Stuffed Grape Leaves with Dill Sauce (Vegan)

If we have vine leaves frozen in advance in the freezer, it is ideal for preparing a culinary delight. If we do not have frozen leaves, we can confidently use jarred vine leaves available in stores. It is important that, before using them, we soak them in cold water to wash them a little. This step helps us eliminate the vinegar and salt in which they were preserved. Once we have prepared the leaves, we sort them so that we have approximately the same size, thus facilitating the rolling of the sarmale.

To start, we place some vine leaves on the bottom of the pot where we will boil the sarmale or we can use a special metal grill. This will help prevent the sarmale from sticking to the bottom of the pot during boiling.

Next, we take care of the filling. We clean and finely chop the onion, then fry it in half of the amount of oil specified in the recipe. We want the onion to become translucent, at which point we add a cup of water and the washed rice, stirring occasionally so that the rice absorbs the flavor of the onion. We keep it on the heat until all the water has evaporated.

Once the water has evaporated, we add salt, pepper, finely chopped dill, well-washed and chopped canned mushrooms, and pressed garlic. We drizzle the mixture with the juice of one lemon, which will give the filling a pleasant acidity and a fresh taste. We mix the ingredients well and let the composition cool down so that the flavors blend.

Now it is time to roll the sarmale. We take the vine leaves, drain them of the water they were in, and put a teaspoon of filling on each leaf. We roll the leaves, bringing the sides towards the middle, over the filling, and form a tight package. We place the rolled sarmale side by side in the prepared pot, already having the grill or empty leaves at the bottom.

After we finish rolling all the sarmale, we pour the remaining oil on top, add the jar of tomato sauce or diluted tomato paste with water, so that we completely cover the sarmale. We cover the pot with a lid and put it in the oven for about thirty minutes, provided that the water used is hot and the oven is already preheated. If we use cold water, the sarmale will require a longer cooking time.

They are served hot or cold, alongside a dill sauce, garnished with lemon slices for an extra touch of freshness. Note: in my case, I chose to put three sarmale in a larger leaf, which makes it easier to take them out of the pot. This is an option, but it is not necessarily required to proceed this way. Enjoy your meal!