Beets in Tkemali sauce

The introduction

Hello everyone, I hope, that you are all doing just fine!

In this article I want to tell you about another recipe, which is a very popular one in Georgia and many people think, that it’s really important to have this dish at home on parties or just family gatherings or things like that. We call this dish “Charkhali Tkemalshi” and it’s called in English “Beets in Tkemali”, I guess, because there’s not the exact translation of this dish in English. Well, to tell you the truth, I haven’t heard, that they have Tkemali in some other countries and they don’t know anything about this thing. So, tkemali is a sauce, which is prepared mainly from tkemali, which is a tree grown in Georgia and though it’s grown in other countries, too, they don’t usually eat or use it in any of the dishes or things like that. I have even heard, that this Tkemali is considered as poisonous or something like that and that’s why they don’t eat it.

Anyways, this Beets in Tkemali is a great dish or you can even call it a salad and it’s a very light dish to be eaten and after all those beef and meet and stuff like that, you can have this salad on your party tableand eat it along with other dishes. My brother loves this Beets in Tkemali especially and that’s why they prepare it in our family, however, some other people like eating it, too, though, it’s not worth preparing too much of this salad, because it gets spoiled really easily and you would have just wasted your time preparing the salad.

Well, anyways, let me tell you about this dish and the preparation process, however, there are many people who prepare this dish differently and it’s pretty normal, because some like it that way and some like it this way. So that, the recipe that I will tell you now is not the one and only and you can just use another one, of course.

Ingredients:

• Beets, 3 medium
• Tkemali sauce, 200 ml
• Fresh coriander, 50 grams
• Garlic, 3 pieces
• Walnuts, ground, 1 tablespoon
• Ground Red pepper to taste
• Salt to taste
• Sugar to taste
• Water (optional)

Preparation process

Well, the very first thing you do is to prepare the beets. They are usually dirty and they need to be washed thoroughly and that’s why it needs some time to do that, because it’s not really enough to wash them just once as I do it with a lot of other things. So that, when you have washed all the beets, you can take them and put them into a saucepan and cover them with water and let the water boil. After the water boils you have to wait until the beets are cooked. Well, you can turn the heat down, so that the water will be boiling, but the gas won’t be too much. It needs not much time for the beets to get cooked and you can check them time to time whether they are ready or not. I usually use my fork for that and if the beets are cooked, they should be softer.

So that, when the beets are cooked, you can take them out of the water and let them get cold, so that you could cut them into some slices or small pieces. Usually we use so kind of knives in Georgia, which are kind of curly in a way and when you cut some things with them, you just get some nice beautiful slices there.

Then you have to prepare the Tkemali sauce, I mean, usually we have Tkemali prepared already and canned or something like that and we usually open those cans and use the Tkemali for the sauce for those beets. To be honest, I don’t usually prepare Tkemali on my own and my aunt prepares it for the canned stuff. However, if you don’t have that Tkemali at your home, you can go to the supermarket and buy one. There are great Tkemali sauces from Kula company or Marneuli or something like that and you can buy them, however, you should know, that the Tkemali should be red and not something other, because the red one has its characteristic taste and, besides, the red one goes well with the beets, because the beets are red, too.

So that, we need to prepare Tkemali sauce. We should take the red Tkemali and pour it into a large bowl. You should also wash the fresh coriander and chop it. I usually chop it with knife, however, you can chop it in your chopper-blender, which is a simple way of chopping some stuff.

You should also peel the garlic and squash it, however, you can also have some ground garlic bought in the supermarket and add it to the Tkemali sauce, too. So that, when preparing the Tkemali sauce, you should add the chopped coriander and squashed garlic and red pepper to the red Tkemali.

If you want to have the walnuts in your Tkemali sauce, you can grind the walnutsand have them added to the sauce, however, many people don’t add ground walnuts to the Tkemali sauce and they usually prepare Tkemali sauce just with red Tkemali and chopped coriander and garlic and red pepper.

Well, if the Tkemali is a little bit sour, people usually add a little bit of sugar to it, so that it can be normal in taste. And you can even add some salt, if you feel, that it needs seasoning. If the Tkemali sauce is a little bit thick, you can have some boiled cold water added to the Tkemali sauce, however, most of the Tkemalis sold in supermarkets are just normal in consistency. You can also have some mineral water without the carbonate, I mean, you can have the carbonated water bottle shaken and then opened very carefully, so that it won’t burst and you won’t get all wet an stuff and you can just have that already non-carbonated water added to the Tkemali instead of the boiled cold water, however, I haven’t tried that and I can’t really tell you my opinion about that. Although, people say, that they prepare the Tkemali sauce with the non-carbonated mineral water and it’s pretty good.

After you have prepared the Tkemali sauce, you can put the sliced pieces of beets into the sauce and have them like that for a couple of hours or for a night into the refrigerator, so that the beets will get the taste of the Tkemali sauce, too.

Well, that is the recipe of the beets in Tkemali sauce and if you want to have it very delicious, you should have it the beets in Tkemali sauce for some time, as I have already told you. People love this salad, because it’s not difficult to prepare, it’s healthy and it’s not an expensive dish. You should not pay too much in preparing this dish, so that it’s a pretty good choice for a student, if you ask me.

So that, prepare this dish when you want to have something in a sauce and a healthy one and you won’t regret preparing it.

Enjoy your cooking!

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