Mum's Yemista (Greek Stuffed Vegetables With Rice)

katia's Note:

Yemista is a common dish during summer. Its great either warm or cold. You can stuff any vegetables you like, some use to stuff potatoes, large portabellos , bell peppers any colour, grapes leaves and even zucchini's flowers, the last ones are hard to find but they are the best. Also, in the filling some add feta, great!

• Total Time: 2 hrs
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 3 firm and ripe tomatoes
• 3 green peppers
• 2 small eggplants
• 2 medium zucchini
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 potatoes
• 14 tablespoons long grain rice
• 1/2 cup parsley
• 1 1/2 tablespoons dried spearmint (fresh is even better)
• 1 cup water
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
• salt
• pepper

Directions:

1. Cut off tops of tomatoes (retain them) and scoop out the pulp (retaining as well). Cut off tops of peppers and remove seeds (retain tops). Cut lengthwise the eggplants and with a spoon scoop out the pulp retaining as well. Cut the end of zucchini and also scoop out the pulp, retaining.
2. Place the vegetables in a pan packed closely but not squashed.
3. Take the pulp of all the vegetables and process it until pureed. Add in a bowl the rice,the vegetable puree, half of the olive oil, the garlic, the onion, the parsley, the spearmint, the salt and pepper. Mix using a spoon.
4. Stuff all the vegetables and place the tops of tomatoes and peppers.
5. Cut the potatoes to byte pieces and spread them between the vegetables.
6. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs, salt again the vegetables and add the rest of olive oil. Combine 1 cup of water.
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 375°F (180°C) for approx 1.5 hour.
8. If you have leftover filling, add in the pan and put on the top some diced tomato. Its the best! I usually make more filling in order to have many plain rice!

Reviews

[Lakme]

Wonderful flavors and colors! I, of course, added some ground turkey browned with the fennel, and a touch of chicken broth in the cooking water. The mint was fabulous! Thanks.

[mummamills]

I had a terrible time with this recipe, but it still gets 4 stars because it tasted wonderful. Firstly, I couldnt get spearmint ANYWHERE, dried or fresh, so I used fresh mint, it was really too mild, but I corrested that by giving each vegetable a squirt of mint sauce before serving. The main trouble I had was the cooking. I checked a few other yemista recipes, and none of them said to cover the baking dish, so I duly popped it in the oven. After 2 hours the rice was still hard, but the veggies were cooked. I covered the whole thing with alfoil, and gave it abother hour, and finally the rice was soft. While it tasted greatlast night, it was too late for our dinner, so I reheated it for tonite, and the taste was 5 stars!!! Even my husband commented on it, and usually just eats:) So Katia, thank you for a good recipe, a keeper, but in future I will cover the yemista for the first hour, and then turn up the heat a bit to singed the veggies!

[iLuv2cook 2]

First time I tried Yemista w/o meat and we all thought it was a great dish! Light, yet very tasty and satisfying! Baked up perfectly in the oven~ this will be made often! Thanks Chef Katia!