Pkhali — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

A trio of finely chopped vegetables — spinach, beet, and green bean — each bound with a fragrant walnut paste, shaped into rounds and topped with pomegranate.

Ingredients

300g fresh spinach, blanched and squeezed dry
2 medium beets, boiled and peeled
200g green beans, blanched
150g walnuts
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp blue fenugreek
1 small onion, finely diced
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
Pomegranate seeds for garnish

Instructions

1 Blanch spinach and green beans separately in boiling salted water, then shock in ice water and squeeze out all excess moisture.
2 Boil beets until tender, peel and cool, then chop finely by hand or pulse briefly in a food processor to a coarse texture.
3 Grind walnuts with garlic, coriander, fenugreek, onion, vinegar, salt, and pepper into a smooth fragrant paste in a food processor.
4 Divide walnut paste into three portions and mix each separately with the spinach, beet, and green bean preparations respectively.
5 Shape each mixture into small round patties or balls and arrange on a platter in three colorful groups of green, red, and green.
6 Press a few pomegranate seeds into the top of each pkhali and refrigerate until ready to serve as a vibrant cold appetizer.

Did You Know?

The three-color pkhali platter represents the colors of nature and is said to embody the Georgian philosophy that food should delight the eyes before the palate.