The words “vegan” or “vegetarian” are not popular in Georgia but you can find there a wide range of this type of dishes. It’s actually a bit funny that this Caucasus country doesn’t know how awesome it is in vegetarian cuisine.
In one previous post I wrote that the food here is of high quality. Probably it is also the country with the longest tradition of wine making. I don’t know much about wine but I tried a few different kinds here and they tasted really good, different than those from the markets.
The other alcohol that is traditional in this part of the world has a funny name “chacha”. I tried it once (it’s a bit crazy story because it happened before breakfast and I got tipsy in the moment of putting down the glass on the table – it was obviously very strong. The name “fire water” is very accurate in my opinion as I felt I’m burning and breathing fire). Chacha is also made with grapes, taste like vodka but maybe not that disgusting. I was told that it’s very healthy, should I believe it? 😉
Many Georgians are very old and live over 100 years, which they say is caused by the healthy, homemade food, eating a lot of fresh greens and spices, drinking organic wine. I’ve also heard that they never reheat meal – every dish is fresh cooked.
Please don’t get me wrong, I don’t write here that drinking wine is healthy and I believe we cannot say in general that wine (or anything else) is good or bad. It definitely depends on the quality which in a supermarket could be like a poison and in some Georgian home it could be like a medicine. It also depends on the individual person, for some it may be good and for the others it might be bad. That’s why I really don’t like articles or doctors advicing that something is recommended or not. How can we know that, if everything and everyone are different…
Vegan Georgian delicious dishes:
Lobiani – bred with beans
Lobio – beans in a clay pot
Phkali (made with spinach or beetroots) are my love at first bite ❤
Badrijani Nigvzit – eggplant rolls with walnut paste
khinkali – dumplings with mushroom or potato
Churchkhela – funny looking sweets with nuts or raisins
In Georgia you don’t have to look for vegan restaurant, of course it’s nice to support it, but you can find food without meat everywhere.
Malvina Dunder 
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