Persian Recipes

There are many different vegetables you can use to create Dolmeh’s. One of my favorites is Dolmeh Felfel (stuffed bell peppers)! I used green, red, and yellow bell peppers to mix up the flavors a bit and bring some color to my plate

Ingredients (for 6-8 Felfel Dolmehee (Bell Peppers)):
approx. 1 lb (500 grams) ground beef

Dolmeh Felfel

approx. 350-500 grams Sabzi for Dolmeh — Mint, Parsley, Tareh (if available otherwise use more green onions), Green onions, and Tarragon —- amount of sabzi used not to exceed amount of meat, but can be less if you desire
1 cup rice
1 small onion
salt/pepper
turmeric
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Lemon juice –desired amount
1 tablespoon sugar (if desired)

Directions:
Heat up some oil in a frying pan or small pot. Chop up the onions and add to the pan. Add the ground beef to the pan as well, then add turmeric, salt, pepper, and stir the contents until the water from the meat is mostly evaporated/withdrawn. Mix the tomato paste with 1 cup water and add to the meat. Let the meat cook on medium-low heat until most of the water is fully evaporated. Note: you can choose to keep some of the meat stock to use when cooking the Dolmeh’s.

You want to clean and wash all the sabzi and then finely chop them up. I used a food processor to chop up my sabzi, it makes the job a lot easier. In a frying pan add about 2 tablespoons oil and fry the sabzi (greens) within the pan for a few minutes.

Remove the meat from the burner and add the sabzi (after you have fried it) to the meat and mix the contents together.

In a small pot heat up some water and pour in the rice and add some salt. Allow the rice to boil and then use a strainer to empty the contents and drain the water. Add the rice to the meat and sabzi mixture and mix well. At this point you can add the lemon juice and if you choose the sugar as well. If you feel the mixture doesn’t have enough tomato paste you can add a bit more (it depends on how much tomato paste you desire). Also, if the mixture needs more salt and/or pepper now would be the time to add it. Set the mixture aside.

Felfel Dolmeyi Stuffed

Stuffed dolmeh Cooking

To prepare the bell peppers you will need to cut out the top in a circular shape. After cutting out the top empty out the contents inside and remove all the seeds (as best as you can) from the inside and then rinse the bell peppers. In a pot (that can fit all the bell peppers) place all the bell peppers inside and add some water and salt. Allow them to cook for awhile until they are soft. Once they are ready and a bit tender you can take them out.

Stuff each of the bell peppers with the mixture and then place the bell pepper top (the one you cut out earlier) on top. Place all the bell peppers into a pot (or the same one after you empty out the water it had in it) and pour in some water, meat stock, or a combination of the two (especially if you didnt save a lot of meat stock). Allow the Dolmeh’s to cook for 20-30 minutes on medium heat.

Enjoy