How To Make Lobio Beans

Lobio is not a specific bean dish with a Caucasian flavor. Lobio is simply the Georgian name for beans, respectively, and all dishes prepared from it.

Beans taste better than other types of legumes, such as peas and lentils; they are used in cooking both fresh, frozen, and in dried or canned versions.

For a classic lobio, you need to take a kilogram of dry red beans (you can either white or multi-colored, but the red one will look more appetizing). Rinse the beans thoroughly and soak in cold water - for three hours, then sort out, because it is easier to separate the damaged beans in a swollen state, change the water - and continue soaking (ideally, leave in cold water - overnight). At the end of this procedure, the water may acquire an unpleasant aroma, so fresh water should be used when boiling.

So, soaked beans need to be poured with cold water and cooked for 2-3 hours, when the water boils, you can add only boiling water, salt when cooking is not needed, it is better to add a spoonful of sugar at the first boil. If you add cold water, the beans will quickly turn into a smudge long before being cooked, and begin to crumble. And in salty or too hard water, the cooking time is noticeably longer.

When the beans are ready (soft, but whole, not boiled), the broth must be drained immediately - into a separate saucepan.

A third of the beans should be properly kneaded (wiped), seasoned with grated walnuts (2 cups of walnuts per kilogram of beans) and ground coriander, add narsharab (pomegranate sauce or juice, as options - tkemali or grape vinegar). In a skillet, fry finely chopped onion with the addition of tomato paste and red hot pepper. Mix the onion with the mashed beans, dilute with the remaining broth, add chopped garlic and fresh herbs (cilantro, dill, parsley, basil, celery) - season the cooked whole beans with all this, mix well and salt to taste.

Lobio is eaten hot or used as a side dish - to a meat dish, but in the same way, red bean lobio is stored for a long time (up to a week) in the refrigerator, warmed up or served as a cold snack.

Green lobio is prepared from fresh green beans. There are quite a few options for this dish. Green beans are boiled in salted water for 10 minutes and seasoned with various spices or sauces. For example, butter and fresh mint.

Also, boiled green beans are seasoned with fried onions in oil, fresh basil leaves, poured with beaten eggs and baked in the oven until golden brown, served in large chunks, poured with sour cream or bazhe when serving (Georgian nut sauce, which is prepared on the basis of bean broth).

The broth that remains after boiling dry beans and seasoned with grated walnuts thickens when it cools and is used not only for dressing lobio, but also as an independent sauce - for meat or poultry.

By the way, dry boiled beans in Caucasian cuisine are also used as fillings in baking. There is such a dish - "khachapuri with lobio", a variant of Rachinsky khachapuri, when boiled, mashed beans with spices are baked in yeast dough.

In fact, beans are, of course, not a European culture, their homeland is Latin America and South Asia.

It is believed that no Mexican dish can do without corn tortillas or hot chili, or beans. And the most famous Mexican invention is chili con root.

500 grams of dry red or black beans are boiled until tender (without salt, and the broth is immediately drained).

Onions (2-3 onions) and 1-2 pods of hot pepper are fried in a large amount of butter or fat, garlic and fresh tomatoes or tomato puree (500 grams) are added. Finely chopped or rolled meat (beef with the possible addition of pork - 1 kg) is "fried" until half cooked in a separate frying pan without adding oil - excess water should be evaporated from the meat.

After that, meat, beans and fried onions with tomatoes are mixed and stewed for 15-20 minutes. The dish should be hot, spicy and semi-liquid, for a "soup consistency" it can be diluted with beef or chicken broth. It is usually served with boiled rice to "dampen the fire-breathing flavor" of chili con carne.

However, any Caucasian, having learned this recipe, will say that this is the most ordinary "lobio with meat", and in principle, the dish is very similar.

White and striped beans are more often used as a soup than a main course. Moreover, beans are interesting because they go well with vegetables - potatoes and carrots; with mushrooms; with various types of meat and poultry.

But the most interesting combination is still bean soup with smoked meats.

For it, you need to soak and boil 250 grams of beans (better than small white beans, it boils down faster and easier) in three liters of water and wipe. Then, in a deep saucepan, you need to properly fry the bacon and fry the onions and carrots in the melted fat, add garlic sausage, slices of smoked ham or ham. You can flavor all this with tomato paste, or you can add finely chopped champignons.

Mix everything received with mashed beans, stew, stirring constantly, and transfer to the bean broth, boil, salt to taste and add bay leaf.

Serve this soup with plenty of fresh herbs and croutons, which can be replaced with bacon chips (bacon slices are dried on a baking sheet until crisp).