Classic Armenian recipe for dolma in grape leaves

Good day everyone!

Today for dinner we decided to prepare an original Caucasian dish - dolma. It is made from minced meat with rice, wrapped in grape leaves. Essentially, these are cabbage rolls, but not from cabbage, but from grapes. The minced meat is also laid out on a sheet and wrapped in an envelope.

This dish can be prepared primarily by those who grow grapes. This plant requires removal of leaves. But often, they are simply thrown away. I did the same until I came across this culinary use for grape leaves. You can find canned ones on sale, they are also suitable for this dish.

We tried to make it, it turned out very tasty, no worse than cabbage rolls. Now we cook often. The whole family really liked it.

Armenian Dolma in grape leaves

What do we need for dolma?

grape leaves – 40 pcs.;
minced beef – 250 g;
rice – 100 g;
butter – 50 g;
onion – 1 head;
tomato paste - 2 tbsp;
cilantro, parsley – 50 g;
dried basil – 1 tbsp;
dried rosemary – 1 tbsp;
ground pepper – 1 tsp;
salt – 1 tsp.

How to cook Armenian dolma in grape leaves

In a bowl, mix ground beef, soft butter, tomato paste, rice and dried herbs. Most often, purple basil and rosemary are added to dolma.
Peel the onion and chop finely. You can, of course, mince it with the meat or grind it in a blender, but chopped onions make the minced meat tastier and do not change its consistency. Finely chop fresh parsley and cilantro.
Add onions and herbs to the minced meat. Season with pepper and salt.
Knead the minced meat with your hands like dough. If it turns out to be very thick, you should add warm water. It may take about 75 ml to make the filling juicy and tender. Let's let the minced meat rest.
For dolma, you can use canned grape leaves from the store. They just need to be rinsed under cold water. However, the dish turns out to be especially tasty and aromatic if prepared from fresh, young grape leaves. They must be washed thoroughly on both sides with warm water.
The leaves should then be immersed in boiling water for 30 seconds to soften them. At the same time, they will change the shade slightly.
Place the leaf on a plate, vein side up. Place 1 spoon of minced meat at the base and give it an oblong shape.
We wrap the workpiece like a pancake or cabbage roll.
You need to try to ensure that the entire dolma is approximately the same size. Place several grape leaves in a wide saucepan with high sides and a thick bottom. Place the bundles on top, trying to pack them tightly.
Press down on top with a plate or lid. Fill with warm water so that it barely covers all the layers.
Cover the pan with a lid and set to cook over medium heat. Once boiling, adjust the heat to maintain a constant low simmer. Cook for 20 minutes.
Readiness is checked by the readiness of the rice. It should boil well. Leave the grape dolma covered for another 15 minutes.

Serve the dish hot with matsoni.

Cooking according to Azerbaijani recipe

Remember the legendary dialogue from the film “Mimino” between an Armenian and an Azerbaijani. “Do you like dolma? No. This is because you don’t know how to cook it.” In these two countries, the right to call dolma their national dish has been disputed for hundreds of years. It is curious that the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan has already appealed to UNESCO with a request to recognize dolma as an intangible heritage of the country. In the meantime, Unesco makes decisions, let's learn the tricks of preparing signature Azerbaijani dolma.

The ideal size of the leaves is the size of a young woman’s palm, and the “fingers” of dolma should be small and neat. A large dolma is a sign of a lazy craftswoman.

Prepare this way:

For the signature recipe you will need a kilogram of veal, rice and tender grapes. They should be thin, young, and even better, picked from the tree in their own sap. In winter, dolma made from pickled grape leaves will go great, but its taste will still be completely different. In Azerbaijan, they prefer fresh leaves to pickled ones.
We grind the veal with fat tail through a meat grinder, add onions, herbs, and pour in warm boiled water (about a glass). The consistency should be slightly liquid, otherwise, Azerbaijanis are sure, the dolma will come out dry.
Cover the minced meat with half a glass of round rice.
We twist the dolma, as in the classic recipe, forming neat “fingers”.
Place them in a pan in dense layers.
Fill with water.
Press down with a plate.
Let the pan boil.
Let it cook for about an hour.
Turn off and let cool.
Place on a flat dish.

Serve dolma with natural yogurt sauce with garlic (you can add a bunch of any chopped herbs), invite guests and enjoy!

Summer Armenian dolma: recipe with photos

Ingredients:

minced beef – 500 g;
rice – 150 g;
onions – 3-4 heads;
tomato – 4 pcs.;
eggplant – 2 pcs.;
bell pepper – 2 pcs.;
grape leaves - 10 pcs.;
cabbage leaves – 5 pcs.
butter – 130 g;
tomato paste – 5 tbsp;
cilantro – 1 bunch;
dried basil and rosemary - 1 tbsp each;
salt – 1 tbsp;
pepper to taste;
sunflower oil – 50 ml.

Cooking process step by step

The quantity of grape and cabbage leaves, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants can be changed. It all depends on which dolma you like best. All vegetables, leaves and herbs should be washed.
It is better to choose lean meat for summer dolma, so that in hot weather it does not cause heaviness in the stomach. Some use a mixture of beef and pork or lamb, and add fat tail fat or lard. However, it should be remembered that such a combination, especially with eggplants and tomatoes, can cause heartburn. Summer dolma is most easily digestible if you prepare it from lean beef with butter.
Add quickly boiling rice to the minced meat.
80 g of soft butter will add juiciness to the minced meat. Finely chop one onion and add it to the filling. Season with dried herbs and pepper.
Chop the rest of the onion as well. Heat a frying pan with a small piece of butter and sunflower oil. Fry the onion.
When it turns golden, add 3 tablespoons of tomato paste. Stirring frequently, simmer for 5 minutes.
Add half of the roast to the minced meat. Finely chop the cilantro and add it to the filling. Salt generously.
Knead the minced meat well with your hands. You can add a few tablespoons of warm water to make the mixture juicier. Let's let the minced meat rest.
Immerse cabbage leaves in boiling water for 5 minutes. After this they will become soft and elastic. We cut off the protruding veins from the leaves. Cut large ones in half.
Scald the grape leaves with boiling water. Cut off the caps of tomatoes and peppers and remove the seeds. Peel the eggplants in strips. Cut into 3-4 pieces crosswise, remove the pulp from one side, forming “cups”. We do not throw away the pulp of tomatoes and eggplants.
Fill all the vegetables with minced meat - compact it well into the cavity of the “cups”. Cover the tomatoes and peppers with cut caps.
Wrap the minced meat in cabbage leaves.
Read also: How to properly cook vegetable cutlets. Vegetable cutlets: simple and delicious recipes with photos
Place the grape leaf on a plate with the veins facing up. Cut off the tip of the cutting if it is long. Wrap the minced meat tightly in a leaf.
Choose a large saucepan with a thick bottom. You can use a cauldron with high sides. Place 1-2 cabbage leaves on the bottom, pour in the pulp of tomatoes and blueberries. Lay all the vegetables in dense layers. We coat each layer with onion frying.
Fill the pan two-thirds full. The gaps between the vegetables can be filled with slices of fresh quince. It will give summer dolma a special aromatic shade. Pour 100 ml of warm water into the pan. Place over medium heat and cover tightly with a lid. After 10 minutes, when the contents of the pan are warmed up, the vegetables will release juice. They should be pressed down with an inverted plate and continue to simmer in their own juice over very low heat. The readiness of Etchmiadzin-style dolma can be checked by the readiness of the rice in the filling. On average it will take 45-60 minutes after boiling.

Summer dolma should be served hot, along with the juice formed during stewing. In Armenia, the most popular sauce for any dolma is matsoni with dill or garlic. They pour it over the dish, already laid out on plates.

Recipe author: Gayane

As you can see, you will have to work hard. But the result will be a real homemade dolma. Happy debut!

Classic Armenian recipe: dolma in grape leaves

There are many delicious and varied recipes in Armenian cuisine!

Contents: 1. Classic recipe for preparing dolma in grape leaves. 2. Technology for preparing summer Armenian dolma. 3. Useful recommendations. Classic recipe for preparing dolma in grape leaves

To prepare a traditional dish of Armenia you will need the following products:

45 grape leaves;

100 g walnuts;

3 onions;

a couple of pinches of pepper, turmeric and sage;

Armenian dolma

Dolma or tolma is a dish that can be found in the cuisine of different countries. In general, dolma is vegetable leaves or vegetables themselves, stuffed with some kind of filling. Typically, rice is used as a filling, often mixed with minced meat or vegetables.

This post provides a recipe for Armenian dolma . The main and fundamental difference from Azerbaijani dolma is that in this recipe either tomato paste or very ripe ground tomatoes are added to the filling.

There are a lot of photographs and words, but cooking is much easier than talking about how to do it.

To prepare Armenian dolma you will need

Chopped meat. Usually mixed. 400 gr.
Rice. Round grain. 1 glass.
Onion. 3 pcs. Average.
Tomato paste. 2 tablespoons.
Dried basil. 1 teaspoon.
Cilantro. Fresh or dried. 1 tsp dry or 5-7 sprigs fresh.
Parsley. Fresh or dried. 1 tsp dry or 5-7 sprigs fresh.
Grape leaves. Fresh or canned. 40-50 pcs, depending on size.
Salt. Taste.
Ground black pepper. Taste.

Cooking dolma in Armenian

The first step is to prepare the grape leaves, whether they are fresh or canned.

Boil a large pot of water and add grape leaves to the boiling water. Bring to a boil again and turn off the heat. Leave the leaves in the cooling boiling water for 10-15 minutes, then use a slotted spoon to remove the leaves from the water and place them in a colander to drain.

At the same time, let the rice boil until half cooked. We also place the half-cooked rice in a colander and let the water drain.

Very finely chop half the onion.

Chop the second half of the onion a little larger.

Pour a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil into a large frying pan and add a small piece of butter. Vegetable oil will prevent the butter from burning.

When all the butter has melted, put the part of the onion that we chopped larger into the frying pan.

Add a little salt and pepper, and also add all the dry herbs to the onion.

Mix everything again and cook the onion over medium heat until very light golden.

Then add tomato paste to the onion. If you use ground tomatoes, then you need to grate them and drain the excess liquid through a sieve. Add the grated and strained pulp to the onion and fry until the moisture evaporates.

Prepare dolma in grape leaves at home in Armenian style, you won’t regret it

A dish called Dolma or Tolma is part of the traditional cuisine of many countries. Each nationality prepares dolma in slightly different ways, but the principle is general.

Vegetables are stuffed with a mixture of rice, minced meat and various additives. Sometimes they make one filling and wrap it in leaves.

From the article you will learn how to prepare Armenian dolma, Lenten Pasuts dolma, tips and photos are also provided.

With lamb and mint

In the Caucasus, there are families who prepare dolma exclusively from lamb, and mint leaves, without stems, are always added as a seasoning. Mint and lamb go together amazingly! This dolma turns out spicy, tender and very aromatic. The main thing is not to overdo it with mint, because, as an active spice, it can overwhelm the taste of lamb.

Dolma will become even tastier the next day, when the grape leaves and meat juices share their aromas with each other.

To prepare, you can take any recipe you like above. Grind the lamb through a meat grinder, add onions, herbs, a bunch of mint leaves, season with salt, pepper and add a little rice. Knead the minced meat and make dolminki. Cook according to the instructions of the classic recipe, pressing with light pressure.

Serve with white sauce, warm flatbreads and aromatic herbal tea.

Description of the dish

Stuffed cabbage rolls, tomatoes filled with meat, vegetable or rice mixture, stuffed peppers popular among Russians, stuffed zucchini or eggplant - all of these can be called varieties of dolma .
The biggest difference from the classic or Azerbaijani method of preparation will be that in the dish below, either ripe tomatoes or good tomato paste are used for the filling.

Do not assume that for dolma it is necessary to use grape leaves , which are used to wrap the filling.

The Armenian language did not originally have the word "dolma", however, it was taken from the Azerbaijani lexicon to denote a dish where the filling is wrapped in leaves.

In our time, other versions of dolma have come into the Armenian cuisine, which were adopted from neighboring Turkic peoples.

Since the appearance of the dish, dolma has been the name given to recipes where minced meat was wrapped in leaves , or when pumpkins, eggplants, cucumbers and peppers were filled with minced meat.

In Armenia, to this day, any stuffed vegetable will be called dolma. In Turkey, dolma turns into sarma - this is meat that will be wrapped in grape leaves. Sarma translates to "wrapped".

But if a tomato, pepper or eggplant is filled with meat filling, then it will be dolma, from the word Dolma - filled.

You may notice that “dolma” and “salma” sound very similar and are similar in meaning.

Below we will offer readers an Armenian recipe for preparing dolma.

With matsoni sauce

Semi-finished dolma is a very convenient preparation for any celebration. It is quite possible to make it a few days before the expected holiday, freeze it in the refrigerator and cook it without defrosting. The taste will not be lost. And the favorite fermented milk product of all mountain peoples – matsoni – will help highlight the dish.

Matsoni is a type of yogurt, but slightly less sour. It is thick in itself and you just need to add some salt, garlic and herbs to make the taste rich. This white sauce is also low in calories, so eat it without fear of extra pounds.

Dolma seems like a troublesome dish. But only at first glance. In the Caucasus, whole families enjoy it, just like dumplings in Russia, and the cooking process turns into an interesting event. They prepare dolma with joy, drink new wine, and then everyone eats it together, enjoying the taste of dolma and communication. Try cooking dolma - you will discover a new hobby and a wonderful sociable dish.

Options for preparing dolma in grape leaves in Armenian with photos

Classical

To prepare classic Armenian dolma in grape leaves, you can use both fresh leaves and canned ones . Since this is far from the most popular product, you can use those that you can get.

The quantities in the recipe below make eight servings.

Nutritional value per hundred grams of the dish is 113 kcal. Proteins – 13 grams. Fats – 5.5 grams. Carbohydrates – 4.2 grams. Dietary fiber – 1 gram.

Required Products:

grape leaves - about 50-60 pieces;
minced meat – 0.5 kg;
rice - 130 grams;
coriander and paprika - 1 teaspoon each;
garlic - 4 cloves for dolma and 3 for dolma sauce;
onion - 2 pieces;
matsoni – 400 grams;
cinnamon - on the tip of a teaspoon.

How to cook Armenian dolma:

Wash the grape leaves thoroughly under cold water and carefully place them, one at a time, in a pan of salted boiling water.
Boil them for about four minutes, pour out the water and place the leaves in a bowl filled with cold water.
Pour boiling water over the rice and place it in the same bowl as the minced meat.
Grind the onion and 4 garlic cloves in a meat grinder. Mix them thoroughly with minced meat and rice.
Add a pinch of coriander, salt and paprika to the mixture and stir.
Take a leaf, place it on the board and place some filling in the center.
Read also: Chickpea cutlets - 8 simple and delicious recipes
Wrap the filling in an “envelope” of grape leaf. Tighten it properly so that it doesn't fall apart.
Place each finished “envelope” into a large saucepan with thick walls. Compact the layers of dolma tightly.
After everything is laid out, place a weight on top of the dolma, for example, a large heavy plate or lid.
Pour boiling water and salt into the pan, but make sure that the layer of liquid is not higher than the plate.
Simmer the dolma over low heat for about 40 minutes.
While the food is cooking, take the garlic, crush it in a press and add it to the matsun, not forgetting to add a pinch of korza. This will be the sauce for dolma.

How to prepare shawarma sauce, read the article; Find out how to properly wrap shawarma here.

Watch the preparation of Armenian dolma in the video:

In a slow cooker

A multicooker makes life easier for any housewife, reducing cooking time significantly. Dolma is no exception. Prepare dolma according to any recipe, place it in dense layers on the bottom of the multibowl, fill it with water, and start the “cooking” mode.

Why press the dolma? This way, our dolminki will not fall apart during cooking, and there will be no need to skim the foam from the broth.

If you don’t want the leaves to “unravel” during the process and the dolma to lose its shape, do it simply - cook it with the lid open, placing a light pressure plate on top with a diameter slightly smaller than the bowl. Usually it takes 30 minutes to cook in a multicooker, and what’s nice is that you can safely go about your business - the smart device itself will notify you when the cooking process is complete.

Advice from experienced housewives

It is best to take young grape leaves. The leaves can be salted or pickled. It is best to take light and small leaves - these are the youngest, which will be softer and more fragrant.
If you took the pickled or salted version, then rinse the leaves and then soak them in boiling water. Fresh ones can simply be immersed in boiling water for five minutes.
A good dolma is a spicy dolma, so don’t skimp on lilac basil (regan) and other spices. You can add cumin, peppercorns and basil.
You can surprise your guests by putting a pea of boiled chickpeas in the packaging of each dolma.
The readiness of the rice indicates the readiness of the dolma. As soon as it is cooked, the food is ready.
If you use minced lamb, then the dish must be served hot so that the food does not lose its taste and does not become covered with a layer of congealed fat.

Recipes for gourmets: lula kebab on skewers, shawarma salad, pureed cheese soup with chicken.