Real Recipes From Real Home Cooks ®

stuffed grapeleaves

(2 ratings)
Recipe by
Muna Escobar
Knoxville, TN

"Mashi" is what we called this dish growing up. It is another wonderful dish that my grandmother "Teta" usually served on Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter. This is a very time consuming dish but well worth it, especially on special occasions. I hope you like it.

(2 ratings)
yield 6 -8
prep time 1 Hr
cook time 1 Hr

Ingredients For stuffed grapeleaves

  • 1 jar
    grapeleaves
  • 1 lb
    lamb or beef soup bones
  • 8 oz
    tomato sauce
  • lemon juice to taste
  • STUFFING
  • 1-1 1/2 c
    chili ground lamb meat
  • 1 cup c
    parboiled rice
  • 3 tsp
    salt
  • 1/2 tsp
    pepper
  • 1/2 tsp
    allspice
  • 1/4 tsp
    ground cinnamon, (optional)
  • 2 Tbsp
    butter

How To Make stuffed grapeleaves

  • 1
    Combine all stuffing ingredients.
  • 2
    If meat is very lean add 1 tbsp of melted butter to mixture.
  • 3
    Remove leaves from jar, rinse & drain.
  • 4
    Remove the stem carefully by snipping with fingers or kitchen scissors.
  • 5
    Put one leaf in front of you. The stem side towards you and the veins should be facing up. The three points should be facing away from you.
  • 6
    Place 1-2 tsp stuffing into the center of leaf.
  • 7
    Fold up the bottom over stuffing, then fold the two sides over the first fold.
  • 8
    Roll tightly. The rolls should be about 3" long.
  • 9
    This is very important because if they are not rolled tightly enough they will come apart during cooking.
  • 10
    Continue this until all grape leaves are used.
  • 11
    At this point if you have leftover stuffing after rolling all the leaves you can stuff a green pepper, tomato or yellow squash. Wrap the stuffed vegetable in foil.
  • 12
    Place bones in bottom of a soup pot.
  • 13
    Place rolls side by side and in layers over the bones.
  • 14
    At this point you would add any additional stuffed vegetable wrapped in foil to the top of the rolls.
  • 15
    Cover with tomato sauce, then cover with water & sprinkle with some salt.
  • 16
    Cover with something that is going to push them down. Like a smaller lid with something heavy on top of it to push down the rolls. You want the leaves to stay packed and submerged in the liquid.
  • 17
    Lower the heat & simmer for about 45 minutes or until the rice is tender.
  • 18
    Add some lemon juice to taste & cook 10 more minutes.
  • 19
    To serve, drain the liquid first. While hot turn the pan upside down onto a serving platter.

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