Etli Yaprak Sarma (Stuffed Leaves with Meat) Recipe

Stuffed vegetables take an important place in Ottoman Kitchen. This is the season of vine leaves so I decided to cook Yaprak Sarma. You can use inside mixture to stuff other vegetables like tomato, zucchini, bell pepper, cabbage.. Yoghurt is great accompany for these dishes.
If you are not fan of meat dishes , you can try the vegetarian olive oil version of Stuffed vine leaves which i will give the recipe later on.
Enjoy!

Ingredients
30-35 vine leaves (fresh leaves.. if it is brine, keep it in the water overnight)
125-150 gr ground beef (If you wish you can use lamb)
1 medium size onion, grated
1 medium size tomato, grated
1/2 table spoon tomato paste
1/2 table spoon red pepper paste (I used hot, as your wish you can use mild )
1 tea spoon salt
1 tea spoon mint
2 slices lemon

Boil vine leaves in the water 2-3 minutes till it get softern a bit, undercooked. Drain it. Let it cool.
Mix well all other ingredients in a bowl except lemon.

Put the mixture inside to the vine leave and roll as shown in the pictures. You should close the vine leave like an envelope and roll it.

Place Stuffed Leaves into a non stick pot. Lay them next to each other , avoid space but dont squeeze much.  Put the lemon slices at the top. Lemon will give a bit sour taste which is yummy.
In another bowl, put some tomato paste into hot water , mix it and pour into the stuffed rolls. It should cover on all the rolls.

Cover the pot. Cook few min on high heat till it boil, after cook it on the low heat around 30-35 min till it get softern and absorb the water . If it absorb all water and still not cooked, you can add more water and cook some more.
Serve warm with yoghurt..


Bon Appétit..