Traditional Lebanese grape leaves from the south

🌿 Homemade Grape Leaves (Warak Enab) 🍋🍅

Rolling grape leaves is an act of love — cozy, slow, and always worth it. 💚
Here’s my family’s recipe: tender, tangy, and packed with flavor!

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Stuffing (Hashweh)
• 1 lb calrose rice
• 1.5 lb ground beef or finely chopped chuck
• 1 tbsp allspice or 7-spice
• 1 tbsp citric acid OR 3 tbsp lemon
• 1 tbsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/4 cup ghee
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1–2 jars grape leaves

Mix everything except rice, then add rice and combine. Roll tightly.

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Broth
• Beef or lamb bones
• 1/2 gallon water
• 2 cans diced tomatoes 🍅
• Salt, pepper, 1 tsp citric acid

Boil bones 1 hour, strain, keep broth.

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Cook

Layer rolled leaves in a pot, add tomatoes if you want, season lightly.
Place a plate on top, weigh it down, and pour broth until leaves are submerged.
Boil → reduce to medium-low for 30 min → remove weight → cook 30 min on low.
Turn off heat and steam 30–45 min.

Serve warm. 💚✨

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#HomemadeMeals #GrapeLeaves #WarakEnab #LebaneseFood #MediterraneanCooking #SummersHomemadeMeals #ComfortFood #FoodFromTheHeart 🌿🍋

Now, those are what I call traditional village style grape leaves. Now, business with ribs. Oh, how I already feel it. Somebody’s down below telling me that’s not how my mama made it. And I get it. But your mom didn’t take the time out of her life to write down the recipe. And this here comes from the village, the south of Lebanon. So, you’re going to sit back, watch this recipe, and when it’s done, you’re going to share it with your mom. And you’re going to tell her to make it like I do. Now, y’all can pretend like I never told y’all that the recipe is down below. But let’s get started. While you’re boiling those bones, you’re going to mix your hashwe. Your hashe is the mix that goes inside of your grape leaves. I used some of that boiling water, flavored water, into my hashe. That’s to simply soften up the hashe to make it easier to manage while we’re rolling. Flavor everything liberally, but I like to mix my meat before I add in the rice. Now, I’m using calrose rice. You can actually find several different types of Calrose rice, especially at the Asian supermarket and the Middle Easterners supermarket. And they sell a bag at Costco and Sam’s Club. Funny thing, when you look for something, you can find it as long as you know what you’re looking for. Now, when it comes down to grape leaves, many of you have asked me, “Summer, where do you get your grape leaves?” Um, probably in your backyard. We handp pick our own grape leaves and jar them, thanks to my mama. When it comes down to rolling, the kids usually help. And earlier you seen Jenna’s little hands helping me. I usually have the boys help me as well, but it’s football Sunday and everybody was participating. Therefore, it was rolling for me and Jenna. Now, this is the moment when most people get anxiety when making grape leaves. How to place them in the pot so they don’t pop. You’re just going to simply layer your grape leaves, rotating them all around, leaving small gaps in between. Use a heavy plate to push them down. I even use the microwave plate. Then I use my McKenzie child teapot filled with water to press them down. Once it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to a medium. Allow it to simmer for another 30 minutes. Then remove the teapot. Finally, depending on how many grape leaves you’re cooking, you’re going to lower the heat. Allow it to steam and simmer while you head to the grocery store. We need to make cucumbers and yogurt. And I grabbed my favorite items, at papaya, of course. Finally, after about an hour to an hour and a half of steaming and simmering, remove the grape leaves from the heat and allow them to cool. Head over to the chopping station and make your cucumbers and yogurt. Now, I do want you to know that I do use yogurt because it does have the most traditional Lebanese flavor. And about doing the flip, my mom never flipped the grape leaves. I think that’s more of a social media thing. We would pick at the pot till we got to the bones at the bottom. And my mom never used ribs. She would use the leftover bones that the butcher would give away for free.