Yemista

Γεμιστά

Serves:
6 people
Prep time:
40 minutes
Cook time:
2 hours

Yemista, pronounced ‘gye-me-sta’ is a traditional Greek dish that celebrates summer vegetables and is always a crowd pleaser. You can use any vegetables you have on hand to hollow out and fill, and adapt your own filling to your liking. We like to use a combination of onions, tomatoes and capsicums and use beef mince for the filling. However you make it, Yemista will always be delicious, with the added bonus of tasting even better the next day.

Full method on the following pages.

Ingredients

  • 3 medium-sized brown onions(makes around 10 shells)
  • 4 tomatoes
  • 5 capsicum
  • 750g beef mince
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 1 bunch of parsley, roughly chopped
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • ⅓ cup of dried mint
  • 1 tablespoon of salt
  • ½ teaspoon cracked pepper
  • 3 tablespoon of olive oil
  • 1 cup medium grain rice
  • 1 cup water

Method

Tap, click or hover over a highlighted ingredient to see its quantity.

  1. For the onions
  2. Cut off the top and the bottom of the
  3. Cut 1 slit vertically down the side of an onion so that it penetrates 3 layers and remove the outer brown skin
  4. Prise open the onion and remove the centre being careful to not split it. You want to try to keep the shape of the onion shell
  5. Remove and separate the onion layers so that you end up with large 3-4 shells per onion. Set aside
  6. Finely dice the remaining onion (including the centres) and set aside. This will eventually be integrated into the mixture
  7. For the tomatoes
  8. Cut 1-2cm of the top of each off, leaving part of the tomato attached like a hinge. The top of the tomato should still be intact and attached, but with enough room to remove the inside flesh
  9. With a tablespoon remove the seedy flesh to hollow out the tomato and place its contents aside
  10. Dice the seedy flesh you removed from the tomato and set aside. This will eventually be integrated into the mixture
  11. For the capsicums
  12. Cut the tops off the , about 1-2cm down from its tip
  13. Remove the seedy flesh from the middle and discard.
  14. For the mixture
  15. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees on fan bake
  16. Add to a large mixing bowl
  17. Add in the finely diced onion and tomato flesh that was set aside
  18. Add the , juice, dried leaves, , cracked , and
  19. Mix mixture together with your hands until its well combined
  20. For filling
  21. Place the hollowed out onions, tomatoes, and capsicums onto an oven tray
  22. Fill the vegetable shells with the mixture until they are full but not overflowing
  23. Add lids to cover the tops of the onions and capsicums using left over parts of the vegetables. Ensure that no filling is exposed so that the rice doesn't burn
  24. Add to the bottom of the oven tray. This helps cook the rice while in the oven
  25. Drizzle olive oil and remaining lemon juice over everything and season with salt and pepper to taste
  26. Tightly cover the entire oven tray with foil
  27. Place the tray in the oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes
  28. After 1 hour and 30 minutes remove the foil lid and cook for a further 30 minutes or until browned and cooked through
Framed close-up of the same pan of roasted stuffed vegetables
Hollowed-out onions, tomatoes and capsicums ready for stuffing, in a metal pan
Figure 1. Empty
The same vegetable shells filled with mince and rice mixture, ready to bake
Figure 2. Full

From Yiayia's Fridge · page 37