Georgia is known as a land of meat and cheese, yet vegetarians eat surprisingly well here. The reason is Orthodox fasting: on more than half the days of the year devout Georgians avoid meat, and often dairy too. Over the centuries a whole fasting cuisine of walnuts, beans, vegetables and herbs grew out of this — and many of these dishes are the best on the Georgian table.

Why so many meat-free dishes

The Georgian Orthodox Church keeps several long fasts — Lent before Easter, the Nativity fast and others — plus fasting Wednesdays and Fridays. Meat disappears from the table, and on strict days so do milk, cheese and eggs. Protein comes from walnuts and beans, and flavour from herbs, spices and sour sauces. Many restaurants have a separate fasting section on the menu; look for the word "samarkhvo" or ask the waiter.

Pkhali — vegetable and walnut appetisers

Pkhali are a signature of the Georgian table. Boiled or blanched vegetables are finely chopped and mixed with a paste of walnuts, garlic, coriander, blue fenugreek and wine vinegar, then shaped into balls or patties and topped with pomegranate seeds.

The most popular are:

  • spinach — green and delicate;
  • beetroot — bright pink and slightly sweet;
  • bean — hearty;
  • cabbage and beet leaves — less common.

Order a pkhali platter for the table — the best way to start a Georgian dinner.

Lobio — Georgian beans

Lobio is stewed red beans with onion, coriander and spices, sometimes with walnuts or tkemali. It comes hot in a clay pot, lobio in kechi, with mchadi cornbread and pickles. Filling, cheap and delicious. There is also a cold lobio salad with walnuts and herbs.

Note: some restaurants cook lobio with bacon or meat stock. If you are strict, ask.

Badrijani — aubergine with walnuts

Badrijani nigvzit are thin slices of fried aubergine rolled around walnut paste with garlic and herbs and topped with pomegranate. One of the most photogenic Georgian dishes and a must on any order.

Ajapsandali

Ajapsandali is a stew of summer vegetables — aubergine, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, onion — with plenty of herbs and garlic. It is eaten hot or cold, often as a main with bread, and is at its best in summer and autumn.

Jonjoli — pickled flowers

Jonjoli are pickled buds and young shoots of bladdernut, a Caucasian shrub, served with onion and sunflower oil. Sour and a little like capers — a very Georgian taste worth trying once.

Salads and pickles

  • Georgian salad — tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, herbs and sometimes walnut dressing. Summer tomatoes in Georgia are extraordinary.
  • Salad with walnuts — the same vegetables with walnut paste.
  • Pickles (mzhaveuli) — cabbage, peppers, garlic and green tomatoes, served with lobio and meat.

Bread and corn

  • Shoti and lavash from the tone oven, usually vegan.
  • Mchadi — dense cornbread, perfect with lobio.
  • Ghomi — cornmeal porridge eaten instead of bread in western Georgia; the fasting version has no cheese.

Cheese dishes (not for vegans)

If you eat dairy, Georgia is paradise:

  • every kind of khachapuri — Imeruli, Megruli, Adjaruli, Penovani;
  • sulguni on ketsi — baked cheese;
  • elarji — cornmeal porridge with lots of sulguni;
  • cheese or mushroom khinkali;
  • mushrooms on ketsi with sulguni;
  • chizhi-pizhi — eggs with tomatoes and herbs.

Soups

  • Chikhirtma is usually made with chicken stock, so it isn't vegetarian.
  • Bean soup and vegetable soups — ask about the stock.
  • Matsvnis shechamadi, a matsoni-based soup, is sometimes meat-free.

How to order

  • Say "khorts ar vcham" — "I don't eat meat".
  • For strict fasting: "samarkhvo" — "fasting food".
  • Ask what stock or fat is used for lobio, soups and vegetables.
  • Look for a fasting menu; many Tbilisi restaurants have one.
  • Tbilisi also has fully vegetarian and vegan cafés, easy to find on maps.

Prices

Vegetarian dishes are cheaper than meat ones. A pkhali platter costs 10–20 lari, lobio in a pot 8–15 lari and badrijani 10–18 lari. Three or four fasting dishes with bread make a hearty dinner for two.

What to drink

White and amber wines — Rkatsiteli, Mtsvane, Kisi — go well with pkhali, badrijani and lobio. Many qvevri wines are not fined with animal products, but if this matters to you, ask the winemaker.

In short

You won't go hungry in Georgia without meat. Order pkhali, badrijani with walnuts, lobio in a pot with mchadi and some jonjoli, and add khachapuri if you eat cheese. Georgians cook these dishes every fast, and they are every bit as good as the famous mtsvadi.