Here’s the stuffed veggies Kemal made for us last night:
Sometimes we core out potatoes and eggplant and stuff them as well, and we’ve also stuffed onions too. Basically we just stuff whatever we have on-hand. You can also make this meatless or use a different type of ground meat. Just play around with the ingredients. You really can’t go wrong.
Kemal’s Veal and Rice Stuffed Veggies
Ingredients for the Stuffed Veggies:
- 1 lb. ground veal, uncooked
- 5 medium-sized tomatoes
- 2 medium-sized zucchinis, cored
- 5 small bell peppers
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 peach, diced
- 15 grapes, diced
- 7 cloves garlic, diced
- 1/2 cup Arborio rice, uncooked
- 15 almonds, finely chopped
- 4 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 tsp. parsley
- 1 tsp. Hungarian sweet paprika
- 1 tsp. cumin
- 1 tsp. dried mint
- 1 tsp. black pepper
- 1 tsp. salt
- the insides of the zucchinis that were removed when cored
Ingredients for the Sauce:
- 1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes
- 1 tsp. oregano
- 1 tsp. dill
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- the insides of the peppers that were cored, as well as the pieces of the tops of the peppers that were cut off
- the pieces of the tops of the tomatoes that were cut off and the insides of the tomatoes
Instructions:
- Wash all the fruits and vegetables.
- Finely chop the almonds.
- Grease your baking dish (we used a large Dutch oven) with 2 tbsp. of olive oil.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Core the zucchinis, peppers, and tomatoes. Make sure you set aside the insides of the zucchinis, peppers and tomatoes because you’ll be using that for the sauce. Also make sure you save the pieces of the top parts of the tomatoes and peppers that you cut. You can dice up that flesh and use it for the sauce as well.
- Dice the onion, peach, grapes, and garlic.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together the raw meat, the uncooked rice, 2 tbsp. of olive oil, the almonds, the diced garlic, onions, grapes, and peach, as well as the insides of the zucchinis. Also, mix in the parsley, paprika, cumin, mint, salt, and black pepper.
- When all the ingredients are mixed thoroughly, stuff the veggies with this stuffing mix, and then place the stuffed vegetables on the greased baking dish.
Note: If you like your veggies to be extra soft, before you stuff them just place them in a pot of boiling water and cook them about 5 minutes. Also, if you have left over stuffing, just freeze it for the next time you make it. Or you can just but it in the baking pan with the stuffed veggies and cook it.
- Bake covered on 350 degrees until the meat and rice are cooked and the zucchini is soft enough to your liking.
- While the stuffed veggies are baking, make your sauce.
- In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the diced tomatoes with the juice, the oregano, the dill, the cinnamon, and the insides of the peppers and tomatoes, as well as the pieces of the tops of the tomatoes and peppers.
- After the stuffed veggies are cooked (it took about 1 1/2 hours for ours to bake), pour the sauce over them. By the way, if you’re not sure if the meat is done, just use a cooking thermometer. We cook the veal until it’s at at least 150 degrees.
- Turn off the heat to the oven, and then place the stuffed veggies with the sauce on them in the back in the oven uncovered just long enough for the sauce to get warm (about 10 minutes).
- When you’re ready to serve the stuffed veggies, take a ladle and pour some of sauce either over the stuffed veggies or on the plate.
