Meager diet of Georgian cuisine

The forming of the meager diet in Georgia didn?t concentrate on fish and mushrooms dishes, but fruit and vegetables. The environment caused this. As the result vegetable dishes became very important and almost dominant in the Georgian cuisine, taking into consideration their variety. The major part of them is cooked from haricot, aubergine, cabbage, cauliflower, beet and tomatoes. These are so-called main vegetables. Along with garden vegetables they often use wild herbs - nettle, peavine, mallow, dgondgoly, purslane and other. Also they use the young leafy tops of root vegetables - beet, cauliflower. Among vegetable dishes we also can number different sorts of food made of grain-crops: polbs - zandury, rice, maize.

Vegetable dishes of Georgian cuisine can be uncooked like salads, but more often they are boiled, baked, roasted, stewed, marinaded or salted. It is popular to combine one main vegetable (for example haricot, aubergine) with different changing spices. As the result there are dozens of sorts of "lobeou". In other cases, to the contrary, main vegetables (cabage, haricot, aubergine, beet, spinach) change, and flavourings, souses, gravies remain constant. For example vegetable dishes like "mhaly" and "borany".

A big place in Georgian cuisine occupy nuts - hazel, filbert, beechnuts, almonds, but most often walnuts. This is a special stuff - a permanent component of different flavourings and souses, which suit both poultry dishes and vegetable dishes, and even fish dishes. Nuts put into meat soups and confectionery, cold salads and hot second courses. It's impossible to imagine Georgian table without them.

And, finally, spicy herbs took on the special significance in Georgian cuisine , used all year long. These are coriander, tarragon, basil, savory, leek, spring onion, partly mint.