the heat, add chopped walnuts, salt, spices and herbs to the frying mixture, mix thoroughly.
4. Add beans to the mixture and simmer covered for a few minutes.

This dish will be an excellent side dish for meat or fish.

Quick tomato lobio

To make a quick lobio from beans, you should use this recipe. This dish will not be inferior in taste to the classic version.

To work you will need:

• 300 g beans;
• bulb;
• carrot;
• several juicy tomatoes;
• garlic cloves;
• 50 g wheat flour;
• salt and suitable spices;
• greenery.

Cooking sequence:

1. Let the soaked beans cook, and when they are ready, drain the water and let cool.
2. Cut the onion into half rings, chop the carrots on a grater, and crush the garlic with a press and place in a frying pan.
3. After the vegetables become soft, add chopped tomatoes, salt, seasonings and continue stewing.
4. When the frying is ready, lay out the beans, sprinkle with chopped herbs and keep on the fire for some more time.

Advice. To make tomato lobio even faster, it is better to use green beans as a base.

Lobio with nuts and mint

Lobio will be given a piquant taste by mint, which can be taken fresh or dried.

For cooking you will need:

• 500 g red or white beans;
• 100 g walnuts;
• a bunch of mint;
• several large onions;
• carrot;
• 3-4 red sweet peppers;
• garlic;
• tomato paste;
• Bay leaf;
• seasonings and salt.

Cooking process:

1. Rinse the soaked beans and cook, adding salt and bay leaf.
2. Peel the onions, garlic, carrots and peppers, chop and fry in a frying pan until soft, then add tomato paste.
3. Mash the boiled beans a little with a fork and add to the roast, sprinkle the dish with spices, salt and stir.
4. Chop the walnuts, chop the washed mint and add the ingredients to the dish, and then simmer under the lid for a short time.

You don’t have to put the greens in the frying pan, but sprinkle them on the finished dish, laid out in portioned plates.

Lobio with added meat

You can cook lobio as a main dish rather than a side dish if you add meat to it. Both pork, beef or veal are suitable.

For the dish you will need:

• 450 g beans;
• 500 g meat;
• several large onions;
• carrot;
• 3-4 bell peppers;
• 5 large tomatoes;
• greenery:
• salt and seasonings.

Cooking procedure:

1. Cook the beans until soft, cool and mash with a fork.
2. Chop the meat and fry in a frying pan with onions.
3. Add grated carrots and chopped bell pepper to the meat frying.
4. When the vegetables soften, add the diced tomatoes and beans, close the lid and simmer for 5-7 minutes.
5. A few moments before removing the container from the heat, sprinkle the lobio with chopped herbs.

Advice. You can make the taste of the dish more rich by adding garlic and ground pepper. For beef or veal, black is suitable, and pork goes better with red pepper.

Canned beans with chicken

Another quick recipe is canned bean lobio with chicken. In this case, the beans do not need to be cooked for a long time; they are added to the dish at the end of cooking, and the bird will fry faster than pork.

To work you will need:

• 500 g chicken;
• a can of beans, canned in its own juice;
• several onions;
• garlic;
• carrot;
• tomatoes or tomato paste;
• salt and seasonings to taste;
• greenery.

Preparation procedure:

1. Cut the bird and fry in vegetable fat.
2. Add chopped onion, garlic, carrots to the chicken and cook until soft.
3. Add diced tomatoes or tomato paste and continue simmering.
4. Place the beans strained from the juice, sprinkle the dish with herbs, salt, seasonings, and leave to simmer on the stove for a few more minutes.

On a note. If there are no tomatoes or pasta in the refrigerator, you can buy beans canned in tomato sauce and add them to the dish along with the liquid.

Lobio in a slow cooker

Lobio turns out tender and juicy in a slow cooker.

To do this you will need the following components:

• 350 g beans;
• bulb;
• garlic;
• tomato paste;
• greenery;
• salt and suitable seasonings.

Cooking process:

1. Place pre-soaked beans in the bowl of the device and add water so that it covers the beans by 3-4 cm.
2. Set the “Stew” or “Soup” mode and cook the main component for at least one and a half hours.
3. Chop the onion into half rings, crush the garlic in a press and add to the beans.

To work you will need:

• beans at the rate of 100 g per serving;
• garlic cloves, 1-2 pieces per container;
• sweet peppers according to the number of pots;
• onions, ½ head per serving;
• tomato paste;
• favorite greens;
• salt and seasonings to taste;
• boiled water.

Preparation procedure:

1. Rinse the pre-soaked beans and boil for a quarter of an hour, then drain the liquid, cool slightly and place in pots.
2. Peel the onion, garlic, pepper, chop and add to the beans.
3. Salt the ingredients, add tomato paste, spices, pour boiled water so that it completely covers the dish and place in the oven.
4. When the beans become soft, remove the containers from the oven, sprinkle the lobio with chopped herbs and place on the table.

For canning you will need:

• 2 kg yellow or green bean pods;
• 2 kg of juicy tomatoes;
• 500 g red bell pepper;
• 1-2 pods of hot pepper;
• 3 heads of garlic;
• 120 g sugar;
• 30-40 g salt;
• 120 ml odorless vegetable oil;
• 30 ml table vinegar 9%;
• favorite greens.

Operating procedure:

1. Wash the pods and, if necessary, chop them with a knife.
2. Scald the tomatoes with boiling water, remove the skins and puree the pulp.
3. Finely chop or mince the bell pepper, garlic and herbs.
4. Place the prepared ingredients in a saucepan, cover with a lid and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to low, remove lid and continue cooking for another 30-40 minutes.
6. Add vinegar, oil and cook the mixture for another quarter of an hour.
7. Finally, add the greens, and after 5-7 minutes, remove the pan from the heat.
8. Place the hot mixture into sterilized jars and roll up.

Lobio soup with vegetables and spices- Georgian recipe for preparing a delicious liquid bean dish. Usually lobio is prepared differently, without adding vegetables, but this recipe is no less tasty and satisfying. For other recipes for preparing lobio, see a separate section on the website.

Lobio soup with vegetables and spices

Ingredients:

• lobio (beans) - 300 grams,
• potatoes - 2 pcs.
• tomato - 1 piece,
• onion - 1 piece,
• carrots - 1 piece,
• garlic - 4 cloves,
• bay leaf - 4 pcs,
• 1 tsp utskho suneli (dried blue fenugreek),
• 1 tsp dried coriander,
• 1 tbsp. ground red pepper,
• 3 tbsp. vegetable oil,
• salt - to taste.

Preparation: Soak the beans in cold water in a deep saucepan 2 hours before preparing the dish. Then drain the water, add bay leaf and fill with fresh water (2 liters).

Place over medium heat and cook until the beans are tender.

Meanwhile, finely chop the onion and chop the carrots. Transfer to a frying pan, add 3 tbsp. vegetable oil. Fry over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add tomatoes to the fried onions and carrots and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Turn off the fire. Transfer the finished frying into a pan with lobio.

Add peeled and diced potatoes, chopped garlic, spices and salt. Add 1.2 liters of water. Stir and cook over medium heat until the potatoes are done.