In this post, I present the recipe of a very nice Mediterranean dish, i.e. stuffed vegetables (محشي). You can stuff lots of vegetables as long as you can take the core out and replace it with rice and other fillings. There are lots of vegetables that can be stuffed, e.g. pepper, eggplant, courgette, potato and tomato.
The filling is made up of rice, chopped tomatoes, chopped parsley, chopped dill, chopped onions, salt, ground black pepper, and oil. You can add minced meat to the ingredients if desired. It needs to be fried slightly with chopped onions before adding. Since I do not do proper ingredients, I adapted the ingredients of the filling below.
Filling:
2 1/2 cups rice, washed, soaked in water for 30 minutes and drained
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1/2 cup fresh dill, chopped
1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped
4 garlic cloves, grated (or crushed)
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
50 grams (3 tablespoons) tomato paste
For sauce:
50 grams of tomato paste diluted in 2 1/2 cups of water, or more as needed.
Vegetables that can be stuffed:
Zucchini
Onions
Peppers
Eggplant
Filling:
In a big bowl combine all the ingredients for the filling and mix well.
Stuffing the vegetables:
Core the vegetables such as eggplant and zucchini.
Stuff the vegetables 3/4 full to allow for rice to expand.
Prepare a wide pot:
Coat a wide pot with a thin layer of oil and cover the bottom with sliced vegetables or the core of the vegetables used for stuffing. This helps to keep the bottom layer from burning or sticking if cooked too long.
Add the vegetables to prepared pot and cover with sauce. The sauce should barely cover the vegetables. Lay a heavy plate on top of the vegetables, pushing down to remove air bubbles and to keep them from moving and opening during cooking. Make sure there is enough sauce to barely cover the vegetables once the plate has been pushed down. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook for about 1 hour. Remove from heat and leave covered for an additional 15 minutes.
Adapted from:
http://www.sarahmelamed.com/2010/02/middle-eastern-stuffed-vegetables/
