Stuffed Red Bell Peppers (Zeytinyağlı Kırmızı Biber Dolması)

INGREDIENTS:

stuffs 8-10 medium size red bell peppers
1 cup white rice

2 medium size onions, finely chopped (you can use a food processor)

2 tomatoes, grated or 1 can of petite diced tomato

1 tomato (this one is for covering the tops of red bell peppers after stuffing)

2 tbsp pine nuts

2 tbsp currants

1/2 tbsp all spice

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 tbsp mint flakes or ¼ cup fresh mint, chopped finely

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

1 tsp white sugarsalt

juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 cup olive
optional

1 tbsp basil flakes (it goes really well with the sweetness of red bell peppers)

-Mix well all the ingredients (except for peppers and 1 tomato) in a bowl.

-Wash peppers and take out the top part and the seeds.

-Stuff the peppers with the rice mix with a spoon or your hand.

-Cut small pieces from 1 tomato to cover the top parts of peppers. Press the tomato slice down a bit so that it won’t come out.

-Place the dolmas in a pot. Pour water. Make sure water is 1 inch below the dolmas.

-Let it boil on high heat then turn it to medium and cook for 35-45 minutes.
-You can serve it hot, but olive oil dishes like dolmas taste better when they cool down and taste even better the next day.

-Try them with yogurt.*If you end up with extra stuffing, you can either freeze it for another time or stuff whatever you have in the fridge: potato, zucchini, tomato, etc.