Dolmas Recipe | How To Make Stuffed Grape Leaves!

BEST Stuffed Grape Leaves Recipe (Dolmas!) This tutorial is all you need to make the best stuffed grape leaves or dolmas! Stuffed grape leaves with rice, meat, herbs and warm spices cooked in a bright lemony broth. I learned how to make stuffed grape leaves in my mother’s Mediterranean kitchen many years ago, and I’m sharing all her expert tips and tricks with step-by-step photos to show you. Serve this dolmas recipe with some tzatziki sauce and a Mediterranean cucumber tomato salad. #grapeleaves #stuffedgrapeleaves #dolmas #dolmades #greekfood

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🍅INGREDIENTS: 🍅
🔹 1 16-oz jar grape leaves in brine (about 60 to 70 leaves)
👉 https://amzn.to/3ui8cE3
🔹 1 ½ cup short grain rice, soaked in plenty of water for 15 minutes, then drained
🔹 Extra virgin olive oil (I used Private Reserve Greek EVOO)
🔹 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
🔹 12 oz lean ground beef
🔹 Kosher salt
🔹 Black pepper
🔹 1 tsp allspice
🔹 ½ tsp cumin
🔹 ½ cup EACH chopped fresh parsley, fresh dill, and fresh mint
🔹 1 to 2 tomatoes sliced into rounds
🔹 About 4 cups or more low-sodium chicken broth or water
🔹 Juice of 2 lemons

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⏱️CHAPTERS⏱️
00:00​​ – Intro
00:22 – Prepping the grape leaves
01:08 – Rinsing the rice
01:40 – Cooking the meat mixture
02:52 – Making the filling
03:42 – What does dolma mean?
04:23 – How to make stuffed grape leaves!
06:19 – Calling back up
06:45 – Preparing the pan
07:45 – Don’t skip this step!
08:11 – Cooking the grape leaves on the stove top first
08:55 – Adding lemon juice
09:12 – Finish cooking the grape leaves
09:20 – Finishing touches
09:40 – Taste test

#MediterraneanFood #MediterraneanDiet #HealthyEating

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The Mediterranean Dish is the top and best website / resource for modern Mediterranean recipes & the Mediterranean diet. See more: https://TheMediterraneanDish.com.

My name is Suzy Karadsheh, Chef and New York Times Bestselling Author, and here on The Mediterranean Dish, you will find easy, wholesome, and healthy recipes that celebrate the bold flavors of the Mediterranean from Southern Europe, to North Africa, and the Middle East.

I am a true daughter of the Mediterranean. I was born on the coast of Egypt in the bustling cosmopolitan city of Port Said, the North entrance of the Suez Canal, & just a boat ride away from Italy, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Palestine and Israel.

Learn how to make Greek food, Italian food, Moroccan, Middle Eastern, adapted with a modern twist for all the busy cooks and moms out there! Most of our recipes abide by the Mediterranean diet, but please consult a doctor for your dietary needs.

– Have you ever tried making stuffed grape leaves, or dolmas, at home? They are so much easier to make than you think. Mm. Tastes like home. I learned how to make stuffed grape leaves in my mother’s Egyptian kitchen,

so this recipe is near and dear to my heart. I have taught my daughters how to make it, and it is easier than most people think. So, we’re gonna start with one jar of grape leaves.

I’m gonna link to this, so don’t you worry. Once you have your jar, we’re gonna go ahead and blanch the grape leaves in some hot water. Come with me.

They come in a jar, so I’m gonna just kind of try to pull them out. We’re going right in here in some bubbling water for about five minutes or so. You dunk the leaves in the hot water

And you loosen them just a tad. This is an optional step. I’m in the habit of doing it now, because I think it does help the whole cooking process. The leaves are softer and it also kind of helps the flavor,

because if they’ve been preserved, then I wanna shake off any undesirable taste. So, you know, five minutes or so. The star ingredient of the filling is rice, so I’m gonna rinse the rice,

and it’s very important to rinse it until the water runs clear. So, as you can see, the water is pretty murky. We’re gonna do this a few times until it runs clear,

which means we are getting rid of the starch as much as we can. (water splashing) Okay, this is good now. Yeah, you only need five minutes or so in the boiling water,

And then once it’s done, just grab the leaves. While the rice is soaking, we’re gonna work on the meat part of the filling. We’re gonna cook the meat a little bit,

so we have a little bit of extra virgin olive oil here. Then, we’re gonna go and with some onions. That’s looking nice. All we need is just for the onion

to get a little bit fragrant and golden brown in color. Then, we’re going in with the ground beef. You could also use lamb, and you’re gonna break up the meat, and we’ll give it about seven to 10 minutes or so,

until the meat is fully brown. (pan sizzling) At this point, I’ve drained the meat from the excess liquid or fat, and then we’re going to go ahead and season it. So, salt and pepper, and then all spice and cumin, a little bit of each.

So, about, oh, a teaspoon of all spice, and a half a teaspoon of cumin. (pan sizzling) Great, now, we can put together the filling. We’ve had our rice soaking in water for about 10 to 15 minutes.

This makes it so that it will cook evenly and quickly. So, we’re gonna go ahead and drain it. (water trickling) Perfect. So, we’re gonna go in with the rice, the ground beef.

I love to use a lot of fresh herbs in my stuffed grape leaves. I think it really brightens the dish and gives a lot of flavor,

so we’re going with a bit of parsley, fresh mint, and dill. Ooh, yes, perfect, and I know that a lot of people are intimidated by the idea of making dolmas, or dolmadas, or stuffed grape leaves at home, but it’s not that difficult,

and I’m gonna show you how to actually stuff the grape leaves and roll them, and it’s such a fun project. A little bit of salt and pepper. We’ve already seasoned the meat, so we don’t need much else,

and then a drizzle of some good extra virgin olive oil, and then you wanna mix to make sure everything is well combined. Fun fact, the word, “dolmas,” and, “dolma,” in Turkish means, “stuffed,”

and in Egypt, we have, like, a whole genre of foods that are stuffed, stuffed vegetables, and in Egypt we call them, “mahshi,” which means, “stuffed.” So, (laughs) very, very clever.

So, now this is the stuffing, or the hashweh, that goes inside the grape leaves. So, now you have the stuffing, you have your grape leaves, now the fun begins. This is how my mama taught me,

And my mama used to be a teacher, she has since retired. She’s still a teacher. Once a teacher, always a teacher, you know? Okay, so you’re gonna grab one grape leaf, put it flat on a cutting board with the rougher side facing you.

Every leaf is that way. This is the smooth part, and then this is the rough part. The rough part should be facing you. You’re going to take a small pairing knife and you’re going to maybe just cut around

the little vein here, the little stem. You don’t want that. Thank you for coming. Take a spoonful of this beautiful stuffing right in the middle of your leaf, and then you’re gonna go ahead and roll

to cover the stuffing, and then roll forward, away from you tucking in the sides, and then you kind of roll tightly, but also gently. You don’t want the leaves to fall apart when they cook,

so you wanna make sure that they are well wrapped. So, I’m gonna leave this one here for now, and I’m gonna make a couple more just to show you, and it’s so funny,

because, depending on what part of the Middle East or even between house to house, everyone does their grape leaves just a tad differently. My mother-in-law’s grape leaves are so neat and tightly wrapped.

I will never do that because I don’t have the patience. This is kind of the size that I go for, kind of medium-ish, but some people can make them super small and super tight. So much wisdom (laughs softly)

oh, for you, but this is the sort of thing where you call friends. When I used to do this with my mom, there used to be several of us around the table sometimes, just friends and family talking, and having tea,

and rolling grape leaves. It’s just a fun family event. It’s a good opportunity to call on some help, not because it’s hard, but because some of the point of making this sort of dish is the social piece behind it.

My friends who would like to learn on camera how to do this. Any volunteers? Calling in my backup here, my girls, Kate and Kristina, they are very good at helping me. So, you want it to be full,

but you don’t want it to be too full that it kind of breaks as it cooks, and some of the leaves may have a hole or may be not in the best shape. Sometimes, I will layer them.

In the end, they turn out beautifully. Okay, good work. Now that we have our grape leaves all rolled up, you prepare your pan, you do a little bit of extra virgin olive oil in the bottom,

give it a quick brush, and then kind of add a few grape leaves to the bottom, so I always save a few leaves right to the bottom here, and then a few slices of tomatoes.

They impart flavor as the grape leaves cook, they collapse and it becomes a beautiful, delicious, delicious mess. Now, we’re gonna go ahead and assemble our grape leaves.

If you have larger ones, you start with them at the bottom, and you leave your little ones to the top. This also has to do with the size of leaves. Sometimes, some leaves are really small,

so we have a few baby ones, so to speak, and I put them on the top, and the larger ones on the bottom, I like them nice and snug, too, so they don’t unroll or fall apart.

As the grape leaves cook, then the rice will expand. We’ve arranged our grape leaves neatly and tightly in our pan with the open side down, so the seam side will be down,

and at this point, grab a smaller plate, smaller than the size of your pan and inverted on top, and this is to make sure that they don’t unroll, like, don’t come apart. So, you do this first before you do anything,

before you turn on the heat, and then you have your broth, which has been heated, and you’re gonna pour that on the side. (broth trickling) So, this is hot broth, and it should kind of slightly cover the grape leaves.

Now, you’re gonna turn the heat onto medium high and you’re gonna get this boiling. Now that it’s boiling for a little bit, I’m gonna turn it down and cover it,

leaving the plate in here, and you are going to let it simmer for about 30 minutes or so. It’s been a nice half hour cooking on low heat here, and this is the magic I learned from my mama.

This plate has kept things intact. See? Now, we got to add some lemon juice, so juice of two lemons. The lemon adds tang, it plays really well with the flavor of the grape leaves.

Now, you’re going to cover it back and cook, oh, for maybe another half hour or so. Low heat, half hour, leave it alone. Oh, yeah, big family favorite over here. Can’t wait to dig in.

I add a few slices of tomatoes for some color on the top, as well, totally optional. I mean, you have to taste your own poison, right? That’s what they say. (giggles) This is how you know if it’s ready, okay?

First of all, I like a little bit of lemon, more lemon on it, and then it should break easily. The rice should be nice and fluffed up, it should not be hard, and it should taste so good.

(light music) All you need is maybe a beautiful salad next to this. One of my easiest go-to salads is the Mediterranean cucumber tomato salad. Absolutely gorgeous, and I also like a little bit of tzatziki sauce with it. Stuffed grape leaves, it’s a classic,

A labor of love, a family event, I hope you guys give it a try ASAP, grab the recipe for my stuffed grape leaves over on TheMediterraneanDish.com. I will see you later. Ciao. (light music)

The very skilled tetas of the Middle East would actually flip this whole thing over on a large platter. I don’t know, I’m gonna give it a try. Ah! It should come out in one tower, so to speak, but still gorgeous, I feel.