Phali

Pkhali is one of the most popular traditional Georgian dishes. Most often, a combination of nut butter, fresh herbs and vegetables is used for it. Moderate salinity, various flavor accents and slight sourness make pkhali an ideal addition to alcoholic drinks and second courses. The main principle of preparing snacks is variability. Pkhali can be “blinded” from everything that comes to hand and fits the structure.

How did a cheap and extremely simple dish manage to gain worldwide popularity all over the world and what is hidden behind the pleasant appearance of Georgian pkhali?

General characteristics of the dish

Pkhali (ფხალი) is a traditional Georgian dish. It won love and reverence due to its versatility, cheapness and the deepest palette of tastes. The dish is based on the principle of variability – a lot of different ingredients can be used in one recipe.

In the middle of the 1936th century, in the establishments of Tiflis (until XNUMX in Russian “Tbilisi” was pronounced as “Tiflis” in the Greek manner), the name of the dish “phali” was changed to “mkhali”. This was done for the sake of numerous Slavic visitors. The traditional name seemed discordant to them. Since that time, the dish has two names that are equally popular among the population.

Initially, the term “phali” meant Georgian kale. Later, the name began to be quoted not as an appetizer or main course, but as a special gastronomic genre. Due to the principle of variability, the appetizer could not be created according to a single recipe. Traditional phalis were most commonly made with a nutty dressing and a combination of fresh vegetables/herbs.

An appetizer can be prepared with the addition of beef tongue, chicken or neck, but most often pkhali is made with vegetables. Nuts provide nutritional value and saturation, and accompanying ingredients are responsible for enriching the body with vitamins / nutrients. Pkhali is allowed to eat in fasting, and vegans and vegetarians should also pay attention to the dish.

Pkhali does not hide a special beautiful story that can be retold in a gastronomic context. The dish seems to have formed independently, as one of the logical continuations of Georgian cuisine. In this culinary tradition, it is customary to get everything from the ingredients, without sending valuable components to the scrap, which can be used more than once. The first pkhali formed as the cheapest, but delicious snack, which you can spend a minimum amount of money and time on. By coincidence, the dish caused a resonance and to this day remains one of the most important gastronomic attractions of Georgia.

How to make a healthy snack

The peculiarity of pkhali lies in its diversity. The appetizer can be “collected” in a matter of minutes, without even subjecting vegetables and nuts to heat treatment. Let’s figure out which foods are best eaten raw, and which must be cooked to make the dish not only tasty, but also healthy. Below is a list of foods that can be used to make pkhali and recommendations for processing them.

Beetroot

Beet pkhali are considered the most delicious and traditional. The combination of bright nuts, sour-sweet pomegranate and a special beet taste provokes an explosion inside the receptors. Beets are best eaten raw. Why? During the heat treatment, the vegetable loses more than 25% of folic acid and useful vitamins. Therefore, to improve digestion and saturate the body with useful nutrients, eat the vegetable raw.

Fresh beets are quite hard and not everyone will have a hard time. But don’t be afraid to add a vegetable to your pkhali! The beets must be scrolled through a meat grinder and made into a homogeneous mass, the consistency of which is very similar to a pate. A grated vegetable will definitely not be able to harm your teeth. Moreover, a beetroot snack can be given even to a small child if it does not contain spices and pomegranate seeds.

Asparagus

This vegetable is best eaten cooked. The best cooking method is steam. Steamed asparagus increases the concentration of beneficial antioxidants (for example, ferulic acid). Substances not only help maintain youth and beauty, but also resist the development of cancer cells. What’s more, soft asparagus pairs well with nuts, giving pkhali a whole new twist.

Broccoli

The most non-obvious option for eating broccoli is raw. But this is the only way to preserve the quality composition of the vegetable. When heated, the enzyme myrosinase is destroyed. The component is responsible for cleaning the liver of carcinogens and is partially involved in the detoxification of the body. Rinse broccoli thoroughly before eating so that no dirt or sand remains in its structure, otherwise the finished dish will have to be disposed of.

mushrooms

Mushrooms should not be a problem or misunderstanding because they should always be eaten cooked. Remember: raw mushrooms can cause serious harm to the body, so choose the product carefully and be sure to heat treat it.

In the process of exposure to high temperatures, the concentration of potassium increases. This enzyme is involved in the formation and strengthening of muscle tissue. The obvious advantage of mushrooms is that regardless of the method of processing (boiling, frying, stewing, steaming or grilling), the potassium content will invariably increase.

An appetizer based on mushrooms and nut sauce alone may not seem successful to everyone. It is best to complement the vegetable pkhali with mushrooms to create an additional accent and add a touch of taste.

Tomatoes

The most useful tomatoes are thermally processed. Regardless of the processing method, when heated, the concentration of lycopene in tomatoes increases. The enzyme helps fight cancers and creates a specific internal barrier to infections.

It is enough to lightly blanch (place in boiling water for a few minutes) tomatoes to achieve a jump in lycopene.

The thermally processed vegetable becomes soft and acquires pleasant sweetish notes.

Bow

Another non-obvious option that not everyone will like is that onions are best eaten raw. It is in the unprocessed vegetable that contains more of the phytonutrient allicin. The component is responsible for a long feeling of satiety and the suppression of hunger. The more raw onions you eat, the later you will feel hungry and be able to protect your body from overeating.

If the thought of eating fresh onions makes you dizzy, then skip the idea and get your nutrients from other foods. To smooth out the sharp taste of a vegetable a little, you can choose softer / pleasant varieties and use the finest cuts.

Of course, there is no need to cook pkhali based on onions and nut paste. Just add a few grams of onion to your appetizer, grind it with other ingredients and enjoy a whole new flavor of your usual dish.

Spinach

The first argument for eating cooked spinach is the taste. Raw spinach is bitter and can overpower other ingredients in the dish. The second argument is composition. Heat treatment affects the concentration of three important elements of spinach at once: calcium, iron and magnesium.

Bell pepper

Try to eat bell pepper like an apple and in a few days you will notice a specific reaction of your body. A boost of energy, a reduction in rashes on the face, improved digestion – and this is not a complete list of transformations that are caused by a vegetable. Raw bell pepper is a storehouse of ascorbic acid, which is almost never superfluous for a person.

During heat treatment, vitamin C is destroyed and at the output we get a tasty, but completely “empty” vegetable.

Use of the ingredient in cooking

Georgian appetizer may differ from the characteristics of the region in which it is prepared. For example, in Guria (an administrative region in western Georgia), pkhali is cooked with rice. This feature is justified by the specific perception of Adjarian cuisine and the historical culinary traditions of the area. In Khevsureti (a historical region in eastern Georgia), mixtures of various herbs are necessarily added to the appetizer. Pkhali is necessarily seasoned with garlic, onions, several types of spices and spices.

Another common appetizer option is phaleuli. This is an assortment of several varieties of pkhali, which is served under one nutty dressing. Pkhaleuli looks very impressive when served.

The dish is suitable for both large companies and for a beginner who wants to get to know Georgian cuisine better. The advantage of phaleuli is in the speed of cooking. Snacks can be served a few minutes after ordering. You can also make assorted pkhali yourself in your home kitchen.

There are more than 200 varieties of pkhali in the world that are officially listed in cookbooks. But the number of “home” variations and experiments is disproportionately greater. Don’t be afraid to experiment and create your own unique recipes!

spinach pkhali recipe

This is a simple but colossally delicious cold appetizer, one of the variations on the Georgian pkhali theme. It is in this recipe that the main ingredient is spinach, but you can experiment with flavors. The dish can be made with beets, beans, eggplant, peppers, or tomatoes—anything that satisfies your taste buds.

We need:

• spinach – 500 grams;
• onions – 200 grams;
• walnuts (can be replaced with any other variety) – 100 grams;
• Garlic – 2 cloves;
• cilantro – 10 branches;
• parsley – 2 twigs;
• green chili pepper – 1 piece;
• wine vinegar – 20 milliliters;
• salt / pepper to taste;
• pomegranate seeds to decorate the finished dish.

Preparation

Prepare a saucepan: pour water into it and bring to a boil. In the meantime, rinse the spinach thoroughly to remove dirt and grit. Throw the washed spinach into boiling water and leave for 1-2 minutes. Drain the leaves in a colander, then transfer to paper towels to cool completely.

Finely chop the onion, garlic, pepper, cilantro and parsley. Once the spinach has cooled, mix it with your favorite nuts and scroll the mixture through a meat grinder. Stir the resulting spinach-nut mass until smooth, pour in a little wine vinegar, add chopped garlic, onion, cilantro, pepper, parsley and salt / pepper to taste. Once again, gently mix the resulting mass.

Take a small amount of the pkhali base with a spoon and roll it into a ball. Make several of these balls and put them on a plate in random order. Garnish the finished phali with pomegranate seeds, your favorite herbs, or an extra handful of nuts. The dish can be used as an appetizer, side dish or a quick snack.