)
Dolma (stuffed vegetables)
Description
Dolma is famous throughout the middle east as one of the most delicious types of meals you’ll eat. An array of vegetables are stuffed with meat and rice, vegetables and spices, then cooked in a tangy tomato broth. There are so many versions of dolma just within one country, (let alone around the middle east), But I’m going to share the one near and dear to my heart, my mom’s famous dolma.
Ingredients
Sauce
Vegetables
Instructions
- Wash the rice well until the water runs clear and drain.
- Start by finely dicing the onion, bell pepper, and tomato.
- Mix together the all the ingredients for the stuffing, meat, rice, tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, parsley, tomato paste, pepper paste, Lemon, and all spices. Use your hands and mix until very well combined. Set aide.
- Pierce and remove the insides of the eggplants, zucchini, keep them in bowl of water, until ready to fill them.
- Empty the grapleaves from the jar, rinse and remove the stems.
- Slice ends off of onions, then peel. Use a sharp knife to slice onion halfway through the layers, add to a medium pot and cover with water. Add ½ teaspoon salt and bring to a boil, then cook for 15 to 20 minutes or until you can easily separate onion layers.
- Separate onion layers, removing the thin membrane in between them, if visible, place 1 heaping tablespoon of filling into the center of each layer, then roll to make a tight bundle.
- Stuff the eggplants, zucchinis and onions
- With the remainder of the filling, place a grape leaf onto a work surface with the shiny side facing down, place 1 teaspoon of the filling on leaf at the stem end, fold both sides in toward the center and roll up from the wide bottom to the top. Place stuffed leaf into a the pot, packing them into the pot tightly so they don’t open while cooking.
- Heat oven to 350° Prepare a baking dish, spray with cooking spray, use some of the leftover grapeleaves, layer on the bottom, add the stuffed grapeleaves on one side, and fill the reast with the rest of the vegetables.
- Mix the sauce ingrediants together, and pour over all the vegetables, drizle olive oil, cover the baking dish with aluminum foil, bake for 1 hour and 45 minutes, check halfway to make sure there is enough sauce, if too low, add water and some lemon.
- Let it cool for a few minutes before serving.
Prepare filling
Prepare vegetables
Assemble Dolma
Bake
Notes
- If you have a preference, you may replace them with any of the vegetables, there are no restrictions on what vegetables to stuff, just a matter of preference.
Dolma