What is Dolma?
Stuffed peppers with minced meat (dolma) is one of the Turkish dishes I missed and cooked the most since I moved to Switzerland. And a bowl of yogurt next to it, yummyyy! The recipe for stuffed peppers with minced meat is really easy, but of course, there are little tricks to make it delicious like our mothers do.
This dish, which is one of the classics of Turkish cuisine, is a dish not only unique to us Turks, but also to Balkan, South Caucasus, Central Asian, Mediterranean, Aegean and Middle Eastern cuisines. It is a type of food in which vegetables are filled with ingredients such as rice, meat and pine nuts.
The word “dolma” comes from the verb “dolmak” (to fill) in Turkish. The sources show that the first dolma was made in the Ottoman palace kitchen, but before the Ottoman Empire, there were also recipes for stuffed vegetables, especially eggplant, in Arabic books.
Ingredients for Turkish Style Stuffed Peppers With Minced Meat Recipe
- 12-13 medium bell peppers
- 250 grams of minced beef
- 2 onions
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 glass of rice
- 2 tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- Olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon of black pepper
- 1 teaspoon of dry mint
- Half a teaspoon of black pepper
- Half a teaspoon of allspice
- Half a teaspoon of sugar
- A few sprigs of parsley
How to Make Turkish Style Stuffed Peppers with Minced Meat?
- Dice the onions. Crush the garlic.
- Grate the tomatoes and put them in a bowl with onion and garlic.
- Wash the rice, strain and add to the bowl.
- Add the minced meat, a spoon of tomato paste, spices, finely chopped parsley and a spoon of olive oil into the bowl and mix well.
- Cut the peppers from the stems and rinse the inside of the peppers. Do not throw away the stems because we will reuse them to cover the dolmas.
- Start filling the peppers with the mixture you have prepared. Since the rice will swell after cooking, do not fill the peppers completely. Leave at least 1-1.5 cm space left.
- Cover the stuffed peppers with the stems you cut earlier.
- If you don’t want to use the stems, you can also cover the peppers with sliced tomatoes instead.
- Place the peppers vertically next to each other in the pot.
- Add a spoon of tomato paste, a spoon of olive oil and some salt into a glass of hot water and mix well.
- Pour the tomato paste water you have prepared into the pot. Make sure no water gets on the peppers, pour the water into the bottom of the pot.
- Cover the pot and let it cook for about half an hour.
How to Serve Turkish Style Stuffed Peppers with Minced Pepper?
- You can serve the stuffed peppers with yoghurt next to it. (natural yoghurt)
Turkish Style Stuffed Peppers with Minced Meat Recipe Tips
- After washing the peppers, you can rub them with salt. (inner part)
- Do not fill the peppers completely, so that the cooked rice does not gush out of the stuffed peppers.
Do you want to know more about the other Turkish food? Then have a look at here: Turkish Food
You can also browse here for different recipes and information from the world cuisine!
Enjoy!
