Iraqi cuisine
Iraqi dolma
دولمة
Vine leaves and vegetables stuffed with spiced rice and meat, layered in one pot and cooked under a weight.
- Prep
- 75 min
- Cook
- 75 min
- Total
- 150 min
- Difficulty
- Takes practice
Ingredients
- Vine leaves300 g
- Short-grain rice400 g
- Lamb — minced400 g
- Bell peppers4
- Large onions3
- Aubergines3
- Tomatoes4
- Tomato paste3 tbsp
- Pomegranate molasses3 tbsp
- Lemon2
- Parsley40 g
- Baharat1 tbsp
- Vegetable oil100 ml
- Salt and pepperto taste
Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.
Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.
Method
- 1
Rinse the rice and mix it with the mince, chopped parsley, tomato paste, baharat, oil, salt and pepper.
15 min
- 2
Cut lids off the peppers and tomatoes and hollow them. Blanch the onions whole and separate them into layers.
25 min
- 3
Roll the filling in vine leaves into tight cylinders — the rice doubles, so leave it room.
30 min
- 4
Fill the vegetables two-thirds full and put their lids back on.
15 min
- 5
Line the pot with tomato slices, then layer the parcels and stuffed vegetables, the heaviest at the bottom.
12 min
- 6
Mix water with the pomegranate molasses, lemon juice and salt and pour it in until it reaches the top layer.
5 min
- 7
Cover with a weighted plate and cook on a low heat for an hour and fifteen minutes. Serve by inverting the pot onto a platter.
78 min
About the dish
Iraqi dolma differs from the Turkish kind in that leaves, peppers, onions, aubergines and tomatoes all go into one pot. The vegetables give their juice to each other, which is the whole point of the layers.
The sourness comes from pomegranate molasses and lemon rather than vinegar. They go into the cooking water and soak the filling from the bottom up.
The pot is covered with a plate and a weight. Without it the parcels on top unroll and the rice ends up in the broth.
Worth knowing
- — Preserved leaves are soaked for half an hour in cold water, or the dolma comes out salty throughout.
- — The liquid should reach the top layer without covering it. Fully submerged, dolma boils instead of steaming.
- — The flesh scooped from the peppers and tomatoes is not wasted: it goes on the bottom with the tomato slices.
Nutrition
Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.
- Calories
- 520 kcal
- Protein
- 20 g
- Fat
- 22 g
- Carbs
- 62 g
More from Iraq
- Masgouf — River fish butterflied and cooked standing beside an open fire. A Baghdad dish from the banks of the Tigris.