Grape Leaves Recipe
Equipment
- Large heavy bottom pot
- Sharp knife
- Measuring cup
- Measuring Spoons
- Large mixing bowl
- Large cookie sheet or large cutting board
- Colander
- Small ceramic plate that can fit
- inside the pot you’re using
- Tongs
- fine sieve
- Clean dish towel
Ingredients
- 1 Jar of canned grape leaves
- 2 cups of uncooked long-grain rice
- 1 pound ground beef
- 4 small gluten free chicken bouillon cubes
- 3 ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- ¼ cup Extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 to 2 large tomatoes
- 4 - 5 cups chicken broth
- 1 bay leaf
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- 2 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Start by draining the grape leaves in a colander.
- Meanwhile, to make the stuffing, rinse the 2 cups of rice in cold water. Drain using a fine sieve. Repeat this process twice.
- Place drained rice in a large mixing bowl. Add 1 pound ground beef, 2 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 tablespoon dried parsley, and the ¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil.
- Crumble 4 small chicken bouillon cubes over the stuffing mixture. Mix all the stuffing mixture by hand until everything is well combined.
- Canned grape leaves usually come rolled in bundles, so before you begin, you will need to unroll a bundle. Take one grape leaf and lay it flat vein side up. Leaf base should be closest to you, and pointy side facing away from you. Do this on a cookie sheet, a cutting board, or even a clean countertop. If the leaf has a long stem. You can chop that off using a sharp knife or pinch it off with your fingernails.
- This is a messy job. If you don’t like touching meat with your hands, you may want to wear disposable cooking gloves. Take some stuffing in your fingers. Lay it out on the leaf along the broad base side. Shape the stuffing slightly to form a log leaving ¼ inch seam allowance on each side of the log.
- Fold the seam allowance over the stuffing on both sides.
- Fold the bottom of the base toward the stuffing.
- Begin rolling the leaf gently, not too firm (otherwise it would burst after it cooks) toward the pointy side.
- Repeat steps 6 to 9 until all stuffing is used up or until all grape leaves are used up.
- Slice the tomato thinly into circles. Layout the tomato circles into one layer onto the bottom of a heavy pot.
- Layout the grape leaves over the tomatoes, seam side down, Close together, one layer at a time.
- Cover stuffed grape leaves with chicken broth making sure the broth is about an inch above the grape leaves. Sprinkle the cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and the 1 ½ tsp of salt over the grape leaves. Add the bay leaf over the grape leaves. Cover with the plate. Place the pot over a burner and turn onto high heat. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Mix the 2 tablespoons of lemon juice with ½ cup of boiling chicken broth. Carefully remove the plate that is covering the grape leaves using tongs and a clean dish towel and carefully place it into the sink.
- Poor the lemon juice mixture over the grape leaves, and let everything sit on low heat for 10 more minutes. Remove from heat, and enjoy!
Video
Notes
You can layout several grape leaves on a cookie sheet, put the stuffing on them, and then roll them all out one after the other. I found that this technique saves me a lot of time.