I made these dolma’s vegetarian, if you want you can add ground meat to it, add to the rice mixture either raw or cooked, (it will cook while baking)
What you will need:
- Approx 1 1/2 cups calrose rice, partly boiled (and rinse to remove starchiness) to softened takes less time cooking in dolma
- 1 bunch of parsley rinsed and chopped
- 2 tbsp dried mint or 3/4 cup chopped fresh
- 1 chopped tomato
- 1 chopped small onion
- 2-3 cloves of garlic finely chopped or grounded/grated
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/2- cup lemon juice OR 1 cup tomato juice
- water season with salt
- around 5 small stuffing zucchinis*
- around 6 small peppers*
- 1 tomato sliced to cover as “lids”
Make rice filling , take peppers cut stem out, and fill with rice, scoop out the zucchini with a melon baller, and fill with rice.
Cover tops with tomato slices, place in baking pan, add some water about 2 cups, lemon juice and olive oil, or if using tomato sauce, 1 cup tomato sauce and 1 and 1/4 cup water. Bake in oven at 350 covered for 1 hour or until veggies are tender.
Sometimes what I do is sautee the onion in a pan with oil and a spoon of butter for flavour. Cook till tender, add the rice, to that add a few tsp of tomato paste, paprika for colour, seasoning salt, black pepper and salt for seasoning. I add some fresh dill and parsley to that. Then stuff the peppers with it and bake with tomato sauce and water.
* You may use only peppers or zucchini
*Tip: Make sure you poke through the peppers and zucchini with a knife, to allow the liquid to get through, just pierce through them around 3-4 times around the pepper & zucchini.