Caucasian cuisine

Shashlyk

Adjarian Khachapuri

The cuisine of the Caucasus includes the traditional cuisines of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay–Cherkessia, North Ossetia–Alania, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Adjaria, and Adygea.

Traditional dishes

Kharcho soup

Aubergine and pepper dolma

Chanakhi

Sterlet with satsivi

Plov

Khinkali

Pakhlava

Starters and snacks

• Sujuk
• Basturma
• Cheeses: Sulguni (Georgian), Circassian cheese
• Chiburekki
• Dolma or sarma - wine leaves, stuffed with rice or cheese

Soups

• Bugleme - meat stew, served by the Mountain Jews
• Dovga - yogurt (matsoni) soup cooked with a variety of herbs, rice and (optionally) chickpeas
• Khash
• Kharcho - Georgian soup containing beef, rice, cherry plum purée and chopped walnut
• Piti or putuk
• Sorpa - spicy meat soup with a large variety of recipes. Usually it is made with fried meat (lamb or beef), fried vegetables (potatoes, onions, carrots, optionally tomatoes and peppers), and herbs; may also include chickpeas or other beans, as well as noodles, and fruits (apples, plums)
• Balyk sorpa - fish soup, served mostly on the coast of the Caspian Sea

Main courses

• Chanakhi - spiced lamb stew with potatoes, tomatoes, aubergines and onions
• Chakhokhbili - spiced chicken stew
• Chiburekki
• Chicken tabaka
• Dolma or sarma - cabbage or wine leave rolls, aubergines, zucchinis, peppers, stuffed with rice or meat
• Various kinds of flatbread pies such as khachapuri, chudu, khychiny, Ossetian pies. The flatbreads may be filled with meat, cheese, eggs, potatoes, pumpkin etc.
• Küftə
• Khinkali - dumplings that are either filled with meat, or quark
• Lyula kebab
• Manti- dumplings filled with meat
• Plov
• Shashlyk (Khorovats, Mtsvadi, Kebab)
  • Shashlyk Tarki-Tau or Gharsi khorovats - shashlyk with vegetables wrapped in lavash, similar to the Levantine shawarma and the Turkish doner kebab

Condiments and sauces

• Adjika - spicy but subtly flavoured relish based on a boiled preparation of hot red peppers, garlic, and typical Caucasian herbs and spices
• Matzoon or matsoni - fermented milk product, similar to yogurt
• Narsharab - pomegranate molasses
• Satsivi - walnut sauce
• Tkemali - sour plum sauce

Breads

• Lavash
• Matnakash
• Tone Bread, shoti
• Tsoureki

Desserts

• Halva
• Pakhlava
• Gata
• Gozinaki
• Churchkhela - sausage-shaped candies
• Rahat lokum
• Murabba

Beverages

Bottles of Georgian wine

Armenian coffee served in a Yerevan café

Alcoholic

• Saperavi - acidic, teinturier-type grape Georgian wine
• Rkatsiteli
• Armenian brandy (e.g. Ararat)
• Chacha - pomace brandy
• Tutovka - mulberry brandy

Non-alcoholic

• Tea: black, nogay shai (salty tea)
• Turkish coffee called Armenian coffee in Armenia
• Suv - sherbet
• Pomegranate juice
• Mineral water, with Borjomi being the most praised one
• Fermented milk beverages, such as ayran, tan (doogh), kefir

See also

• Middle Eastern cuisine
• Soviet cuisine
• Persian cuisine
• Turkish cuisine
• History of the Caucasus
• Peoples of the Caucasus

References

• Beliaev, Edward; Oksana Buranbaeva (2005). Cultures of the World: Dagestan. Marshall Cavendish. ISBN 0-7614-2015-0. 
• Sami Zubaida, Richard Tapper. A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (2nd ed.). London & New York: Tauris Parke Paperbacks. ISBN 1-86064-603-4.
• Irina Petrosian, David Underwood. Armenian Food: Fact, Fiction & Folklore. Lulu.com, 2006. ISBN 1-4116-9865-7.
• В. В. Похлебкин. Национальные кухни наших народов. Москва: Пищевая промышленность, 1980. ISBN 978-5-9524-2783-9 (William Pokhlyobkin, Ethnic Cuisines of our Peoples. Moscow: Soviet Food Industry publishing house, 1980; Russian)