A hearty and delicious dish, full of flavour!
Greek stuffed vegetables- or Gemista- is an incredibly tasty dish, completely vegetarian and vegan. We use peppers and tomatoes in our recipe, but you can also use courgette and aubergine and the dish comes out as well!
Servings
2Prep time:
20min
Cook time:
60minDifficulty:
Easy- 2 bell peppers
- 2 beefsteak tomatoes
- 1 onion
- 150g rice
- 200g passata
- 3tbsp olive oil
- 3 sprigs of mint
- 1tbsp tomato puree
- 1tbsp ketchup
- 1tbsp dried oregano
- 1/2tbsp fennel seeds
- 1tsp allspice berries (or ground allspice)
- salt and pepper to taste
You can change this recipe based on what vegetables you have in the fridge or just to suit preferences. Peppers, tomatoes, courgettes and aubergines all work equally as well- we have previously made the same dish using one of each of those vegetables and it comes out as tasty.
If you are using courgettes or aubergines, first halve these lengthways, then scoop out most of the flesh in a similar way to tomatoes (set the flesh aside), but make sure there is still some flesh left to hold the vegetables together when stuffed with the rice later on. Blanch these for around 5 minutes, then drain. You can add the flesh that you scooped out into the pan with the onions and continue on with the recipe as per below. These are cooked in the oven uncovered, unlike the peppers/tomatoes that would have their tops on.
We recommend using beefsteak tomatoes in this recipe rather than the standard salad ones-as beefsteak tomatoes have much more flavour and generally tend to be bigger so easier to stuff with the rice.
We’ve slightly shortened the cooking time in the oven by partially cooking the rice on the hob first, but the traditional way is to add the rice uncooked into the mixture with the tomato flesh, onion, mint etc- but note that this then requires cooking of around 90 minutes.
Step by Step Instructions
Step 1
First, slice the tops of the peppers and tomatoes- set these aside as they’ll be used later. You then need to scoop out the flesh inside the tomatoes, and put this flesh into a bowl. Then, remove the seeds from the peppers. Place the tomatoes and peppers into a oven dish and set aside.
Step 2
Next, you need to make the rice filling. Start of by peeling the onion and then grating it, and then finely chopping the mint leaves (remove from the sprig first). Set both aside. If you are using whole allspice berries, you next need to grind these in a pestle and mortar.
Step 4
Heat 2tbsp of olive oil in a pan, then add the grated onion and cook on medium heat for around 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Next, add the flesh from the tomatoes that you set aside previously, the chopped mint, ground allspice, fennel seeds, ketchup and tomato puree. Mix this well, and let cook for another 3-4 minutes.
Step 5
Whilst this is cooking, rinse and drain the rice, then add to the pan and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste, 100ml of water, then stir and cook for a further 5 minutes.
Step 6
Meantime, into a small bowl add the passata and the oregano, and mix well. This will be used as the sauce around the vegetables.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).
Step 7
Once the rice has cooked for around 5 minutes, then fill each of the vegetables with the rice mixture- just make sure there’s space for the tops of the peppers and tomatoes to go on. Pour the passata and oregano sauce around the vegetables, and drizzle over the remaining olive oil.
Step 8
Cook this in the oven for around 45 minutes, then the dish is ready to serve. Enjoy!
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