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Lobiani (Georgian Bean-Stuffed Bread)
Soft yeasted bread rounds filled with buttery mashed kidney beans, onion, garlic, coriander and blue fenugreek, baked golden, brushed with butter and eaten warm in wedges.
Georgian · medium · serves 8
prep 40 min · cook 90 min · plus 9 h hands-off time
~440 cal · 14g protein · 69g carbs · 11g fat · 7g fiber · 2g sugars · 6g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Lobiani takes its name from lobio, beans, and it is the bean-filled cousin of khachapuri. Every Georgian bakery sells it, warm from the oven and cut into wedges, and it is the thing to eat on a cold street corner, tearing off pieces by hand.
The best is said to come from Racha, the mountain region in the north-west, where Rachuli lobiani is made with the beans boiled alongside the region's famous smoked ham. The everyday version is simpler: red kidney beans cooked until they fall apart, mashed with onions softened in butter, garlic, bay, ground coriander and utskho suneli, the blue that scents so much Georgian cooking.
The filling is wrapped in a soft enriched dough, flattened into a disc and baked, then brushed with butter the moment it comes out. Lobiani is eaten year round, but it has a fixed place on Barbaroba, St Barbara's Day, on 17 December, when it is baked in homes all over the country.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 8
- 500 g plain flour
- 5 g (1 1/2 tsp) instant dried yeast
- 1/2 tsp salt (for the dough)
- 1/2 tbsp sugar
- 1 egg
- 200 ml warm water
- 1 tbsp sunflower oil
- 250 g dried red kidney beans
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 50 g butter (for the filling)
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp ground blue (utskho suneli)Hard to find? 1/4 tsp ground fenugreek seed - sharper and more bitter than blue fenugreek, so use half as much
- to taste salt and black pepper (for the filling)
- 30 g butter, melted (to finish)
Instructions
- 1Cover the beans with plenty of cold water and soak them for at least 8 hours or overnight.
- 2Drain the beans, cover with fresh water, add the bay leaves and bring to a boil. Boil hard for 10 minutes, then simmer for 60 to 90 minutes until completely soft and falling apart. Drain, discard the bay and mash to a coarse, thick paste.✎ Chef’s noteRed kidney beans must boil hard for the first 10 minutes to destroy a natural toxin; never cook them only at a gentle simmer.
- 3While the beans cook, make the dough: mix the flour, yeast, salt and sugar, add the egg, warm water and oil, and knead for 8 to 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Cover and leave in a warm place for about 1 hour, until doubled.
- 4Melt the 50 g butter in a frying pan and cook the onion over medium-low heat for 12 to 15 minutes, until soft and golden. Add the garlic, coriander and blue fenugreek for a minute, then mix everything into the mashed beans. Season well with salt and pepper and let the filling cool.
- 5Heat the oven to 200C (400F). Divide the dough in two and roll each piece into a 25 cm round. Spread half the filling in the middle, gather the edges up over it and pinch them together, then turn it over and roll or press it out gently into a disc about 20 cm across. Prick or score the top.
- 6Bake on a floured tray for 18 to 22 minutes, until golden. Brush generously with the melted butter as soon as they come out, then cut into wedges and eat warm.✎ Chef’s noteGeorgians often eat lobiani with pickled vegetables or a spoonful of tkemali, the sour plum sauce.
Georgian bakery tradition, after the Rachuli style.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Racha. Racha is a Georgian mountain valley famous nationwide for its beans, cooked into lobio with herbs and walnut and served with cornbread mchadi. Cured ham, wild greens, and the walnut-and-spice sauces common to Georgian cooking define its table.
🗺️
Georgia. Georgian wine is still made in qvevri, egg-shaped clay vessels buried to the neck and filled with juice, skins, stalks and pips, then sealed to ferment underground for five or six months. UNESCO inscribed the method in 2013, and the marani, the cellar where the qvevri sit, is treated in many households as the holiest room in the house.
🌍
Asia. A grain line runs across the continent. Rice dominates the wet south and east, wheat the drier north and west, and the tools follow it: the wok and the steamer where rice is milled, the tandoor and the griddle where wheat is ground. Tea travels the other way, drunk green, black, salted, buttered or with milk depending how far it got from China.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Georgia
Imeruli Khachapuri (Cheese-Stuffed Bread)A golden, pan-baked flatbread sealed around a molten heart of tangy, salty cheese.
LobioKidney beans simmered and half-crushed with walnuts, coriander, and Georgian spice, served in clay with cornbread.
Chvishtari (Cornmeal Cheese Bread)Griddled cornmeal cakes packed with young melting cheese, crisp outside and molten within, from the mountains of western Georgia.
Browse all Georgia recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Skillet or frying pan, Oven.
Storing it: Best the day it is made. Wrap well and refresh in a warm oven, or freeze and reheat straight from frozen.
Make it a Georgia meal
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ChurchkhelaDessert
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Cuisine
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Frequently asked questions
What is Lobiani (Georgian Bean-Stuffed Bread)?
Soft yeasted bread rounds filled with buttery mashed kidney beans, onion, garlic, coriander and blue fenugreek, baked golden, brushed with butter and eaten warm in wedges.
Where does Lobiani (Georgian Bean-Stuffed Bread) come from?
Lobiani (Georgian Bean-Stuffed Bread) is a Georgian dish from Racha, Georgia.
Can Lobiani (Georgian Bean-Stuffed Bread) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Lobiani (Georgian Bean-Stuffed Bread) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Lobiani (Georgian Bean-Stuffed Bread) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Lobiani (Georgian Bean-Stuffed Bread) take to make?
About 11 h 10 min in all: 40 minutes prep and 90 minutes cooking, plus 9 h of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 8.
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