Dolma means “filled, stuffed in Turkish and comes from the verb “doldurmak” -to stuff. In Turkey we stuff any vegetable we can find. We make and eat both vegan and meat version. Meat version is consumed like stew and served hot and with yoghurt. Vegan version is served at room temperature or cold. Spices or herbs we use might be different depending on the vegetable we use. For bell peppers parsley might be a good choice but for zucchini dolmas dill might be a better option.
Turkish Dolma- Stuffed Bell Peppers with Meat
4 big bell peppers or 8 medium size peppers
Meat Stuffing
250 gr. ground beef
1/4 cups rice rinse in hot water several times and drained
1 medium yellow onion finely chopped
1/4 cups parsley finely chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons water
salt
pepper optional
Sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon tomato paste
salt
Instructions
Cut off tops of the peppers but do not throw them away. We are going to use them later.
Mix all the stuffing ingredients.
Fill peppers with the mixed stuffing and put the caps back on
In order to make the cooking sauce. Mix tomato paste with water, tomato paste should be dissolved in the water. Pour some of the water over top of the peppers, add rest to the bottom of the cookware.
Cook it until rice is cooked through