Stuffed vine leaves (dolmadakia) is a traditional and much loved appetizer in Greece.The leaves are usually stuffed with herbs and white rice and some recipes use meat as well. I have never tried the meat version, but the only dolmadakia I ever like was the ones that use very little rice and a lot of herbs and lemon juice. I decided to make my recipe with quinoa instead of rice to make it more nutrient dense and protein rich! So if you are serving any vegans, make this quinoa version of dolmadakia!
-1 jar (500gr) wine leaves
-250 gr uncooked quinoa
-1 bunch dill
-3/4 of a spearmint bunch
-1/2 a bunch parsley
-1 small bunch fennel
-6 spring onions
-1 spring garlic
-salt&pepper to taste
-1/3 cup olive oil
-3/4 cup lemon juice
Wash and chop all the herbs finely. Chop up the onions and garlic as well. Mix all the herbs in a bowl and add the quinoa, lemon juice and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and toss to mix well. Open the jar with the grape leaves and wash them well under running cold water.
Separate the leaves and set aside the leaves that are torn.
Take one grape leaf and lay it on your working surface with the stem pointing towards you. Place a teaspoon or two of the filling in the middle of the leaf and fold the bottom and the sides over the filling, like an envelope, then tightly roll it and place it with the seam down. Continue like this until you use up all the filling.
Tip : Do not over stuff the leaves, as quinoa expands a lot while cooking!
To cook the stuffed leaves, place some of the torn unused leaves on the bottom of a pot, to protect your dolmadakia from burning during cooking. Now arrange all the dolmadakia in the pot with the seam facing down. Make sure that you have them tightly packed next to each other so that they won’t unfold during cooking. Pour in some water to cover the dolmadakia, around 2 cups. Drizzle with some olive oil and place a plate on top-this will stop any movement from the boiling water to ruin the stuffed leaves. Cook on medium-low heat for 20-30 minutes or until the water is all gone and they are cooked through!
Serve warm or cold with lemon and some strained soy yogurt (optional but recommended!)
gosh, i just LOVE grape leaves, what a fun spin on the traditional kind! thanks
I love stuffed grape leaves – they sound delicious with quinoa!
Lovely variation with the quinoa! They look beautiful, too.
Those look amazing! When you put the plate on top to prevent movement, do you actually put it in the pot and let it rest on top of the dolma?
Thank you! Yes exactly, so you have to put one that can fit IN the pot-I know it sounds weird but it’s actually a really easy and simple method!
Deeply grateful for such an inspiring touch of raw-foodism cuisine of yours, Nina!
Got me caught up all night, literally glued to pics and exquisite combination of ingredients!
Trully artistic!
Greetings and indeed gratitude from a moldovan first-steps taking into raw-world girl to a greek imagination-rich girl !
Well, actually veganism is what you sport, but plenty of raw recipes make it a good path to one seeking raw-foodism…
And so thanks once more for absolutely lovely and generous mix up of edible cooking-ideas!
Thank you so much for reading my blog! I am grateful that you found what you are looking for
-take care.
What a brillint idea to use quinoa instead – it instantly elevates the dolmadakia to a high nutrient dense dish – love it!!!!
with quinoa what a great idea!!tasty!!
sweetlife
Hi, just found this here when i did an fast yahoo search. Nice blog you got here! Keep it up!
This looks delicious! However, the 6th ingredient down has got be stumped.
Thanks, I just fixed it