Ever wondered how my yiayia makes her incredible Dolmades?
WELL. You wouldn't BELIEVE how many tries it took for yiayia to SLOW DOWN and actually take me step by step on how to make the perfect dolmades 🤣 (like probably about 15 hours of my life that I'll never get back) BUT ITS OKAY. BECAUSE, WE GOT THERE!
Here is her recipe on how to get the PERFECT Dolmades!
Yiayia's Dolmades
Ingredients:
1 Bunch silver beet OR large Spinach leaves
1/4 cup dill - chopped
1 cup parsley - chopped
1 large onion - finely diced
3 large garlic cloves - crushed
8 Tbsp. Lemon Juice (more if you like!)
1 cup basmati rice, uncooked and washed
2 1/2 Cups of water
Salt & pepper to Taste
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 180degrees Celsius
- Saute dill, parsley, onion and garlic until soft. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Add 3 tbsp. lemon juice, 1 1/2 cups of water and rice. Leave to simmer until liquid is almost gone.
- Take the pot off heat.
- Cut the stems off the silver beet. Make sure you cut a triangle shape upwards - If you leave the stem, they become SUPER hard to roll!
- Place leaves into a bowl and pour hot water over the top. These only need to stay for around 30 seconds. Work quickly, and take out the leaves one by one and hang them over the side of the bowl.
- Leave 5-10 smaller leaves (those maybe that are ripped or are harder to roll) and save them to place at the bottom of the dish. Dip these leaves in the hot water and fan these leaves out at the bottom of the dish.
- Using the hanging leaves, ensure to start from the BOTTOM to the top (big to small) and the underneath of the leaf needs to be facing you.
- Using a small spoon, grab a couple teaspoons of the rice mixture and place at the bottom of the leaf.
- Start to roll, as tightly as possible. roll in both sides and continue rolling until you reach the end of the leaf.
- Continue to use each leaf until all the rice has been used. You'll have some left over leaves but you'll need these!
- Stack the dolmades into the oven safe container super tightly next to each-other. Stack on-top if needed!
- Into a small mixing bowl, add 3/4 cup of water, 5 tbsp of lemon juice, 1 Tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of pepper and 1 Tbsp of olive oil. Mix together.
- Any remaining leaves, place over the top of the dolmades (just as you did at the bottom)
- Pour the lemon mixture over the dolmades and (this is optional) place a oven safe plate over the top, to press the dolmades down. Place into the oven for 45 minutes.
- Turn oven off and LEAVE the tray in the oven to cool down (around an hour).
- Take them out and place into a plate and EAT!
I love love LOVE them cold, but my family likes them warm. In Greece they serve them with tzatziki, which is extra delicious! However you eat them, I hope you love them as much as we do!!
Love, Leah x
