Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Mtsvadi (Georgian Grilled Pork Skewers)
Chunks of pork marinated with grated onion and pomegranate, grilled over vine embers, then tumbled with raw onion and pomegranate seeds.
Georgian · easy · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 20 min
~588 cal · 62g protein · 7g carbs · 32g fat · 1g fiber · 3g sugars · 11g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Mtsvadi is the Georgian grill, the smoky centrepiece of the supra feast and of any gathering worth the name. Well-marbled pork is cut into generous chunks, tossed with raw onion, and grilled over the glowing embers of grape-vine clippings, which lend the meat a fragrance no gas flame can match. In Georgia the grill master, the mtsvade, is a figure of some honour.
Purists barely it at all, salting the meat and relying on the vine embers and good pork, while others it overnight with grated onion, black pepper, and pomegranate juice to tenderise and perfume it. Kakheti, the eastern wine country, is the most famous mtsvadi region, but every corner of Georgia has its version, and the mountain districts turn out some of the finest.
Pulled hot from the skewers and often shaken loose from the metal with a piece of shoti bread, the meat is scattered with raw onion rings and tart pomegranate seeds and served with tkemali, the sour plum sauce. It is convivial, unfussy food, meant to be eaten outdoors with wine and many toasts.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, nut- and egg-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 4
2 lbs boneless pork shoulder, in large chunks
1 red onion, grated (for the marinade)
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 cup pomegranate juice
1 tsp black pepper
to taste salt
1 red onion, thinly sliced (to serve)
1/2 cup pomegranate seeds (to serve)
Instructions
1
Toss the pork chunks with the grated onion, red wine vinegar, pomegranate juice, black pepper, and salt. Cover and marinate in the fridge at least 4 hours or overnight.
2
Thread the pork onto metal skewers, discarding the marinade, and let it stand at room temperature while the coals burn down to a bed of glowing, ash-covered embers.
3
Grill the skewers over the embers, turning occasionally, for about 12 to 15 minutes until charred on all sides and just cooked through, moving them off any flare-ups.
4
Slide the meat into a bowl, squeeze over a little pomegranate, and toss with the sliced raw onion and pomegranate seeds. Serve with tkemali plum sauce and flatbread.
Georgian supra grilling tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Racha. The prized product here is the ham. Rachan lori is salted and cold-smoked slowly in the traditional black kitchen, a room where hearth smoke is left to fill the space rather than sent up a chimney, and the hams hang in it through the mountain winter.
🗺️
Georgia. Walnuts do the job here that cream does elsewhere, ground into sauces for beans, aubergine and poultry and loosened with vinegar or pomegranate. The spice cupboard runs to blue fenugreek, dried marigold and coriander seed in the blend called khmeli suneli, and khachapuri changes shape as you travel, arriving in Adjara on the Black Sea as an open boat with an egg slid into it.
🌍
Asia. Fermentation is the thread that runs the whole way across: soy sauce and miso, Korean doenjang and kimchi, Southeast Asian fish sauces, the soured batter behind an idli. Chilli is the newcomer among them, arriving only after 1500 with Portuguese and Spanish traders, which makes the heat in Sichuan, Thai and Korean cooking far younger than the fermenting underneath it.
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: Grill or barbecue.
Storing it: Best straight off the heat. Leftovers keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated and reheat well in a hot oven rather than the microwave.
Make it a Georgia meal
TarkhunaDrink
ChurchkhelaDessert
Adjaruli KhachapuriLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Mtsvadi (Georgian Grilled Pork Skewers)?
Chunks of pork marinated with grated onion and pomegranate, grilled over vine embers, then tumbled with raw onion and pomegranate seeds.
Where does Mtsvadi (Georgian Grilled Pork Skewers) come from?
Mtsvadi (Georgian Grilled Pork Skewers) is a Georgian dish from Racha, Georgia.
Can Mtsvadi (Georgian Grilled Pork Skewers) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Mtsvadi (Georgian Grilled Pork Skewers) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Mtsvadi (Georgian Grilled Pork Skewers) 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 count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), 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 Mtsvadi (Georgian Grilled Pork Skewers) take to make?
About 45 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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