Vegetarian Grape Leaves (يلنجي)

Vegetarian Grape Leaves (يلنجي)

Hello again! I thought I'd share my recipe to my beloved grape leaves today. These are made without meat and I think they're just as delicious (if not even better) than your typical grape leaves stuffed with ground meat! 

Vegetarian Grape Leaves (يلنجي)

Everyone and their mother has their own traditional grape leaves recipe, and here's mine. I love my leaves tangy, which is why I use a whole (6 ounce) can of tomato paste. Adjust to your taste and liking, of course!

YALANJI
Yields: almost 1 full jar of grape leaves

INGREDIENTS:
- 1 jar of grape leaves, stems cut off
- 4 cups of short grain rice, rinsed multiple times and soaked for at least 20 minutes
- 2 onions, chopped super fine
- 5 cloves of garlic, minced super fine
- 1 6 ounce can of tomato paste
- a handful of cherry tomatoes, chopped (roughly 1/4 cup)
- olive oil
- salt
- pepper
- onion powder
- garlic powder
- cumin
- allspice
- dried mint
- 2 heaping tablespoons of pomegranate molasses
- juice of 1 lemon

COOKING LIQUID:
- roughly 5 cups of water
- tablespoon of pomegranate molasses
- tablespoon of olive oil
- salt
- pepper
- squeeze of lemon

TO MAKE:
1. Make sure your rice has been rinsed multiple times so that the water runs clear and has been soaked for at least 20 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, add the drained rice, the tomato paste, the onion, garlic, and cherry tomatoes. Mix well so that the tomato paste is massaged well into each grain of rice. I use my hands (with gloves) for this. 
3. Add a few drizzles of olive oil, all the spices, the lemon juice, and the molasses. I don't ever measure my spices! What I do is just sprinkle each spice over the top of the ingredients, mix well, add some more of each spice, and mix again! You can adjust the spices to your liking!
4. Prep your rolling station. I like to use my counter space and I lay a big cutting board and tray next to my stuffing bowl and grape leaves.
5. Here is a good video that shows how to roll grape leaves. I use about a (heaping) tablespoon of stuffing per each grape leaf; more or less depending on the size of the leaf itself. I like to lay and flatten out my stuffing into the leaf instead of keeping it compacted like in the video.
6. Roll away! As you roll, keep your grape leaves close and compacted together, placed seam side down as you finish rolling.
7. Once you finish, line a pot with any extra grape leaves that didn't make the cut. In addition, line the bottom of your pot with thin slices of potatoes, tomatoes, and onions to cover the entire bottom of the pot.
8. Stack your grape leaves on top of the potatoes/tomatoes in the pot like this:

Grape leaves stacked in the pot.

9. Make sure your grape leaves are stacked super close together so that they don't burst during the cooking process! Of course, you will have some rebels who burst regardless but rolling them super tight and placing them very close in the pot will help prevent that.
10. Once all of the leaves are in the pot, place a heat-safe plate that fits on the top of the leaves. This helps keeps all the leaves secure during the cooking process.
11. Mix all the liquid components together and pour it into the pot, making sure all the leaves are covered in liquid.
12. Cook the leaves, uncovered (meaning with no lid; keep the plate on) on medium-high heat for about 30 minutes until the liquid starts to boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover the pot, and cook for another 2-2.5 hours until the rice is cooked and most of the liquid has been absorbed.
13. Turn off the heat, allow to cool, squeeze some more lemon juice onto the leaves, and enjoy!

Vegetarian Grape Leaves (يلنجي)