Leeks Stuffed with Meat and Rice with homemade vegetable stock

👨‍🍳 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
   Put the onion, carrot, celery, parsley, garlic, bay leaves and thyme in a large pot with the cold water.

   Large pot

   💡Start with cold water: the vegetables release their flavor slowly as the water heats up.
4. 5
   Bring to a boil over high heat and skim off the foam.

   Stove
5. 6
   Turn down to medium-low heat and simmer uncovered 30–45 minutes.

   Stove

   💡A gentle simmer, not a boil: a hard boil dries the food out and clouds it, a slow simmer cooks it evenly.
6. 7
   Strain the stock through a fine sieve.

   Fine sieve
7. 8
   Arrange the leeks, now stuffed, in a wide pot.

   Wide, shallow pot
8. 9
   Mix the stock, tomatoes, sugar, salt and olive oil and pour over the leeks.
9. 10
   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.

   StoveLid
10. 11
    Serve hot with bread.