Perhapes some might find this suggestion sacralicous but I use brown rice and cook if fully. Then I cook the oinion and mix it with the seasonings and add it all to the rice. Then the grapeleaves are ready for stuffing. These alterations to the recipe save A LOT of time and make it a little healthier (Brown rice has a little more body anyway.)
First Dinner Party in new house and SO's 30th birthday. A doubly special event. Had one vegetarian guest. She had tried to make Dolmas herself but never turned out this good! They were a big hit. Another guest that will not eat ANYTHING green was spotted picking the stuffing out of the leaves! Could not find any currants so left them out. Was told later that I could have used white grape raisins (so try that if you too have trouble finding currants) Prepared stuffing and rolled dolmas the night before. I had never worked with grape leaves. First I thought I could just pull them out one at a time (like a can of baby wipes) but finally figured out that you had to work the whole bundle out of the jar then unroll it. Also I thought I would have plenty of extra leaves because it was a jar of 50 but as it turns out there were many that had holes in them or were badly torn and not useable (so buy plenty extra!). I served them hot out of the steamer. I used a electric steamer for 45 mins separating the layers of the dolmas with a little parchment paper (in hindsight not sure if that was necessary as they did not seem to stick to each other or the steamer at all) I did not do the lemon juice thing because when I have them at Greek restaurants I always think they have just a bit too much 'tang'. It was awesome easy and quite the crowd pleaser (as noted by other reviewers). Highly recommend it A
I made this recipe this weekend for a very large potluck ( 50 people). The reviews were tremendous whether from the few people who had had dolmas before or the vast majority utterly unfamiliar with them. I am providing the recipe (actually a link to it) to probably 10 people. (Another half dozen people took the left-overs home.) Although this is not a typical American party food I highly recommend it for that very purpose. It was surprisingly easy to make well-appreciated by both the meat-eaters and vegetarians in the crowd and offered a novel diversion from the "typical" potluck food. Although the ingredients sound hard to find all were available at my local grocery store (Thriftway)--I actually tried Trader Joes first but they didn't have grape leaves or dried currants.
my grandpa was from the middle east and I remember these growing up I love them. Only we made them with ground lamb breast with rice and mint and lemon. yummy. I can't ever find grapeleaves with lamb in them not even in a restaurant that sells them I will try this but will add lamb and leave the currants and pinenuts out as that is not how I like them.
They were truly delicious but don't think about freezing them. I did and they do not freeze well. The rice was not good after they were frozen.
I was looking for a vegetarian addition to my Lebanese lamb-filled grape leaves for a dinner party. This recipe complemented the meat variety perfectly. The flavor is complex and rich and the dish is satisfying and filling. I wrapped a few of the dolmas in home-made pita bread dipped in olive oil - fantastic. Highly recommended for vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike.
Delicious! I added more pine nuts and currants and a little bit of fresh dill. They were perfect.
I love dolmas and I especially like this version. These are great for lunch because you can eat them cold and the recipe does make a lot. I think I will double the currents and pine nuts next time but overall very good.
Yummy - the only change that I made was to use raisins (which I chopped) in place of the currants.
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