Within typical dishes of Greece we find the dolma, plural dolmades. It consists of grape leaves or chard stuffed with various ingredients, such as rice, meat, aromatic herbs and vegetables. Actually, dolmades are an Arabic food with grape leaves or chard (called tobacco), with variants such as the Lebanese or Greek recipe.
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Dolma recipe: ingredients
The dolmades of chard and rice leaves are suitable for vegetarians and vegans. Here are the ingredients needed to prepare a dozen chard / vine and rice rolls (about 6 people):
- 16 chard or vine leaves (can use vine leaves in brine)
- 150 g of rice
- 1 cebolla
- Raisins (amount to taste)
- Pine nuts (quantity to taste)
- Juice extracted from 2 lemons
- 1 fresh mint leaf
- 1 branch of fresh mint
- 1 tablespoon of cumin
- 1 branch of parsley
- Olive oil
- Sal Island
- Water
They are served cold and accompanied by a yogurt and cucumber sauce or tzatziki. This meatless variant is colloquially known as liar.
Step-by-step preparation
First, you must prepare the filling of the chard or grape leaves. Here's how to make stuffed grape leaves:
- Cut the peduncle of the leaves.
- Put the leaves in a bowl or bowl with water and let them boil for at least 15-20 minutes.
- While the leaves are boiling, toast the pine nuts in a pan over low heat for a few minutes. You don't need to add oil or any other ingredients to the pan.
- Brown the onion cut into very small pieces with a little olive oil and salt.
- Once the onion has a golden color and is half transparent, add the rice. The rice should not stop moving at all times.
The next step will be to prepare the filling. In the following we explain how Greek rice is made:
- It is called Greek rice because specific ingredients such as pine nuts, raisins, spices and aromatic herbs (mint, parsley, cumin ...) must be added.
- Add a small amount of very hot water to all the previous mixture (it is only a matter of soaking the rice a little).
- Lower the intensity of the heat and leave it to cook for about 20 minutes. Don't forget to stir everything frequently.
- Once we have done this, which will be the filling of the leaves, we can start making the dolmades.
So, once we have the filling ready, we can proceed to fill in the sheets with the. We show you how you should do it below:
- Place the sheet with the vertex facing north.
- Add a little filling on top of each leaf.
- Fold the two curves at the bottom of each sheet up so that the filling is covered.
- Then fold the tips on the left and the right inward.
- Once this is done, the dolma will be fully rolled up.
- Squeeze the blade a little so that the rice does not come out and the dolma remains whole. It should not be squeezed too tight either, because it must be taken into account that the rice increases in size after cooking.
- Place the dolmades inside the pot in which we are going to cook them so that they are very close together. This is done to prevent them from moving during the cooking process.
- Add the lemon juice.
- Add water, cover the pot and cook for 15-20 minutes. It is important to cover the pot to prevent the steam from escaping, since otherwise the dolmades will be dry.
- Let cool and serve.
Meat dolmades
The most common variant is that of meat dolmades. For its preparation, there are two options:
- Substitute minced meat for rice
- Mix the rice with the meat
Lamb meat is traditionally used, which must be added between steps 5 and 6 of the process of making the filling that we have explained previously. In addition, whether they are rice or meat, dolmades are usually served with Greek sauces, especially yogurt and cucumber or tzatziki.
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