The wine and the tsipouro, a necessary aperitif of the local foods, have great effects over the last years even outside the borders of the country.

This week we bring you the cabbage dolmades recipe, as it is made by the locals.

• Prep Time: 35 minutes
• Cook Time: 2 hours
• Total Time: 2 hours 35 minutes
• Yield: 4 servings
• Nutrition information: 324 cal, 13.5 g fat, 33.5 g protein

Ingredients

• 1 medium-sized cabbage
• ½ kg of minced meat (sheep-pork)
• 1 dry onion
• ½ leek
• 1 small cup of rice
• 1 cup of olive oil
• 1 lemon
• cumin
• salt
• pepper

Preparation

We chop the leek and blend it with the onion. We add these to the minced meat together with half portion of oil, salt, pepper, cumin and rice and we knead the mix very well. We cut the stalk of the cabbage deeply and put it in boiling water for half an hour or until it softens enough. We then remove it and let it cool off. We also cut off its leaves. Then, in every leaf, we put a spoon full of the mix we have prepared and roll it over and place it in the casserole. In order for the rolled leaves not to stick with one another, we place a special net in the casserole or we use the cabbage’s own leaves for protection. We add lemon, some salt and water until these cover the dolmades. Furthermore, we put a plate on top of them to keep them at the bottom of the casserole and cook the dolmades in low heat for about an hour. If we don’t want to add lemon during cooking we can alternatively stir two eggs with lemon juice and pour the mix on the dolmades after removing the casserole from the fire and shake in order for the mixture to go everywhere.