afoona
Stuffed Leaves
Meat

Stuffed Leaves

Cabbage, grape, chard or lettuce leaves (or onion layers), softened, stuffed with ground meat and uncooked rice (or with rice and no meat) and rolled up; packed tightly in a wide pot, seam side down, and cooked covered in liquid until the rice inside is tender.

⏱ 47 min🧩 2 parts

👨‍🍳 Method

For the Meatball mix

  1. 1
    Mix the ground meat with the onion, parsley, cumin, paprika, rice, salt and black pepper until evenly combined.

To assemble

  1. 2
    Put the whole cabbage into a pot of boiling water and peel off the leaves one by one as they soften. Let cool.
    StoveWide, shallow potTongs
  2. 3
    Remove the tough vein from each leaf.
    KnifeCutting board
  3. 4
    Place a little of the mixture in the center of each leaf, fold in both sides and roll up.
  4. 5
    Arrange the rolls tightly in a wide pot, seam side down.
    Wide, shallow pot
  5. 6
    Pour the stock over the rolls.
  6. 7
    Bring to a boil. Turn down the heat, cover and simmer 40 minutes, until the rice and meat are done.
    ⚙ SimmeringStoveLid
    💡A gentle simmer, not a boil: a hard boil dries the food out and clouds it, a slow simmer cooks it evenly.
486calories
28 gprotein
31 gcarbs
25 gfat
● protein 24%● carbs 27%● fat 49%

Per serving (554 g), of 4 servings

For the Meatball mix · To assemble ·

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⚖ About the ingredients

🔧 Tools needed (6) · 🍳 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)
  • Tongs · Also works: Turner (None) · 💡 Workaround, changes the dish: Fork (Pierces the meat)

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

🧩 Parts

⚙️ What you can change

  • Possible additions: Cabbage cooking time (minutes) (15) · Stock · crushed tomatoes · Sugar in the sauce · Lemon juice in the sauce · Vinegar in the sauce · Tomato paste · Salt in the sauce · Oil in the sauce · Serving (with yogurt) · Ready-made tomato sauce · Garlic in the sauce · Black pepper in the sauce · Onions halved, blanched and separated into layers (minutes) (10) · Water in the pot · Soaking the grape leaves (minutes) (20) · Stems cooked and on the bottom of the pot (minutes) (5) · Lemon juice at the end of cooking
  • Word for the lemon juice in the sauce: the lemon juice
  • How far the water covers: partly
  • Word for the separate leaves: the cabbage leaves
  • Word for the oil in the sauce: the oil
  • Soaking water for the grape leaves: warm
  • How many minutes before the end the lemon goes in: 5

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