Even if you cannot travel to Georgia at the moment, you can stillTaste Georgia. While we are unable to offer our Tbilisi Food Tour, we can still offer a little taste of Georgia in your own kitchen from our best food guide, Natia. We look forward to cooking with you in the future and wandering thr markets together on a Market Walk in Tbilisi or Kutaisi.
We have noticed a global trend of baking at home as well as people getting quite creative with dry beans. Beans are a staple in the Georgian kitchen, and Georgian bean pie is one of the most delicious comfort foods that exist. So please enjoy this recipe from Natia’s mother, Marina.
If you don’t have Svaneti salt, that’s also okay. Stay tuned for a Svaneti salt post with recipes and links on where to buy it.
Lobiani (Georgian Bean Pie)
Ingredients
- 500 gr kidney beans (but any dry bean you have available will do) soak overnight
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 kilo all purpose flour
- 3 gr dry activated yeast
- 120 ml lukewarm water
- 1.5 gr sugar
- 600 ml water
- 60 ml cooking oil Georgians usually cold pressed sunflower oil
- 1 medium yellow onion diced
- 15 gr Svaneti salt
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
- 1 egg or one agg replacer Use the eggwhite
Instructions
Prepare the beans
- Boil the beans in water with the two bay leaves until they are soft. They are ready when they are easily mashed.
- Drain the beans in a strainer to remove excess water.
- Leave to drain
- Preheat oven to 195° C
Prepare the dough
- Mix the yeast, water and sugar and let sit for 10 minutes
- In a bowl, add the flour and yeast mix and stir. Stir in the rest of the water.
- Once the dough is formed, take out of the bowl and knead on a floured surface
- Once the dough is elastic, form four balls of dough, cover the balls with sunflower oil and leave in a covered bowl to rise
Season the beans
- Mash the beans with a potato masher or put through a meat grinder. The beans should be faily smooth.
- In a large pan, fry the onions until the are almost brown, addf the beans, salt and pepper. Add Svaneti salt if you want extra seasoning. Cook on low heat for about five minutes
- Once the beans are cool, make small balls for the filling.
Making the pie
- With each ball of dough, flatten them out by hand, not with a roller, into little plates. Make sure the dough is thickest in the middle. You can also choose to make them square.
- Once you have disks that are about 10 inches, add a ball of beans in the middle
- There are two opions for making the pies. You can add the beans to the center, and fold up the sides of the dough like a dumpling. Pinch the center. Once you have the sides up, gentle pat down the mixture into flatted round pie shape. Or if you are making them square. Just fold the corners in the center and pat flat. For the round version, you can actually cook it in a pan on the stovetop.
- If you are cooking in the oven, make sure top add holes at the top with a toothpick.
- Brush the top with egg white or egg replacer for a flakier crust
- Cook for about 20 minutes or until browning
- If you make on the stovetop, make sure to cook on both sides.
I love this photo of Lobiani from Modi in Dubai
While we are unable to offer our Tbilisi Food Tour, we will bring Taste Georgia to your own kitchen with recipes from our best food guide, Natia.
