Grape Leaves That You Can't Leave Alone

About author / Christine Gable

Culinary enthusiast; kids cuisine and slow cooking; magazine recipe developer; professional writer. Her simple recipes are great for family dinners.

I’ve had two jars of grape leaves sitting on the pantry shelf for months now. They were one of those bargain deals I picked up at a local discount store: two jars for a dollar. What a find! For a Greek food lover, that was one special that I just couldn’t walk by. Dolmas, here I come!

However, reality is another story. Two months later, grape leaf jars are still on the shelf, dolmas recipes perused many times with no corresponding edible end-result. So many of the recipes seemed to be time and labor intensive (just getting those little bundles wrapped is a big part of it), with the steaming/cook time not ever seeming to fit into our busy weekdays or weekends.

Enter the solution: the slow cooker. Hey, maybe we can do that, especially if it’ll only take half an hour (hopefully with some other helping hands) to roll and layer those babies into the slow cooker. What could be more timely than plopping li’l Greek bundles into the crockpot and then forgetting ‘em (literally) until it’s dinner time?

Sound like a plan? You bet.

So I encouraged hubby and daughter to assist with the rolling, and we were off. Hallelujah that I picked up Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker recently. It’s already proving to be exactly the kind of inspiration I need to get through the busy week. How timely that there was a Slow Stuffed Grape Leaf Recipe on page 20. In fact, this recipe is so easy that if you have leftover rice from dinner, you could easily prep ‘em the night before (after sautéing the onion and adding the spices), and just put the whole ceramic insert in your fridge until the next day. Plop it into the heated portion (add an hour of cook time since it’s chilled), and go about your day, knowing that some really delicious slow stuffed grape leaves will be awaiting you later.

That’s my favorite kind of meal. Oh, I don’t relish the individual rolling/packing, but that’s also the best kind of activity to rally everyone together in the kitchen. How often do you get to open a jar of grape leaves? Figure out how to unroll their tightly packed bundles? Or to tuck one tablespoon of rice into each one, folding in the ends and rolling tight enough to stay wrapped? How about to gather around the kitchen island and chit-chat and laugh while scooping and rolling?

This was a great new experience for us—especially since the only dolmas we’ve ever had came from a can. Occasionally I’ll get lucky and the local international foods store will have a four pound can. Other times I resort to grabbing one pounders off the shelf when I make it to the Greek foods market—but one pound is never, never nearly enough.

The other thing I like about making a new recipe like this is how it takes the blinders off—it really helps us appreciate what goes into canned food preparation. It can be all too easy to take for granted the goodies that are contained within that sealed vessel. Just rolling five dozen of these proved that our fingers really do learn to be more nimble with practice.

Best of all, we have two containers of dolmas to last us the whole week long!

Serves/Makes: 60

• 2 jars (7.7 ounce size) grape leaves (drained)
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 1/4 cups white rice
• 3 cups water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 3 cups water
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

***Marinade dressing***

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon oregano