Tabrizi Cabbage Dolma

You may be familiar with the Iranian grape leaves Dolma, which is considered one of the most popular diet foods throughout Iran. Cabbage Dolma is similar to this dish, but since cabbage is available for a longer period of the year than grape leaves, it can be prepared in all seasons.

Ingredients for four people

Rice: one cup

Split peas: half a cup

Minced meat: 300 grams

Onion: one or two (depending upon the taste)

Tomato paste: one tablespoon

Sugar, lemon juice, verjuice, and white vinegar: four tablespoons

Dolma vegetables (a mixture of chopped savory, tarragon, dill, coriander, and leek): one cup

White cabbage: one small-sized

Pepper, turmeric, and salt: as per taste

If you do not like your very sour foods you can remove one or two of the lemon juice, verjuice, and white vinegar but our suggestion is not to remove the verjuice.

Recipe

Soak the split peas for two to four hours before starting the cooking process. Add some salt to make the split peas get soaked better.

Drain the soaked split peas, pour them into a pot, add two glasses of water, and let it cook for two hours. During cooking, a foam may collect on the water; remove the foam so that the food does not become bitter. After the split peas are cooked, drain and wash with cold water.

Wash the rice and put it in a pot, add salt, some butter or oil to it, and place the pot on medium heat and let it cook until the water evaporates. Remove the rice and put it aside when the rice kernels are still hard.

It is now time to prepare the dolma vegetables that should chopped such fine that cannot be separated. Chop the onion separately and fry it. After the onion changes color, add the meat to it and continue frying. Then add some turmeric, black pepper, and salt to it and stir the mixture well until the meat is completely fried and mixed with the spices. Meanwhile, mix the tomato paste with a little water and add to the other ingredients. At the end, add the vegetables and the rice and fry the whole mixture for some time. The last ingredient that is added to this mixture is verjuice (lemon juice and white vinegar; depending upon taste). Separate one-third for making the dolma sauce and two-thirds to place in the middle of the cabbage leaves.

At this stage, it is time to prepare the cabbage leaves. Wash the leaves well, then put them in a large pot and boil them by adding a tablespoon of salt. If the cabbage leaves are fresh, they will not take more than a few minutes to cook and become transparent. Note that if you overcook the leaves, they will tear while rolling them.

To wrap the dolma, put a cabbage leaf in a bowl and put some of the ingredients in it. Then fold the corners of the leaf to the middle or roll it.

Boil a third of the dolma mixture that has been set aside and add sugar, lemon juice, verjuice, white vinegar, and tomato paste to it. Place the wrapped or rolled dolmas upside down so that they do not open during cooking and pour the sauce on top. Finally, when the dolma sauce thickens, your dish is ready to serve. At the time of serving, you can use fried onion and barberry to decorate the dish.