Dolma is a Mediterranean dish that constitutes of stuffed grape leaves. The term “dolma” can be referred to as “to stuff”, and the dish has its roots in the mighty Ottoman Empire, which is modern-day Turkey. Similarly, Ancient Greece’s thrion was a dish of fig leaf stuffed with some sweetened cheese.
The dish is rather versatile as it can be eaten when it is cold or warm. Usually, it is eaten cold as an appetiser, but it can be served hot with lamb as the main course. Occasionally, the stuffings may include meat, served with yoghurt sauce with a tinge of garlic. It takes about 3 hours to make this dish. Even better, the recipe is low in calories with the total amounting to about 70 kcal. Dolmas are filled with a mixture of spices that gives a rich taste and aromatic fragrance to the dish.
Ingredients (4 servings):
- 1 jar of grape leaves
- 1 tbsp of oil
- 2 tbsp of pine nuts
- 1 ½ cups of white rice
- ¼ cup of dried currants
- ¼ tsp of allspice
- ½ cup of parsley
- ¾ cups of plain water
- 1 tbsp of mint
Sauce
- 1 tsp of sugar
- 4 tbsp of lemon juice
- ⅔ cup of oil
Directions:
- Start making the dish by cooking rice in a rice cooker and once it’s done, leave it to cool in room temperature.
- The sauce is made by mixing sugar, freshly squeezed lemon juice and oil.
- Proceed to sauté the pine nuts and onions with olive oil in an iron skillet or frying pan. Ensure that the onions are cooked thoroughly and are translucent. Take the skillet away from the heat and then proceed to add the cooked rice into the pan to be mixed.
- Clean and rinse the grape leaves thoroughly and dry it by patting dry or setting it aside.
- Lay the leaf flat and add a teaspoon of the rice mixture onto the bottom part of the leaf. Roll the leaf from the bottom covering the rice mixture. Bring in the sides to the middle section of the leaf. The leaf should be in a cigar shape.
- Place the folded grape leaves side-by-side in a skillet and then pour the sauce mixture and some water over the dolmas. Leave it to cook for about 50 minutes on low heat.
- Once it has been cooked, leave the dolmas in the pan to be cooled in room temperature.
- Place the dolmas in a container to be refrigerated for about 2 hours to be served cold.
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