Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Lobio
Kidney beans simmered and half-crushed with walnuts, coriander, and Georgian spice, served in clay with cornbread.
Georgian · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 40 min
~596 cal · 20g protein · 50g carbs · 37g fat · 13g fiber · 4g sugars · 4g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Lobio is Georgia's bean dish, kidney beans stewed and half-crushed with walnuts, coriander, garlic, and the country's signature blue and marigold spices. Earthy and savory, it is a staple of the Georgian table, especially in the mountainous Racha region famous for its beans and ham.
Walnuts are fundamental to Georgian cooking, and here they enrich the beans into something creamy and complex, seasoned with the herb blends that define the cuisine. Versions range from soupy to thick, sometimes spiced with chili and vinegar for tang.
Traditionally served in a clay pot with cornbread (mchadi) and pickles, lobio is warming and naturally vegan, eaten both day to day and at the feast.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg- 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 4
4 cups kidney beans, cooked (or 3 cans)
2/3 cup walnuts, ground
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp blue (or regular)
1/2 tsp marigold (or turmeric)
1.5 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
3 tbsp
for 4 mchadi (cornbread) or crusty bread, to serve
Instructions
1
Soften the onion in oil, then add the garlic and spices and cook 1 minute.
2
Add the beans with a cup of their cooking liquid and simmer 20 minutes.
3
Crush about half the beans against the side of the pot.
✎ Chef’s note
Mash only about half. Lobio should be thick enough to stand a spoon in, but with whole beans still in the mix, never a smooth puree.
4
Stir in the ground walnuts and vinegar and simmer 10 minutes more.
5
Fold in the herbs off the heat, and serve hot in bowls (clay if you have them) with cornbread and pickled peppers.
Rachan bean-country tradition.
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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. 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.
Chvishtari (Cornmeal Cheese Bread)Griddled cornmeal cakes packed with young melting cheese, crisp outside and molten within, from the mountains of western Georgia.
Adjaruli KhachapuriGeorgia’s famous boat-shaped cheese bread from Adjara: a molten pool of cheese in a golden crust, finished with an egg and butter stirred in at the table.
Browse all Georgia recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Georgia meal
TarkhunaDrink
ChurchkhelaDessert
Adjaruli KhachapuriLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Lobio?
Kidney beans simmered and half-crushed with walnuts, coriander, and Georgian spice, served in clay with cornbread.
Where does Lobio come from?
Lobio is a Georgian dish from Racha, Georgia.
Can Lobio be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Lobio 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 Lobio 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 Lobio take to make?
About 55 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 40 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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