Most Turkish women cook regularly. Their creativity has always astonished me, I am trying to catch up. Here is a recipe for Ground Meat Stuffed Onions – Etli Sogan Dolma. I would never think of creating this dish with onions, but here it is, pretty and tasty, easy and stunning.
You need 6 large onions. Boil the onions, separate leaves and fill with ground meat stuffing. The stuffing is the same we use for filling peppers so if you have left over meat stuffing after using up all the onions you can use peppers to use the remaining stuffing.
Cut off the top and bottom of each onion. Make a vertical cut until just past the core. Then boil until they are soft and easy to bend. After you boil the onions separate the onion layers gently. Stuff the fillings with a teaspoon. Curl to cover and place in a pot. Cook until the rice in the stuffing is soft and edible.
Serve warm. Enjoy.
If you like stuffed dishes you might want to check out the following recipes:
Meat Stuffed Onions
Ingredients
- 6 large onions 1250 grams
- 2 tomatoes large
- 2-3 garlic cloves chrushed
- 300 grams ground meat medium fat, beef
- 100 grams rice
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 300 millilitres water
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon all spice
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 10 stalks parsley chopped
- 5 stalks dill chopped
Instructions
Onion Shell
- Cut off the stem part on the top and bottom part of the onions. Then make a vertical cut as if cutting into half, but do not cut through completely, the cut should be a tiny bit past the core.
- Put the onions to a mid-sized pot and add enough water to make them float around. You do not need to add salt. Bring water to boil and cook until the onions are soft and easily bending. Do not overcook, if so it will be difficult to stuff. Should take about 15 minutes. The cut you have made will open up when boiled, this is sign that the onions are ready.
- Remove from pot and set aside to cool.
Stuffing
- Peel and then chop or grate the onions. You can also use a food processor for this.
- Grate the tomato using a food processor if you like.
- Wash and chop the parsley and add to the onions. Do not use the food processor for the parsley, as it becomes far too small. If you do so, your dolma might turn green.
- Combine the onions, remaining tomato, parsley in the large mixing bowl. Add also the minced garlic.
- Also add the ground meat. The meat should be medium fat beef.
- Rinse the rice, until there is no longer white starchy water flowing under the colander. Add the rice to the mixing bowl.
- Add the spices and the greens. Adjust the spices according to your taste. Also add two tablespoons of tomato paste. Also add two tablespoons of olive oil.
- Mix all either with your hands or a spoon. Make sure everything is well combined.
Combining and Cooking
- Then take each boiled onion and separate its layers. Fill each layer with the meat filling. Curl up the onion to make sure the stuffing does not come out while cooking. Continue till the onions finish. You will not be able to use the center of the onions as they are too small. You can add this to the pot to use as garnish and for additional flavor.
- If the meat mixture is still left, you can just make small meat balls and cook or you can use a tomato, a pepper or a zucchini in stead of a onion shell. Just make holes in them and proceed.
- In another small pot mix water, 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a tablespoon of tomato paste and some salt. And pour in to the cooking pot. Place all the stuffed onion into the pot side by side, so they do not float around.
- Cook, at first high heat, when the water comes to boil reduce the heat and cook for about 40 minutes.
- Serve warm.
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