Homemade Lebanese Grape Leaves Recipe | Easy Vegan Appetizer for Parties

In today’s vegan recipe we’re making a delicious twist on a classic Middle Easter Recipe-stuffed grape leaves or “warak enab.” This plant-based version of a traditional Lebanese recipe is perfect as a healthy vegan appetizer for parties, potlucks, or a flavorful addition to your weekly meal prep.

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00:00 Introduction
00:33 Using Vegan Meat Replacements
01:12 Mixing up the filling for your stuffed grape leaves
02:24 Learn how to roll and stuff grape leaves
04:07 How to cook the stuffed dolmas
05:39 Nutritional Information

Today we’re going to make a truly unique and delicious appetizer that’s perfect for your next party or get together. Lebanese stuffed grape leaves. Welcome back to Cat’s Vegan Kitchen. This recipe is really special to me because it traveled all the way from Lebanon with my grandmother in the early 1900s. These stuffed grape leaves are usually stuffed with lamb meat, but I’ve transformed them into a delicious plant-based version that makes a great appetizer or a great snack that’s rich in protein. Let’s get started. My grandma made two kinds of stuffed grape leaves. One was naturally vegan and one was stuffed with lamb meat. To replace the lamb meat, I’m going to use Impossible Meat. As someone who’s been vegan for about 25 years and who predates um meat replacements that actually taste good, I’m super excited we have a variety to choose from. Some people say they don’t want to eat these meat replacements cuz they have chemicals in them. But I do like to remind people that most meat also has chemicals in it, things like growth hormones and pesticides. If you’re really opposed to eating a meat replacement, check out textured vegetable protein. It’s just soy and it’ll work in these as well. We’re going to start by mixing up the stuffing for our grape leaves. I’m going to use 1 12 oz package of Impossible Meat, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 heaping teaspoon of Lebanese allspice. If you can’t get this where you live, I’ll link it in the description below. 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper. And 1/2 cup of well-rinsed white rice. Grandma always said to use Ben’s rice. Mix that up really, really well. Now, the original recipe was for a pound and a half of lamb meat. So, I’ve adjusted the amounts accordingly. And you can do the same if you want to use more or less plant-based meat. So, in order to make stuffed grape leaves, we’re going to need some grape vine leaves. I’m going to use the ones in a jar. Grandma never used the ones in a jar. She would send us kids to go pick them by the creek, but I don’t live in an area where we can do that. Sometimes my Arabic market will have fresh grape leaves. And if you use fresh grape leaves, what you want to do is you want to pour boiling water over them and let them sit for maybe 2 3 minutes to soften up a little bit. If you’re using jarred grape leaves, make sure you rinse them really, really well. Grape vine leaves have two sides, a shiny side and a dull side. The dull side is the underside of the leaf. So, you want to roll these shiny side down and you want to put the point of the grape leaf facing to your left or right. To stuff our grape leaves, we’re going to take about a tablespoon of the filling and press it into a roll or log shape. If you’re good at rolling burritos, you’re going to be great at this. Fold the grape leaf over the filling. Turn the sides in and roll it very, very tightly. Tada. Fold the sides in. Fold over and roll tightly. You may not get this perfect at first. It might take a little while. That’s okay. Um, if you are lucky enough to find fresh grape leaves. Grandma always said to She always would get mad at us if we picked the big ones like these uh because she said they were a little tough and I agree with her. So, if you are fresh, if you have fresh grape leaves at your access or you have a place where you can go pick them, pick the small ones. They’re really tender and delicious. Make sure you adjust the amount of filling you’re putting in your leaves to the size of the leaf. And do not overfill your leaves. They’re going to expand a little bit while you’re cooking them. I’ve noticed a lot of people are asking for the nutritional information for some of my recipes, which I love that because I really am interested in nutritionally what I’m eating. So, if you stick around till the end, I’ll run down the calories and the protein and all that stuff for you. To cook up our grape leaves, you want to cover the bottom of your saucepan with some grape leaves. Make sure it’s covered really well. Then put your stuffed grape leaves in the bottom of the pan and snug them up close together. This is so they don’t explode when they’re cooking. If you have a second layer, put it in the opposite direction. Now go ahead and cover those gently with a couple more grape leaves. While my grape leaves are cooking, I’m going to cover them with tomato sauce. Just buy canned tomato sauce. Try to make sure it’s a pretty basic tomato sauce. just maybe tomatoes and salt, not too spicy or anything like that. And we want to make sure the grape leaves are covered. I am going to add half a teaspoon of salt. And I’m going to use two of these smaller cans or one larger can. Finally, I’m going to squeeze the juice of two lemons into my pan. I’m going to go ahead and turn my heat on to medium, cover my grape leaves, and in about 5 minutes, I’m going to check them to see if they’re simmering. Once they’re simmering, I’m going to turn the heat to low and let them cook for about 40 minutes. Okay, I let my grape leaves simmer for about 40 minutes and they are done. I’m going to gently pull the leaves that were on top off so I can access my delicious little stuffed grape leaves. [Music] I promise to give you nutritional information on these because sometimes people ask. For about three of these, they’re 120 calories, 10 g of protein, and only about 4 g of fat, and it’s mostly unsaturated fat. And there are zero gram of cholesterol in these. They are also a great source of iron and vitamin C. What I love about these as an appetizer is you can serve them warm like they are now or you can put them in the refrigerator and serve them cold and they are every bit as good. There you have your traditional Lebanese stuffed grape leaves. If you love this recipe, hit that thumbs up button and let me know in the comments. And remember, you can always find the full written recipe in the description below. Thanks for watching. I hope to see you next time on Cat’s Vegan Kitchen. [Music]