Vegetarian stuffed dried vegetables (Antep usulü zeytinyağlı kuru dolma)

Step 1

Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Add the dried vegetables and simmer until soft, 3–4 minutes. Drain. If substituting fresh vegetables: Cut the tops off the tomatoes and hollow them out. Cut the top off any small peppers and remove the seeds and pith. For larger bell peppers. halve them lengthwise and remove the seeds and pith, keeping the stalk.

Step 2

Heat a thick bottomed frying pan over medium heat. Fry the onion in the olive oil, stirring regularly, until softened, but not coloured, 8–10 minutes or more.

Step 3

Add the garlic and continue to fry, stirring constantly, for another minute. Add the tomato paste and red pepper paste and continue to fry, stirring constantly, until completely mixed, 1–2 minutes.

Step 4

Take off the heat and mix with the rice, bulgur, freekeh, pomegranate molasses, pul biber, dried mint, dried oregano, sumac, salt and pepper. I use my hands for this. Add the water and mix again. Finally, carefully mix in the chickpeas.

Step 5

Stuff the prepared vegetables with the filling, leaving a 1 ½–3 cm (½–1 in) on the top, so the rice and bulgur have space to expand into. The vegetarian filling needs more space to expand than the meat one. Continue until you run out of vegetables or stuffing, placing them neatly into a thick bottomed sauté pan as you go along. It's fine if some are slightly on top of each other, but the top layer should be fairly even. (If using fresh vegetables, see note below.)

Step 6

Make the tomato sauce by mixing the tomato paste with boiling water. Pour approx. ¾ of the mixture all over the dolmas (use all of it for the vegetarian version). Cover with baking parchment and press gently down with something flat-ish. I use the base of a baking tin; a dinner flat plate is also good.

Step 7

Bring to the boil, turn the heat down to low and put on a lid. Leave to simmer for about one hour, checking on it every once in a while and adding more of the tomato sauce or water if need be (this depends on how tight your lid is). Once done, take off the heat.

Step 8

Serve the meat dolmas warm (but not boiling hot) with cold yoghurt. For vegetarian dolmas, cool completely before serving, though you can also enjoy them hot if you like – but always with cold yoghurt on the side.