Stuffed cabbage leaves are a traditional greek dish that my mum usually prepares and is for me the definition of greek comfort food. Their origin is Turkish to be exact (as the world dolma suggests, which in Turkish means stuffed), and it is traditionally eaten during Christmas Day as the sealed parcels symbolise baby Jesus baby clothes. The art is in the rolling of the parcels, which I will be honest, I did together with my mum. The traditional recipe calls for mince meat in the stuffing together with rice and herbs but I replaced mince with mushrooms for an even more delicious vegetarian version, as the mushrooms gives an aromatic mushroomy, earthy taste to the dolma, which has impressed even the most avid carnivores.
Ingredients for 4 people (make for 25 dolmas)
-1 average sized cabbage with big leaves
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 leek, chopped
- 1 handful of parsley and dill, chopped
- 1 cup of Arborio rice
- 3 tbs olive oil
- 1 vegetable bouillon diluted in almost 1 lts of hot water.
- 1 tbs corn flour
- Juice from 3 lemons
Preparation
- Sauté the onion and leek with a little olive oil for 2-3 mins until translucent
- Add in the same pan the raw arborio rice, the chopped herbs, salt & pepper and sauté for another 5mins.
- Add the whole cabbage in a bit pot with salted boiling water and boil for 5mins to soften the cabbage.
- Remove from the heat, drain the cabbage and rinse with cold water to cool it down.
- With a knife, cut the cabbage leaves and place open on a chopping board.
- Fill the cabbage leaves with 1 tbs of the mixture.
- Roll on and fold the sides to make small parcels.
- Cover a Pyrex tray with olive oil, and place any remaining leaves at the bottom of the tray. Place the dolma tightly next to each other in the tray and cover with broth (or bouillon water). Make sure that All of the dolmas are covered by the broth and add more water if needed.
- Seal the tray with aluminium foil or a cover and roast for 1.5-2hrs at 180C, until the cabbage leaves reach a brown gold colour. To achieve this remove the aluminium foil halfway the roasting time, after an hour and add more water if needed.
- When golden remove from the oven and turn off the heat. Dilute the corn flower in the lemons juice and pour over the tray to thicken the sauce. Place the tray in the still wam, though switched off oven, and leave for another 5-10mins.