Is Georgia Vegetarian-Friendly? A Guide to Georgian Vegetarian Food
Olivia Harpley, Operations Manager at Wild Frontiers, delves into the simplicity and character of traditional Georgian food, discovering the traditional flavours, national dishes and ingredients that make Georgia an exciting destination for vegetarian travellers.
Georgia is a country where food is deeply woven into everyday life. Meals are generous and made for sharing, with dish after dish arriving in the middle of the table for everyone to help themselves. Georgian meals are often a chance to try a little bit of everything and there is a wonderfully homely, family-style approach to food.
Before travelling to Georgia, I knew I would have plenty to eat as a vegetarian — but I hadn't quite appreciated just how much variety there would be. Every table is filled with fresh salads, vegetables, beans, walnut-based appetisers, homemade bread, cheese, stews and dumplings, and everyone is encouraged to share.
Khinkali: Georgia’s Famous Dumplings
No introduction to Georgian food would be complete without khinkali. These traditional dumplings are particularly associated with the mountainous regions of Georgia and have been enjoyed there for centuries. While they are traditionally filled with meat, the vegetarian version is made with mushrooms, onions and herbs. It quickly became one of my favourites!
During our time in Tbilisi, we visited a local family where we had the chance to make khinkali ourselves. The dough is surprisingly simple, made with just flour, salt and water. Once rolled out into thin circles, a spoonful of the filling is placed in the centre, leaving a little space around the edge. The tricky part is bringing the dough together, carefully pleating and pinching the edges as you go until you create the distinctive twisted top knot. The dumplings are then boiled until tender and ready to eat.
If you want to eat like a local, pick up the khinkali by its top knot, bite a small hole into the side and carefully sip out the hot, flavourful broth before eating the rest of the dumpling. The top knot is usually left on the plate as it is thicker and doughier than the rest.
Making them ourselves was one of my favourite food experiences in Georgia – they are a little messy, but incredibly delicious.
Khachapuri: Georgia's Iconic Cheese Bread
You can't talk about Georgian food without talking about khachapuri. The iconic cheese-filled bread comes in many different regional varieties, and discovering how it changes as you travel around Georgia is one of the things I loved most when learning about the country's food.
In western Georgia, you'll find Imeruli khachapuri — a round flatbread filled with a curd cheese made from cow’s milk, known as Imeretian cheese. Another popular Georgia cheese to use is Sulguni — it has a deliciously stringy, stretchy texture, a little like mozzarella, making the bread wonderfully gooey when served warm. Southern Georgia is home to Meskhetian khachapuri. A multi-layered cheese pastry filled with rich local cheeses which can be either soft or stringy, it’s famous for its flaky texture.
Along the Black Sea coast in Adjara, khachapuri takes on a completely different shape. Adjaruli khachapuri is instantly recognisable thanks to its boat-shaped dough, filled with melted cheese and topped with butter and a raw egg. Once it arrives at the table, the egg and butter are mixed into the hot cheese, creating an incredibly rich and creamy filling you then scoop up with pieces of the crust.
Walnuts: A Staple of Georgian Cuisine
If there is one ingredient that appears again and again throughout Georgian cuisine, it's walnuts — appearing in both savoury and sweet dishes.
Walnuts are particularly important in vegetarian cooking, forming the base of dishes such as badrijani nigvzit. Aubergine, or eggplant, is fried until soft and silky and then stuffed with a spiced walnut and garlic paste, usually finished with vibrant pomegranate seeds on top. They also feature in sauces, salads and desserts, and are a key ingredient in churchkhela, a traditional Georgian sweet, where whole walnuts are coated in a thick layer of grape juice and flour.
Tomato and Cucumber Salad
Traditional Georgian meals are usually paired with an assortment of salads scattered across the table. A typical Georgian salad combines ripe tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, sweet onions and fresh herbs, dressed with sunflower oil and sometimes a little vinegar.
Then there is jonjoli, a traditional side dish made with pickled sprouts of the bladdernut bush which has a distinctive tangy flavour.
Pkhali
Pkhali is a traditional cold appetiser comprised of minced vegetables (such as spinach, beetroot leaves, cabbage or pumpkin) blended into a paste with ground walnuts, garlic and herbs. It's typically shaped into small balls and topped with pomegranate seeds.
Ajapsandali
A wonderfully rustic Georgian vegetable dish? Ajapsandali. One of the things that makes it so special is that every chef has their own way of preparing it. It can be stewed, fried or grilled and can include aubergine, tomatoes, carrots, peppers, onions, garlic, potatoes, fresh herbs such as coriander and parsley, and sometimes chilli or spices.
Lobio: Beans in a Clay Pot
This traditional dish is made with red beans slowly cooked with onions, garlic, coriander, and Georgian spices. It is often served in a small clay pot, accompanied by mchadi — a traditional Georgian cornbread — with a selection of tangy pickles on the side. There is something wonderfully comforting about lobio. It’s home cooking at its best – simple ingredients, but full of flavour.
It is the combination of regional diversity and generous hospitality that makes Georgian cuisine so special. I never felt like the food was an afterthought; breads, vegetables, beans, cheese, walnuts, herbs, spices and even pomegranate seeds are celebrated, and — luckily for me — so many traditional Georgian dishes are naturally vegetarian.
