Vegetarian Turkish Dolma (stuffed green peppers)

dolma-01

Okay, I’ve seen the dolma recipes online that call for meat, cumin and other spices. I guess those are the fancy versions for guests or rich folk. When I lived in Turkey, my husband and I were very poor, and I was taught this simple recipe. It’s the easy and cheap family supper, I suppose. This dolma is a tasty nutritious meal, and I still cook it this way today.

dolma-02

You will need:

4 medium-sized green peppers – hollowed out from the top

1 ½ cups cooked brown rice (see below, or use leftovers or substitute white)

2 heaping Tablespoons salce (see recipe in this blog)

1 bunch of parsley- chopped

2 cups garlic yogurt (2 c yogurt- Greek is nice- mixed with 1-2 crushed garlic cloves)

dolma-03 dolma-04

1-      Mix the rice, salce and parsley

2-      Stuff the peppers about ¾ full

3-      Stand the peppers in a pot so they stay upright. Put about an inch of cold water in the pot, around the peppers, so that when it boils it will not get the inside of the peppers wet. Add salt to the water. Cover the pot.

dolma-05

4-      Boil the water. The bottom of the peppers are boiled, the tops are steamed. About 5 – 10 minutes- you’re just heating it through and softening the peppers to your liking.

5-      Serve dolma whole smothered in garlic yogurt.

Perfect brown rice:

1:2 rice & water. (For example 1 cup of rice and 2 cups water or ½ cup rice and 1 cup water)

1-      Pick over the rice looking for hard husks. Rinse it several times in cold water.

2-      Add about a Tablespoon of olive oil and cook on medium heat for about 3 minutes. When it starts sticking to the bottom of the pot, add the water.

3-      Boil on high for a few moments, then cover the pot, reduce the heat to low and leave it until all the water has been absorbed (30 – 45 minutes)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>