afoona
vegetables

Leeks Stuffed with Meat and Rice

Leeks stuffed with meat and rice in tomato sauce – a classic homestyle dish from the Sephardic kitchen. Tasty, nourishing and indulgent.

⏱ 1 hr 20 min🍽 4 servings 🌍 Mediterranean👩‍🍳 Afoona🧩 2 parts
🥩 Meat🌾 Gluten-free

👨‍🍳 Method

For the Meatball mix

  1. 1
    Mix the ground meat with the onion, garlic, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, rice, salt and black pepper until evenly combined.

To assemble

  1. 2
    Cut the leeks into tubes of about 5 cm and separate the outer layers.
    KnifeCutting board
  2. 3
    Fill the leeks with the mixture up to ¾ full: the rice swells as it cooks.
    💡Fill only three-quarters full: the uncooked rice swells inside the vegetable, and a full filling gets pushed out.
  3. 4
    Arrange the leeks, now stuffed, in a wide pot.
    Wide, shallow pot
  4. 5
    Mix the stock, tomatoes, sugar, salt and olive oil and pour over the leeks.
  5. 6
    Heat the olive oil in a wide pot and sauté the chopped caps 0 minutes. Add the stock, tomatoes, sugar and salt and stir until the paste dissolves.
    ⚙ SimmeringStoveLid
    💡A gentle simmer, not a boil: a hard boil dries the food out and clouds it, a slow simmer cooks it evenly.
  6. 7
    Serve hot with bread.
428calories
16 gprotein
43 gcarbs
20 gfat
● protein 16%● carbs 41%● fat 43%

Per serving (413 g), of 4 servings

For the Meatball mix · To assemble ·

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⚖ About the ingredients

🔧 Tools needed (5) · 🍳 One cooking vessel

  • Stove · 💡 Workaround, changes the dish: Portable hot plate (one weaker burner) · Camping gas stove (One burner, outdoors) · Electric pressure cooker (multicooker) (One pot, no real shallow frying)
  • Lid · Also works: Aluminum foil (tight aluminum foil) · Plate (an upside-down plate)
  • Wide, shallow pot · Also works: Deep skillet (sauté pan) (None) · 💡 Workaround, changes the dish: Pot (Layers instead of a single layer)
  • Cutting board · Also works: Plate (Large plate, dulls the knife)
  • Knife · Also works: Food processor (Fast, less control over size) · Kitchen shears (For herbs/dough)

By the steps, as the recipe is built now: another version or addition can change the list.

🧩 Built from…

Meatball mix → Stuffed vegetables

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