If you've eaten at Crossroads Kitchen in LA, you already know! The brunch menu alone is worth the trip, and the standout item is their khachapuri. It's a chewy, twisted bread boat stuffed with Kite Hill almond ricotta and finished with a glossy golden egg yolk right in the center. It is, genuinely, one of the most beautiful things I've ever been served.
I've eaten nearly everything off that restaurant's menu, so naturally, recreating this favourite at home was only a matter of time!
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what is khachapuri?
Khachapuri is a traditional Georgian cheese bread. A soft, enriched dough shaped into a boat and filled with cheese, then baked until golden. In Georgia, it's typically made with a brined cheese like sulguni and finished with a raw egg cracked directly into the hot filling right before serving. The egg cooks slightly from the residual heat and gets swirled into the cheese, creating this incredibly rich, saucy filling.
It's comfort food at its most unapologetic, and it translates beautifully to a vegan version.
the filling
Crossroads uses Kite Hill almond ricotta for their khachapuri, and it's genuinely the right call. It's creamy, mild, and has just enough tang to hold its own inside a rich bread boat. Yes, it's $20 a container! I know. If that's not happening for you, use my almond ricotta recipe and double it. It actually works perfectly here!
To the ricotta, I added vegan parmesan shreds and a little green onion, black pepper, and optional chili flakes. The filling is simple on purpose. The bread and the egg yolk sauce are doing a lot of heavy lifting, so you don't need the filling to be complicated.
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the egg yolk sauce
This is the part I'm most excited about. If you've made my egg yolk sauce before, you already know it's one of the most-loved recipes on the blog. The inspiration actually came directly from Crossroads, and their yellow tomato egg yolk is what first got me thinking about it.
For my version, the egg yolk sauce is made in a high-powered blender with melted vegan butter, campari tomatoes, nondairy milk, nutritional yeast, cornstarch, and turmeric, then heated on the stove until thick and glossy. The kala namak (black salt) added at the end gives it that unmistakable eggy flavour. The consistency is thick enough that when you spoon it into the center of the baked khachapuri, it holds its shape — that signature golden dome sitting right in the middle of the filling.
You can make the sauce in advance and reheat it just before serving. I'd actually recommend it!
why this recipe skips spherification
I was going to attempt to sphere my own recipe, but I didn't want to bother getting the sodium alginate that you need to sphere liquids. I really should try to do it for science purposes, but I know that no one making the recipe at home will bother with it either!
the dough
This is an enriched dough, which means there's butter and nondairy milk in it. Both of these ingredients make the dough softer, richer, and more flavourful than a basic bread dough. It's not a sourdough situation; it uses instant yeast, which means the process is more approachable and the timeline is manageable in a single afternoon.
The dough rises once in the bowl, then again briefly after shaping — that second rise is what gives the bread its puffy, chewy texture. So don't skip it!
the everything topping
This is my own addition, not something Crossroads does, and honestly, it might be my favourite part. The edges of the dough get brushed with Just Egg and then loaded with a homemade everything seasoning that contains dried minced onion, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, garlic powder, and sea salt. Store-bought everything bagel seasoning works perfectly, too, if you'd rather skip buying all these elements.
It adds crunch and savouriness to every bite of the crust, which makes the contrast with the creamy filling even better.
tips for making vegan khachapuri
When making the dough, ensure the liquid cools to between 100°F and 110°F before adding it to the yeast mixture. Too hot and you'll kill the yeast; too cool and it won't activate properly. A quick-read thermometer is helpful here.
When shaping the boats, fold and twist the ends of the dough tightly, so they hold during baking. If they come loose, just pinch them back together before the second rise.
If you're baking both trays at once, swap the racks halfway through. It makes a real difference in getting even colour on both.
The egg yolk sauce should be made and heated just before serving. It thickens as it cools, so timing matters.
frequently asked questions
The dough can do its first rise in the fridge overnight, just cover the bowl tightly and refrigerate it. Bring it back to room temperature before shaping, then proceed with the second rise as normal. The egg yolk sauce can also be made in advance and reheated gently on the stove just before serving.
Yes! Bake the khachapuri fully, let them cool completely, then wrap them individually and freeze for up to one month. Reheat in a 350°F oven until warmed through. Make the egg yolk sauce fresh when you're ready to serve.
Kala namak, also called black salt, is a sulfurous finishing salt that gives the egg yolk sauce its eggy flavour. It's worth tracking down at a South Asian grocery store or online, and a little goes a long way. if you can't find it, the sauce is still delicious without it, it just won't have that distinct egg flavour.
The most common culprit is liquid that's too hot! Anything above 110°F will kill the yeast before it has a chance to activate. Make sure the milk and butter mixture cools to between 100°F and 110°F before adding it to the flour and yeast. Also check that your instant yeast isn't expired.
Khachapuri is substantial enough to be a meal on its own, especially for brunch. If you want to round it out, a simple green salad or some dressed cucumber and tomatoes work well alongside it without competing with the rich filling and egg yolk sauce.
vegan khachapuri (Georgian cheese bread)
Ingredients
dough
- 1 C unsweetened nondairy milk
- 3 tbsp salted vegan butter
- 1 ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 ¾ C all-purpose flour
- 2 ¼ teaspoon quick rise instant yeast
filling
- 1 green onion, finely chopped
- 2 C (16 oz / 454 g container) Kite Hill ricotta
- ½ C vegan parmesan shreds
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon chili flakes optional
everything topping
- 1 tbsp dried minced onion
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- ½ tbsp sunflower seeds
- ½ tbsp poppy seeds
- ½ tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp Just Egg liquid
- ½ C vegan parmesan shreds
- ground black pepper, as garnish
Egg yolk sauce
- 4 tbsp melted salted vegan butter
- 2 tbsp solid salted vegan butter (added to the sauce once thickened)
- 2 campari/cocktail tomatoes seeds removed
- ½ C water
- ¼ C unsweetened nondairy milk
- 4 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp kala namak/black salt
Instructions
- To make the dough, add the milk and butter to a liquid measuring cup. Heat it in the microwave for about 1 to 2 minutes, stopping to whisk it every 30 seconds, or until the butter is melted. Whisk in sugar and sea salt until it dissolves. Ensure this cools to 100°F to 110°F before adding to the mixture in the next step.
- Whisk together the flour and yeast in the bowl of the stand mixer. Attach the bowl to the mixer with the dough hook. Over low speed slowly pour in the liquid, and gradually increase the speed to combine the dough until it looks like a ragged mass of dough. Then cover it with a clean dish towel and let it rest for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile make the filling by combining green onions, ricotta, vegan parmesan, black pepper, and chili flakes in a bowl. Refrigerate until you’re assembling the khachapuri.
- To make the everything topping, mix together dried minced onion, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, garlic powder, and sea salt in a bowl and set aside. You can also use a store-bought Everything Bagel seasoning if that's easier.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into four equal pieces. Roll out each portion on a lightly floured surface into ovals that are about 10 x 6-inches.
- Place the ovals on the lined baking sheet to assemble the khachapuri. Two will fit on each baking sheet. Spoon ½ cup of the filling into the center of the oval. Use the back of the spoon to spread it in an even layer in the center leaving about a 1-inch edge free from filling. Pull the dough's edges up around the filling, folding and twisting the ends to form a boat shape. Once you have all the khachapuri assembled cover the baking sheets with clean dish towels and let these rise again in a warm spot for about 20 minutes, or until puffy but not double.
- While those are rising, preheat the oven to 400°F. Once the khachapuri have risen, brush the edges of the dough with Just Egg, sprinkle with a generous amount of the everything topping. Add a sprinkle of vegan parmesan shreds onto the top of the filling surface as well. Bake both baking sheets at the same time for 25 minutes or until the bread looks golden brown. Since I used two baking sheets, one on each rack in the oven, I swapped the trays half way through baking so they baked more evenly.
- You can make the egg yolk sauce in advance or while the khachapuri are baking, but don’t heat it until just before serving. In a high-powered blender add melted butter, tomatoes, water, nondairy milk, nutritional yeast, cornstarch, and turmeric. Blend on high until very smooth. Pour this into a saucepan and heat over medium for about 6 to 8 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the solid butter and kala namak and whisk until very smooth.
- Once the khachapuri are baked and golden, you can serve them with a dollop of the egg yolk sauce in the center of the filling. Top with ground black pepper, if desired.
Lauren Toyota
Lauren is a plant-based powerhouse, a former TV host turned wildly successful food creator, best-selling cookbook author, and the woman responsible for making vegan comfort food a thing worth craving. Through her blog and YouTube channel, hot for food, she’s amassed a dedicated following by recreating all the nostalgic, indulgent dishes we love—mac & cheese, burgers, cinnamon rolls—but making them entirely plant-based. No compromise on taste, no weird ingredients, just damn good food.