Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers (Zeytinyağlı Biber Dolma)












Another great traditional olive oil dish recipe: Stuffed peppers with olive oil. Olive oil dishes are cooked only with olive oil; best when they're served cold; and are usually summer dishes. There are two ways to cook stuffed peppers with olive oil: on the stove and in the oven. In my family we like baked stuffed peppers. Here's another certified Turkish recipe from my mom.












2 lb small green bell peppers (approximately 18-20 peppers)
2 cups white rice
4 medium size onions, finely chopped (you can use a food processor)
3 tomatoes, grated
1 tomato (this one is for covering the tops of bell peppers after stuffing)
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/3 cup currants
1 tbsp all spice
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp mint flakes or ¼ cup fresh mint, chopped finely
1 tsp white sugar
salt
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 cup olive




























-Mix well all the ingredients (except for peppers and 1 tomato) in a bowl.
-Wash peppers and take out the top part and the seeds.
-Stuff the peppers with the rice mix with a spoon or your hand.
-Cut small pieces from 1 tomato to cover the top part of peppers. Press the tomato slice down a bit so that it won’t come out.
-Place the dolmas in an oven dish which is as tall as dolmas. Pour on top 2 cups of boiling water.
-First let it boil for 5 minutes on stove. Than, bake it in a preheated oven at 400F for 35-40 minutes until rice is cooked and tops are browned. Check them regularly if you don’t want to burn the tops.
-It’s better cold, but good when it’s hot, too.