Greek yemista | Greek stuffed vegetables recipe – Cooked By Alexandra

Yemista is a classic Greek dish where vegetables are hollowed and filled with a spiced rice and meat mixture and slow roasted. You can omit the meat for a vegan option. What’s great about yemista is that they’re made with seasonal vegetables. Today I used tomatoes to make my yemista. I also added some potatoes. I like adding potatoes because they take on the beautiful and sweet flavours of the yemista as they cook.

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Yemista by @cookedbalexandra

Ingredients
• 1kg potatoes, peeled & quartered
• 12 tomatoes
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 brown onion, finely diced
• 3 garlic cloves, finely diced
• 250g beef mince
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tsp beef stock dissolved in 1/2 cups of boiling water
• 180g long grain rice, washed & drained
• 2 bay leaves
• Salt, to taste
• Pepper, to taste
• Bunch of parsley, finely chopped
• 200ml water

Method
For the potatoes
1. Bring a medium size pot of water to a boil and add potatoes. Boil for 10 minutes. Drain potatoes and place them in a large bowl. Add salt, pepper, oregano and a good drizzle of oil and gently toss.

For the yemista
1. Prepare the tomatoes by cutting off 3mm of the top of the tomatoes. Use a spoon to scoop out the pulp of the tomato and place pulp into a bowl. Leave the outer layer of tomato intact as this will help hold the filling. Roughly chop the large pieces of tomato pulp. Set aside the tomato pulp which will be used to make the filling. Keep the lids and tomatoes together. Place the hollowed tomatoes in a 30x25cm baking dish.
2. Heat a large pan over medium heat. Add a drizzle of olive oil. Add the olive oil and garlic and sauté until golden.
3. Add the mince and break it up into smaller pieces with a wooden spoon. Brown on both sides. Add salt and pepper once the mince is cooked.
4. Add cumin, cinnamon, tomato paste, beef stock, rice, the tomato pulp and bay leaves. Cook over low heat and simmer 5 minutes while stirring occasionally. The rice does not need to be cooked as it will continue to cook in the oven. Turn off heat and add parsley. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Drizzle the tomatoes with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
6. Scoop the rice mixture into the tomatoes and fill just before the top of the tomatoes as the rice will expand in the oven. Place the lids of the tomatoes back on the tomatoes. Add 200ml of water or enough to cover the base of the baking dish. Cover with baking paper and alfoil. Bake at 180ºC for an hour.
7. After 1 hour, remove from oven and bake at 200ºC for 20 minutes to colour the tomatoes and the potatoes.
8. Serve with a Greek salad.

Recipe by Cooked By Alexandra

Tag me (@cookedbyalexandra) on your socials if you recreate this - I'd love to see!

Alexandra :)