My Favorite Traditional Dish

Growing up I would always be in the kitchen with my mom and grandma when they were cooking! It was the best place to be because I was with two amazing women and the smell of the food was to die for 😋. I have grown to love cooking and baking (I prefer baking) especially our traditional dishes.

I have many favorite dishes but one that I can eat every week would be dolma!! Dolma, in short is a dish of vegetables stuffed with rice, meat, garlic, onion, green pepper and tomato. This dish can be eaten both hot or cold but I prefer hot with either hot sauce drizzled over it or tzatziki sauce.

Dolma Recipe Prep time: 30-40 mins. Cook Time: 1 hour. Heat: Varies

Ingredients

Vegetables that will be stuffed.

1. Onion (5)

2. Zucchini (5)

3. Eggplant (5)

4. Tomatoes (3)

5. Grape Leaves (As many as necessary to fill the pot)

6. Green Peppers (5)

Vegetables and spices for the stuffing

1. Oil (1 cup)

2. Salt (2 Tbsp)

3. Rice (2 cups)

4. Meat ( 2 lb)

5. Garlic (2 bulbs)

6. Onion (1)

7. Lemon Water (Squeeze 3 lemons)

8. Parsley (1 bunch)

9. Tomato (3)

10. Red Pepper (1 tsp)

11. Green Pepper (1)

12. Black Pepper (2 tsp)

13. Tomato Paste (3 Cooking Spoons)

Instructions

1. Rinse the rice with cold water

2. Now we add the ingredients (except the rice) for the stuffing in the food processor until mixed well.

3. Then we add this mixture to the rice and stir it a little

4. Once this is done we get the pot ready! We add a bit of oil on the bottom, then we a few slices of tomato and on top of that we add 1 lb of sliced meat. Once that is set, for flavor we drizzle a bit of salt and black pepper.

5. Now we begin the stuffing. we will begin with one layer of grape leaves on top of the meat. After we add the onions and then we combine the zucchini and eggplant so that the stuffing does not fall out and lastly we add the green peppers and tomatoes. Once this is done we use the remaining grape leaves to fill up the pot!

6. Once the vegetables are all done we put it on the stove and add the water of sumac and cover the pot with a plate before we put the lid on.

7. Once this has come to a boil (usually 10 mins) we lower the temperature to medium and let we leave it on for 20 mins. After the 20 mins, in order to capture the amazing taste and smell we leave it on a low temperature for 30 mins!

8. Last step, once its done we take a silver plate tray place it on top of the pot and flip the pot over creating a tower-like structure!

And there you have it, my favorite dish 😍 I've attached a photo of my first attempt in making this dish

Bon Appétit / Anush Ell