Wednesday - Dolmehs and creamy courgette soup (all gluten free)

After a very successful dolmas making session last week with the Monday group, I have been asked to have a repeat. This time the stuffing is going to be with an Iranian slant. I would like to thank Simin for her recipe as it turned out delicious.

Yesterday I went to my garden in Garden Walk and picked 50 vine leaves, about as big as a lady's palm of her hand. I let it sit in a brine until this morning.  I rinsed and dried them for use today.

We had a very large group 9 of us, we also went out to pick the vine leaves from our opposite neighbour. A 2 minute job that turned into some delicious food.

Ingredients:  1/2 cup rice (I use basmati rice); 2 table spoons of split peas; 3 T.S of chopped parsley; 1 T.S of mint (of course fresh ones); 2 T.S sultanas; sundried tomato and tomato puree; 1 big onion; turmeric; salt and pepper.  You can use more parsley if you want to add them to the juice at the end.

Boil the rice and the split peas together.  Make sure they don't become mushy. There shouldn't be any water left.  When cooled down a bit add the herbs and sultanas plus tomato puree and other spices. When completely mixed put a portion of a large tea spoon inside the leaf.  Wrap them and put them one by one in the saucepan.  We had 2 layers in the pan.  At the end add about 1/2 glass of stock and some olive oil, put a lid over the pan and let them cook for about 15 minutes. 

Chop the onion finely and fry it in a frying pan with some olive oil.  

When the colour starts to change add a tea spoon of turmeric add to all the other ingredients and use as stuffing of the leaves.

With the courgettes ready to harvest we made a vegan,creamy gluten free soup served with a slice of toast. This was a wonderfully tasty and easy recipe