How to cook dolma in grape leaves in a slow cooker according to a step-by-step recipe with photos

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Dolma is one of the unique dishes, which contains meat filling, vegetables wrapped in leaves (mostly grapes and cabbage, in some regions there may be horse sorrel), reminiscent of our cabbage rolls, only in different types of leaves.

The filling consists not only of minced meat and boiled rice, it is also made of vegetables.

Different cuisines around the world have their own cooking recipes. The distribution of the dish is known in the territories of the peoples of Transcaucasia, Western and Central Asia, on the Balkan Peninsula, as well as in North Africa. The origin of the dish is unknown, but Greeks, Turks and Armenians attribute it to themselves.

Dolma is mentioned among dishes during the Ottoman Empire, but there is no evidence that the dish was prepared in earlier Persian or Arabic sources.

There are several versions of origin: Armenian, Azerbaijani, etc. The composition also varies depending on the people, but the basics remain the same.

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The outer shell is leaves (grape, horse sorrel, cabbage) or vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, quinces, onions, apples). The leaves give not only the shape, but also the taste itself. Therefore, a lot depends on the choice of leaves.

The filling is minced meat, rice or cereal. Additives can be nuts, onions, olive oil, seasonings, lemon juice, vegetables.

To prepare the gravy, we first need to boil the meat filling with seasonings. The taste of the dish depends on what seasonings we add; according to tradition, the taste should be sour or sweet and sour.

Today we will talk about how to cook dolma in a slow cooker without spending a lot of time and effort.

How to choose ingredients for delicious dolma?

The basis of the dish is grape leaves. White grape leaves are best suited, since of all varieties they are the softest and most pliable, and the easiest to form into an envelope.

If you don’t have such leaves at hand, it doesn’t matter. Experienced housewives recommend using leaves of any variety, the main thing is to choose the youngest leaves. You can use special pickled leaves; they will also be much softer than even the freshest and youngest leaves. They can be prepared for the winter, like any other canned food. Another option for storing leaves is freezing.

If there are neither pickled nor fresh young leaves, take any and pour boiling water over them. Leave to cool, and after half an hour, cut off all the hard cuttings and veins. In this way, you can achieve the necessary softness, which will allow you to easily roll the cabbage rolls.

How to submit?

If we take into account the aesthetic aspect, then sour cream or any white sauce looks beautiful with this dish . You can make this sauce yourself. An example is a mixture of purchased yogurt with finely chopped garlic mixed with herbs. It is worth noting that dolma is a hearty dish and does not require any side dish. When serving dolma, you can serve dry red wine.

Your favorite Turkish pastries are now in your home: pizza pide, gozleme, lahmacun, burek, etc.

How to cook dolma in a slow cooker: basic rules

Dolma is a meat dish; vegetable filling is not suitable for it. However, you can deviate from the canons and take chicken, beef or pork instead of lamb. In addition to meat, rice, vegetables and spices are added to the filling.

In a slow cooker, dolma is cooked in stewing mode. After the envelopes are folded and placed in a bowl, they are poured with sauce or broth. The sauce is made from sour cream, tomatoes or other vegetables. It is better to heat the broth or sauce to a boil, add salt, add seasonings and fresh herbs, and then put it in the slow cooker.

How to form envelopes from grape leaves

Take fresh or pickled leaves. If necessary, remove hard cuttings and veins. Place the leaf on the table, place the minced meat prepared in advance in the form of a strip at the base of the leaf. Wrap the edges of the leaf, and then simply roll the leaf with minced meat into a tube. Such packages should be carefully laid with the seam down so that they do not unravel.

The size of the envelopes can be different, it all depends on the size of the leaves, as well as the preferences of the housewife. Small cabbage rolls look neat, and are also easy to fit into the mouth, that is, they do not need to be cut or broken, so they retain all the juice and aroma, which the taste buds will perceive with a bang.

Cooking features

As is commonly believed, this dish is prepared in a high saucepan , but it turns out that a multicooker also copes with this task quite well. Dolma in its present form is prepared from grape leaves treated with boiling water. The filling consists of lamb meat treated with a mixture of spices.

Variants of this recipe are cabbage rolls for vegetarians according to the Greek recipe, as well as fish filling in the Azerbaijani version.

Dolma in grape leaves in a slow cooker with beef

Ingredients:

• 1 kg minced beef;
• 0.4 kg grape leaves;
• 150 g rice;
• 2 tbsp. tomato paste;
• 4 onions;
• 2 eggs;
• 60 ml vegetable oil;
• 1 large or 2 medium bell peppers;
• 1 liter of broth;
• cumin, freshly ground black pepper, salt to taste.

Cooking process:

1. Cook the rice.
2. Cut the onion into half rings, preferably thin. Place in a deep bowl, add cumin, pepper and salt and knead the mixture with your hands.

3. In a large bowl, combine the rice and onion with the spices.
4. Add ground beef there. Beat the eggs and pour in the sunflower oil. Mix the minced meat thoroughly with your hands, it should be homogeneous and elastic.

5. Remove the cuttings from the leaves, add minced meat and form into bundles. If you have any extra leaves, line the bottom of the bowl with them.

6. When all the envelopes are placed in the slow cooker, add the diced peppers to them.

7. Pour the grape cabbage rolls with a mixture of tomato paste, salt and pepper.
8. Close the multicooker lid and leave to simmer for 60 minutes.

Ingredients

To prepare minced meat, you can use pork, lamb, and also add a little lard. You can mix half and half beef and pork.

Here you need to proceed from what kind of meat you like best. My mother likes to cook dolma with pork meat and lard. Then it turns out more juicy and tender. I still prefer beef or lamb - they have less cholesterol.

In this recipe, it is necessary to leave a certain amount of grape leaves to cover the bottom and cover the top of the dolma. And also, if you use the amount of minced meat specified in the recipe, you will get ten or a little more pieces. Therefore, if you need twenty or thirty pieces, then we multiply all the ingredients indicated above in the list by two or three, respectively.

Dolma with Korean carrots and minced chicken

Ingredients:

• whole chicken;
• 100 g Korean carrots;
• 30-35 grape leaves;
• 1 clove of garlic;
• bulb;
• processed cheese;
• 1 liter of water.

Cooking process:

1. Wash and cut up the chicken. Separate the meat from the bone and make mince out of it. Add chopped onion and garlic.
2. Drain the marinade from the carrots and cut them into pieces up to 0.5 cm, transfer to the minced meat.
3. Take grape leaves and form small cabbage rolls. The excess leaves were placed on the bottom of the container.
4. Place the filled parcels into a bowl.
5. Dissolve processed cheese and tomato paste in boiling water, stir until smooth.
6. Pour the resulting mixture over the dolma.
7. Cook for 40 minutes with the lid closed.

What to serve dolma with

I serve dolma with sour cream mixed with garlic and chopped herbs; you can also serve it with matsoni sauce. I grind the garlic and herbs for sour cream in a blender. You can also look at the recipe for dolma in grape leaves, which is quite simple and affordable, and aromatic spices, juicy filling, herbs and grape leaves create a pleasant flavor bouquet. Dolma will suit any table and make an ordinary day a holiday.

Dolma can also be seasoned with fresh mint, basil, thyme, and cilantro. Sprinkle the dish with herbs when you remove the dolma from the multicooker and place it on a beautiful plate.

Dear readers, if you liked my recipe, I look forward to your feedback and comments. Bon Appetit everyone!

Dolma with potatoes in a slow cooker

A very unusual variation of the dish. We make the filling from meat and potatoes. Pork is best for this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 0.6 kg pork;
• 3 medium potatoes;
• 2 onions;
• 30 grape leaves;
• 3 cloves of garlic;
• 2 spoons of tomato paste;
• 100 ml low-fat sour cream;
• 1 sweet pepper and 1 carrot;
• 1 liter of boiling water;
• salt, ground pepper to taste;
• 20 ml sunflower oil.

Cooking process:

1. Cut the onion into half rings as thin as possible. Salt, add pepper and grind. Add to the minced meat.
2. Wash and peel the potatoes. Cut into cubes with sides of 0.5 cm and add to the meat.
3. Form the cabbage rolls.
4. Pour oil into the mixture, add chopped carrots and pepper, fry until the carrots are golden brown.
5. Add tomato paste, crushed garlic and sour cream.
6. Place the cabbage rolls seam side down on this mixture. At this stage, care is required not to get burned on the hot walls of the bowl.
7. Boil water, add a little salt and pour into the envelopes. Close the lid and leave to simmer in a suitable mode for an hour.

Recipe with fish

How long is it - 1 hour.

What is the calorie content - 79 calories.

How to cook:

1. Wash the grape leaves thoroughly with running water and place in a small container.
2. Pour boiling water over and leave for five minutes.
3. Then drain the water and dry the leaves with dry cloths.
4. Using a sharp knife, remove the cuttings.
5. Wash the lemon and grate the zest with a special grater.
6. Then cut the fruit in half and squeeze all the juice out of it into a small container.
7. Wash the fish fillet and check for bones. If there are bones, pull them out with special fish tweezers.
8. Cut into small pieces using a sharp knife. You can even chop it into mince if the knife is good enough. Or blend in a blender until smooth.
9. Next, pour lemon juice over the fish and stir. This is necessary so that the filling in the dolma is more tender.
10. Peel the ginger root using a knife, spoon or vegetable peeler.
11. Grate the pulp or crush it with a garlic press.
12. Combine the resulting mass with citrus zest.
13. Rinse the cilantro and chop it finely.
14. Mix with ginger and add to fish, combine ingredients well.
15. Season with salt and black pepper and mix.
16. Wash the chili, cut in half and remove the seeds.
17. Next, cut the pulp into thin strips.
18. Rinse sweet peppers with running water, remove internal seeds and membranes.
19. Cut the pulp into half rings, then cut them in half. You will get quarter rings.
20. Remove the skins from the onion, wash it and remove the roots.
21. Next, slice very thinly using a sharp knife.
22. Place a little chili, onion and sweet pepper on each grape leaf.
23. Also put some fish and wrap everything in an envelope. Stuff the other leaves in the same way.
24. Place the prepared dolma with fish on top, pour in the broth. In the stew mode, cook for about 35-45 minutes until done.

Dolma with lamb, mint and fennel

If you still want to cook authentic dolma with lamb, use this recipe. If you don't have fresh mint and fennel, replace them with dried herbs.

Ingredients:

• 0.5 kg of fatty lamb;
• 25-30 grape leaves;
• 2 onions;
• bunch of fennel;
• 1 tbsp. rice cereal;
• a couple of branches of cilantro (to taste);
• mint branch;
• broth or water;
• ground pepper, salt.