DOLMADES WITH LAMB & RICE: GRAPE LEAVES STUFFED WITH LAMB AND RICE
Yield:
50-60 dolmades
Ingredients
- 16 ounces grape leaves from a jar, rinsed, drained, and stems removed
- 3/4 cup olive oil
- 2 pounds ground lamb (or 1 pound ground lamb plus 1 pound ground beef)
- 1 cup rice, uncooked
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 16 ounces water or chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
- 1 teaspoon dried crushed oregano
- 1 teaspoon salt
- freshly ground pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup freshly lemon juice
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground meat, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, herbs and mix well. Add the rice and mix until well combined.
- Rinse and dry the grape leaves. Cut the hard stem from each leaf. Reserve the smallest and the torn leaves to lay on bottom of pot.
- Lay a grape leaf shiny side down and place a tablespoon of rice filling on the bottom end of the leaf, near the stem.
- Fold the stem end of leaf over the filling. Fold the sides over and roll up snugly but not too tight. The rice will expand while cooking.
- Repeat with all of the remaining grape leaves until your filling is done.
- Layer half of the small and torn grape leaves to create a bed for the dolmades in a pot.
- Place the dolmades seam side down and very close together over the bed of leaves. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
- Pour the olive oil and lemon juice over the dolmades.
- Place the remaining reserved small leaves over the dolmades.
- Pour the water or chicken stock over the dolmades dolmades.
- Place an inverted plate over the dolmades to weigh them down and to prevent them from moving around and opening while cooking.
- Cover with lid and bring to a boil.
- Reduce to simmer and cook about 40-60 minutes or until the rice is tender.
- There will still be some liquid in the pot. Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes and the juices will be absorbed.
- Plate and drizzle some olive oil over them. Serve with delicious tzatziki sauce.
- Enjoy!
Soooooo delicious! Excellent recipe in terms of taste & very detailed instructions. I love stuffed grape leaves but at times I have a yen for ones with lamb, so I make them. I like that there’s no precooking the rice or lamb.
Thank you!
Sensational. Simple easy-to-follow instructions. Perfect combination. This is the recipe for our family. My son thought the flavours were delightful. My husband thought it was de-vine. Thank you Dimitra. <3
I bought a jar of grape leaves that says 16 oz. your jar looks soooo much larger than mine. I’m just afraid if I follow the recipe I may have too much filling and not enough grape leaves. Can you please let me know if the jar you had is 16 oz Thank you in advance.
Hi Caroline! My jar was also 16 ounces and it will work. If you have leftover filling, you can do several things with it. Either add a little more water or broth and cook it in a pan for 10-15 minutes until the rice is tender and enjoy or, use it to fill peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, or eggplant and bake in the oven. Hope this helps! Dimitra
Made this for dinner with the greek couscous salad. We all enjoyed this meal. Thank you so much for the wonderful recipes.
I made these dolmades today. Since it is very difficult to get lamb in Japan, I used just ground beef. They are so easy to make and very delicious. I definitely made them again and again. Thank you.
I’m so happy that you liked them. I often make them with ground beef as well 🙂
great recipe but I always have way too much liquid at the end and I end up draining most. What can I be doing wrong? Do you cover the pan when simmering? Thank you!
I have a question for you . When I make dolmades with meat , they come out perfectly, however, when I make them with just dill snd rice,( no meat) on the stove – as soon as the take the pot lid off to check for fineness, the leaf starts to crinkle . Any thoughts about this . What’s going on. What am I doing wrong.? I cook them in a combination of water, oil and lemon juice .
Delicious, however the stuffing was firmer than I’d like. Similar to over kneading hamburger and coming out tough and rubbery, but I mixed with a fork. Thoughts?
Hello, I’m going to make your dolmades later today. I have a silly question….I only have 1 plate to cover them that fits my pot. Is it ok with just 1 plate?
I’m plan on making some grape leaves in a few weeks and I was just looking to see what spices I might be missing. I noticed that on all these recipes that everyone uses ground lamb. We tried that once but we thought it made the meal more musher. We have always just bought lamb and cut it up in small pieces. I learned to make stuffed grape leaves from my mom who learned from my dads mom who was Lebanese or Syrian background couple generations ago. I don’t really have a recipe I just go by what I remember my mom did but I just don’t remember spices to use. I also put lamb bones at the bottom of my pot to start laying the grape leaves on. And I do use a plate at the top to set on top of them.
My Lebanese friend taught me a similar method. Instead of bones, she added lamb meat withe the bone-in under the grape leaves ad the flavor was so delicious!