Remember those strings of dried eggplants we mentioned from Istanbul’s spice bazaar? We went back and bought some, along with dried peppers. And, having now eaten them several times – we know what to do with them. You stuff ’em! This wasn’t really a surprise. Turks love stuffed vegetables: peppers, but also tomatoes, eggplants, cabbage leaves, and grape leaves. So we’ve been stuffing our brains out, and have tried about a dozen variations on the basic stuffed vegetable in the past few weeks. Here is our simple and very-adaptable recipe.
In addition to our kitchen essentials, you will need a dish to bake the vegetables in, and an oven. (If you have a large pot and a burner, you could also make this on top of the stove; directions included.)
Ingredients
- 20-30 shells of assorted vegetables (depending on their size), or 60+ grape leaves (available online), or both. (We keep the grape leaves handy in case we end up with too much of the stuffing.) If you can get your hands on dried eggplants, tomatoes, and peppers, they give the dish a nice richness (Amazon sells the eggplants). But it’ll work with fresh bell peppers or tomatoes or even zucchini.
- 2 large onions, finely chopped
- 5-6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- Herbs, fresh or dried: large handful of flat leaf parsley; large handful of mint, finely chopped; handful of dill, finely chopped (substitute other herbs as you like: oregano works beautifully too)
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, lots
- 5ml/1 T hot pepper paste or red pepper flakes (chili powder will also do, or cayenne [1/4 as much]
- 5 ml/ 1 T tomato paste
- 200gr/7 oz. /1 cup long grain rice, rinsed (other grains will also work, such as bulgur, quinoa, barley)
- 400gr/14 oz. ground/minced meat of your choice (beef is traditional)
- 100 gr/1/2 cup raisins or currants
- 100 gr/1/2 cup walnuts or any other nut, chopped
- 10 ml/ 2 T pomegranate molasses (balsamic vinegar will do, or increase the oil)
- About 5ml/1 T olive or other oil
- a couple of cinnamon sticks (or you could mix 5ml/1T ground cinnamon into the filling)
- For baking you will need an additional 10 ml/2 T olive oil, the juice of half a lemon, and water
- Thick yoghurt for serving
Directions
- If your vegetables-to-be-stuffed are dried, blanch them in boiling water for three minutes, then put immediately in cold water. Drain them. If you’re using grape leaves, rinse them off. If you’re using fresh vegetalbes, core and seed them, keeping the outer shells intact but removing as much of the insides as you can.
- In the largest bowl you have, mix the onions, garlic, herbs, salt and pepper, and tomato and pepper pastes with your hands or a spoon. Once they are mixed, add in the rice, meat, and raisins. Stir or knead to mix, then add pomegranate molasses or oil. You are aiming for a slightly sticky consistency; not cohering like meatballs but not falling apart either. (If they are too wet, you can add breadcrumbs; if too dry, more oil or tomato paste.)
- Stuff and pack the vegetables: pour 2T of olive oil into either a baking dish (in which case, preheat the oven to 175/350) or a large pot. Using a spoon or your fingers, put the filling into the vegetables (see below for rolling grape leaves). Press gently but do not pack; the rice will expand as it cooks. Pack the stuffed vegetables side-by-side, filling up the pot. (Here is where the extra grape leaves come in handy; often you will have filling left over and/or lots of space left.) Cabbage or grape leaves can be stacked on top of each other, but other vegetables should be kept in a single layer. Break the cinnamon sticks in half and tuck them in among the veggies. If you like, you can put some grape leaves or cabbage leaves on the top of the whole thing to keep it moist.
- Pour about 14 oz/2 cups, or less, of boiling water into the dish or pot. It should come about halfway up. Add the lemon juice.
- Cook, on the stove over medium heat (with a lid) or in the oven (covered in foil), for about 30-35 minutes, until the filling is cooked.
- Serve with thick yogurt (ideally with garlic and lemon juice) and salt and pepper.
Stuffed Grape Leaves
Stuffed grape leaves (or cabbage rolls for that matter) are more intimidating than they seem, and very forgiving. The only tricky thing about them is that you don’t put much in each. So you will need to make a lot to use up all of your filling. Then again, this will give you a lot of stuffed grape leaves, which is not the worst place to be. (They are even better cold.) Grape leaves are smaller so more difficult than cabbage leaves, so we’ve shown those. It’s actually easier to show than to tell how to roll them, but here goes. You put a small amount of filling near the stem, fold the stem in, and then roll upward, tucking the sides in as you roll. If you know how to make a burrito or a spring roll, it’s just like that (with irregular edges). Place them into the dish seam side down.
This recipe is fairly forgiving: the only thing you need to be careful about is cooking the grain all the way through. And it loves improvisation. We have added with finely chopped mushrooms (fresh or rehydrated dried ones) and sun-dried tomatoes and substituted pine nuts, cashews, and even chopped dried apricots when we couldn’t find walnuts and raisins.
