Turkish Stuffed Peppers (Biber Dolmasi)

Pepper Dolma is one of the most traditional Turkish dishes. Although we often make cheese stuffed mini peppers as an appetizer, our choice is to make these easy vegetarian stuffed peppers with rice when it comes to a comforting dinner.

Why We Love This Recipe

• It is easy to serve pepper dolma in portions.
• This is a freezer-friendly recipe. Let them cool completely after cooked in the pot over stove-top or baked in the oven and freeze in an air tight container. Thaw and reheat with a splash of water before eating.
• It is easy to customize. You can make this biber dolmasi recipe either vegetarian or with lean ground beef. Also, you can make the filling with brown rice, bulgur, wheat berries or buckwheat instead of rice.

Ingredients

Peppers: We use Turkish mini green peppers called dolmalık biber, which are peppers for stuffing. They are small in size and have thin skin. They are known as the peppers to stuff in Turkey. The thinner their skin is, the better. If you can't find Turkish dolmalik pepper, you can use regular bell peppers too. If they are too large, just cut them lengthwise in half before stuffing.

Filling: It contains white rice, onion, garlic, tomato, tomato paste, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil spices like black pepper, dried mint, paprika or chili powder (or red pepper flakes) and salt. You can use whatever rice you like, but we think long-grain rice works fine.

Garnish: Although it is not necessary, Turkish stuffed peppers are traditionally topped with tomatoes or the pepper tops we cut when preparing the peppers. They act as a lid for stuffed peppers. Also, we love to add some lemon slices in the pot for garnish and richness in the final taste of the dish.

Tomato Sauce: It is a simple sauce with olive oil, tomato paste, dried mint, garlic and water. This sauce takes these vegetarian stuffed peppers to a whole new level.

How To Make

Preparing Peppers: Cut the tops of the peppers in the form of a lid (please see the picture above) and remove the seeds. Try not to damage the peppers (see the notes).

Make The Filling: In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for the rice mixture filling. 

Assemble: Stuff each pepper with 1-2 tablespoons of the filling depending on the size of the peppers. Leave a little space for rice to rise when cooked.

Place each stuffed pepper in a pot. If the pot is oven-proof, things will be easier.

Cut the cherry tomatoes in two and place one half over the filling in the peppers. These tomatoes act like a lid for the peppers. Alternatively, you can use the tops you cut from the peppers as a lid too. Place lemon slices on the peppers.

Make The Sauce and Cook The Peppers: Combine olive oil, tomato paste, garlic, dried mint and water in a sauce pan and bring it to a boil. Pour it in the pot. 

Cook the stuffed peppers covered over medium heat for 15 minutes. 

Reduce the heat and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the rice is tender.

Bake: Preheat the oven at 425F/220C. If your pot is oven-proof, place it in the oven. If not, transfer the stuffed peppers and lemon slices into a baking dish. Pour all the juicy sauce in the pot into this pan. At this step, you can add a splash of verjuice over dolmas. Bake for about 10 minutes or until they get golden brown.

Serve: You can serve these Middle Eastern vegetarian stuffed peppers with rice warm or at room temperature with some yogurt on the side.

Tips

• We either use cherry tomatoes to top the filling in the peppers or put the pepper tops we cut as a lid (please see it in the picture above). You can do whatever you prefer.
• If the peppers you are using are larger than the ones we use, you can cut them lengthwise into two and then stuff them. You can see a sample in the picture below.
• You really don’t need to top the stuffed peppers, we do it because we love how they look that way.
• If you have leftover filling, you can cook it in another pan over low heat, let it cool and keep in the refrigerator. Reheat and serve it as a side dish on another day. Alternatively, you can stuff a few tomatoes with that remaining filling. To do this, cut the top of tomatoes, remove the seeds and stuff. Place them in the same pan.
• If you want to make these with ground beef, add it (about 250g or ½ pound) into the filling with rice. 

How To Serve

We love to sprinkle sumac on top of the filling right before serving, but it's totally optional. We love the extra tangy flavor of this Middle Eastern spice. Also, it is almost a must to serve these with lemon and plain yogurt on the side. If we make the meatless version, we mostly serve it at room temperature and with extra olive oil.

We serve it either with a dollop of plain yogurt or Turkish cacik on the side. A fresh tomato and cucumber salad like Turkish shepherd salad goes well too if it’s summer time.

How to Reheat

When heating the leftover biber dolmasi, take one tablespoon of the liquid in the pan and drizzle over the filling inside the peppers so that it doesn’t get dry and heats equally. Heat covered over medium low heat on the stove. If there is no water left in the pan, add some extra water and then heat.

Other Stuffed Vegetables

• Stuffed Dried Eggplants (Kuru Patlican Dolmasi)
• Turkish Cabbage Rolls
• Stuffed Artichoke Bottoms

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