Lamb-and-Rice-Stuffed Grape Leaves

Stuffing 20 or so grape leaves may sound time-consuming, but it goes fairly quickly once you get the hang of it. Typically, the smallest jars on store shelves contain about 50 leaves, and you'll need a few more than the total number of stuffed pieces you want to end up with because some leaves will be torn, and some will be too small to stuff all by themselves. That’s where some patchwork comes in.

For those beautifully formed, large, perfect leaves, simply place a puffy line of filling along the stem end (stems removed) and roll up into a log, tucking in the sides as you go. For smallish, slightly ripped, or forlornly scraggly leaves, lay two or three on a work surface and patch together to form an almost-beautiful whole leaf. Place the filling in it and roll up as usual—it’ll hold together when cooked in close quarters with starchy rice inside.

A Beautiful Grape Leaf

Stuffed grape leaves make great appetizers or party dishes because they’re hand-held and plentiful, but keep them in mind for dinner too. I served these as entrees (and lunch leftovers) with a simple side of homemade hummus and warm naan. (Other flatbreads or pita would be good too.)

The lamb, rice, and briny green olives in the filling flavored with a blend of savory Mediterranean spices result in a warm, satisfying, big-flavored meal. Mediterranean spices are some of the most aromatic in the world, and they are a major part of this dish. That said, you don’t have to use all those in the recipe, and you can add your own favorites if they’re not included here. Whatever you choose, the mix adds rich, deep flavor to the meat and rice.

Ingredients for the Spice Mixture

I steamed the stuffed leaves in the oven in a mixture of white wine and fresh lemon juice. To save time, you can refrigerate them overnight, covered, before adding any liquid. Let them come to room temperature before steaming them the next day.

Also, you can use ground beef instead of lamb, or increase the amount of rice, add finely chopped vegetables, such as carrots, mushrooms, and zucchini, to make it vegetarian.

Ingredients

Makes 20 stuffed grape leaves

For the Spice Mixture

• 3 allspice berries, or 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 3 whole cloves, or 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp coriander seeds, or 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp dried mint, crushed
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp fennel seeds

For the Stuffed Grape Leaves

• 25 grape leaves (5 extra for patching, if necessary), stems removed
• 1 tbsp olive oil, plus more for oiling dish and drizzling
• 3/4 lb ground lamb (or beef)
• 1/4 cup finely chopped, pitted green olives
• 1 large shallot, finely chopped
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup cooked basmati rice
• juice of half a lemon
• 3/4 cup dry white wine

Preparation 

For the Spice Mixture

1. If using whole allspice, cloves, and coriander, place them in a spice grinder and finely grind.
2. Mix all the spices in a small bowl and set aside.

Ground Spice Mixture

For the Stuffed Grape Leaves

1. Soak the grape leaves in a large bowl of warm water for 20 minutes. Drain.

Grape Leaves Sosking in Warm Water

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. 
2. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the lamb, olives, shallot, and spice mixture and season with salt and pepper. Cook, crumbling the lamb, until it is just cooked through and most of the liquid is absorbed, 6-7 minutes.

Lamb Mixture Beginning to Cook

1. Stir in the cooked rice and remove from the heat. Let cool 10 minutes.

Lamb and Rice Mixture

1. Lightly oil the bottom of a large baking dish.
2. Lay 2 to 3 leaves on a work surface and spoon 2 tablespoons of the lamb-rice mixture in a line across the stem end of each leaf. Roll up the leaf, tucking in the loose sides as you go, to form a tight log. 

Grape Leaf Ready to Roll Up

Stuffed Grape Leaf

1. Place each stuffed grape leaf side by side in the baking dish. Repeat with the remaining leaves, ending with a total of about 20 stuffed leaves.

Stuffed Grape Leaves

1. Drizzle the stuffed leaves with olive oil and lemon juice. Pour the wine over them and add enough water to come close to the top of the leaves, about 3/4 cup.

Stuffed Grape Leaves Ready to Steam

1. Cover the dish tightly with foil and steam in the oven 30 minutes, until the grape leaves are very tender. Remove the stuffed leaves to a platter (tilting each to drain any excess liquid) and serve hot or at room temperature.

Steamed Stuffed Grape Leaves

Pasta with Eggplant, Mushrooms, and Roasted-Garlic Tomato Sauce

This easy vegetarian pasta dish is rich and meaty with chunks of pan-simmered eggplant and crimini (baby portobello) mushrooms. And if you love garlic—or if you consider it the stuff of life as I do—you’ll savor the robust garlicky flavor of the tomato sauce simmered with six creamy, caramelized garlic cloves.

Here’s the nub: Slow-roasting unpeeled garlic—whole bulbs or loose cloves—draws out the depth of its flavor and makes it creamy enough to squeeze out of the peel like toothpaste. Even canned tomatoes take on a rich, earthy flavor after a slow simmer with the roasted garlic.

One other note: Simmering eggplant breaks down the chunks and adds to the thickness of the sauce. You won’t see big pieces of it in your bowl, but that great eggplant flavor permeates the dish and you’ll know it’s there.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 6 large unpeeled garlic cloves
• olive oil for drizzling, plus 3 tbsp, divided
• 1 large shallot, thinly sliced
• 1 28-oz can of stewed tomatoes
• 2 tbsp chopped Italian parsley
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 8 oz crimini mushrooms, quartered
• 1 small eggplant, about 12 oz, peeled and cubed
• 8 oz rotini

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven (or toaster oven) to 300° F. Place the garlic cloves on a small piece of aluminum foil and drizzle with olive oil. Wrap the foil around the garlic and roast until very tender, about 45 minutes.

Garlic Ready to Roast

Roasted Garlic

1. Remove and let rest until cool enough to handle. Squeeze the garlic pulp into a small bowl and discard the peels.

Roasted Garlic Squeezed from Peels 

1. Heat a saucepan over medium-low heat and add 1 tablespoon of oil. Add the shallot and sauté 3 minutes, until just tender.
2. Add the tomatoes, roasted garlic, and parsley and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook slowly 1 hour.

Cooked Roasted-Garlic Tomato Sauce

1. Cook the pasta in boiling, salted water 9 minutes and drain.
2. Meanwhile, heat a large, deep skillet over medium heat and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the mushrooms and eggplant and season with salt and pepper.
3. Cook until the vegetables are very tender and the eggplant has broken down, about 10 minutes.

Eggplant and Mushrooms Beginning to Cook

Cooked Eggplant and Mushrooms

Cooked Eggplant and Mushrooms, Liquid Absorbed

1. Add the garlicky tomato sauce to the skillet and simmer 5 minutes. Add the drained pasta to the skillet and toss well to combine.

Cooked Vegetable and Tomato Sauce

1. Divide the pasta among 4 shallow bowls and serve right away.

Mediterranean Tuna Panini with Feta, Olives, and Garlicky Yogurt Sauce

Simple canned tuna makes a tasty, casual dinner when you dress it up in something other than mayo and chopped celery. And grilling the bread turns an ordinary sandwich into a hot, crunchy panini. This recipe combines tuna with Mediterranean flavors and ingredients sandwiched between pieces of grilled baguette—like a Greek salad sitting on a big French crouton.

I think it’s important to keep sustainability in mind when purchasing canned or fresh seafood (or any food, for that matter), and sometimes it’s as simple as reading the label on the product. I used wild albacore tuna, no-salt-added, packed in water, and noted as “100% pole & troll caught” on the side of the can. There are several good canned tunas on the market, so go green with whatever is most available in your area.

Albacore Tuna

While we don’t normally think of sandwiches as light, lean meals, I’ll argue that this one is at least close to it. I used small pieces of baguette per sandwich simply to cut down on the volume of bread and replaced fatty mayonnaise with plain Greek yogurt in the sauce. Feta has a mild, yet briny taste, so you don’t need much to give the tuna mixture a flavor boost. And the rest of the ingredients? Lemon juice, garlic, olives, cucumber, tomato, and watercress—fresh and natural. What’s not lean (or to love) about that?

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 5-oz cans of wild albacore tuna (preferably no salt added)
• 1/2 cup thin slices of pitted kalamata olives
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta
• 1 long baguette, cut crosswise into 4 even pieces, each piece sliced into bottom and top
• 16 very thin slices of cucumber
• 12 very thin slices of roma tomato
• 1 cup trimmed watercress
• olive oil, for brushing

Preparation

1. Combine the garlic, yogurt, lemon juice, and cumin in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper. Set aside for 30 minutes to allow flavors to develop.

Garlicky Yogurt Sauce

1. Combine the tuna, olives, and feta in a medium bowl. Add the yogurt mixture to the tuna mixture and stir well to combine.

Tuna, Feta, and Olive Mixture

Tuna Mixture with Garlicky Yogurt Sauce

1. Lay the bread slices on a work surface and divide the tuna mixture on the bottom halves. Top the tuna with cucumber, tomato, and watercress. Place the tops on the sandwiches and gently press together.

Tuna-Sauce Mixture on the Baguette

Sandwiches Ready to Top

Sandwiches Ready to Grill

1. Heat a grill pan over medium high heat and brush with olive oil. Place 2 sandwiches in the pan and place a grill press on top (or use a small, heavy skillet as a press).
2. Grill 2-3 minutes on 1 side until the bread is toasted and shows grill marks. Turn and grill, pressing, 2 minutes on the other side.
3. Remove the panini to a cutting board and repeat with the other 2 sandwiches. Slice each panini on the diagonal and serve hot or at room temperature.

Grilled Panini

“Pastelon”: Puerto Rican Shepherd’s Pie with Ground Beef and Plantains

Traditional English shepherd’s pie is made with layers of beef and mashed potatoes. In Puerto Rico, the dish is made with layers of beef and mashed plantains. If you’ve not tried plantains, this recipe is a great way to get acquainted. They’re easy to work with and add a slightly sweet note to the other ingredients. Puerto Rican cuisine isn’t spicy, but this shepherd’s pie provides a great balance of savory, sweet, and earthy.

A few tips on plantains: You can buy them with green skins (unripe), brownish yellow skins (ripe), and nearly black skins (very ripe). The riper the softer—and the easier to mash when cooked. I didn’t have black-skinned plantains for this dish, so I cooked brownish yellow ones and put them in a food processor with a little milk to help smooth them into a coarse paste. If you use the very ripe black ones, you can simply mash them like potatoes after cooking.

Ripe Plantains

One more thing: Peeling a plantain isn’t like peeling a banana. The skins are much thicker and well adhered to the flesh. The easiest way to peel a plantain is to snip off each end, slice the fruit in half crosswise, then slice each piece in half lengthwise. Now it’s quartered, and the skin from each quarter is easy to peel away.

Peeled Plantains

While plantains add a little sweetness to this dish, the other flavor highlight is the savory, earthy “sofrito”—Latin America’s answer to France’s mirepoix. French cuisine uses a mixture of sautéed carrot, celery, and onion as a base for many dishes, and Latin American cuisine uses a base of green bell pepper, onion, garlic, and fresh herbs, typically cilantro and parsley. That’s sofrito. And it adds wonderful, bright, fresh flavor to any recipe it’s added to.

Sofrito Ingredients

Some versions of pastelon include a layer of green beans along with the beef. Some forgo the cheese and top the dish with only whisked eggs. Still others add chopped green olives or raisins to the ground beef. Whatever ingredients you choose, the keys to the dish are plantains and sofrito—a sweet and savory combination that’s simply delectable.

Serves 6

Ingredients

For the Sofrito

• 1 cup cilantro leaves, with thin stems
• 1 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, with thin stems
• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper

For the Pastelon

• 3 tbsp olive oil, divided, plus more as needed
• 4 ripe plantains, quartered and peeled
• 2 tsp ground cumin, divided
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup milk, divided
• 1 lb ground beef
• 6 large eggs
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

Preparation

For the Sofrito

1. Place the cilantro, parsley, onion, bell pepper, and garlic in a food processor and process until finely chopped. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Sofrito

For the Pastelon

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the plantains and 1 teaspoon of ground cumin. Season with salt and pepper and fry 3-4 minutes, until the plantains begin to brown.
2. Add 1/4 cup of milk and simmer until the plantains have softened and the milk is absorbed, about 10 minutes. (Add a little more oil if the skillet becomes too dry.) Break the plantain slices into smaller pieces as they cook. 

Plantains Beginning to Simmer

Cooked Plantains Ready to Process

1. Remove the plantains to a processor and add the remaining 1/2 cup of milk. Process until a coarse, chunky-smooth paste forms. (Do not wipe out the skillet)

Processed Plantains

1. Heat the oven to 350° F.
2. Heat the same skillet over medium heat and add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil. Add the ground beef and remaining 1 teaspoon of cumin and season with salt and pepper. Cook until browned, crumbling as it cooks, until most of the fat is absorbed, 7-8 minutes. Stir in the sofrito and cook 5 minutes longer.

Cooked Beef and Sofrito

1. Lightly oil an 11 X 7-inch baking dish and spread half the mashed plantain mixture in the bottom, covering completely. (Use your fingers to press the plantain paste into a smooth layer.)

Layer 1 of the Pastelon

1. Spread the beef mixture over the plantains and top with a second layer of the plantain mixture.

Layer 2 of the Pastelon

Layer 3 of the Pastelon

1. Whisk the eggs in a medium bowl and pour evenly over the top layer of plantains. Sprinkle the cheese on top.

Layer 4 with Eggs and Cheese

1. Bake uncovered 30-35 minutes until the pastelon is set and slightly browned on top. Remove from the oven and let rest 5 minutes. 

Cut into 6 slices and divide among plates. Serve right away.

Baked Pastelon

Beef-and-Rice-Stuffed Peppers with Chile-Cheese Sauce

I’ve stuffed a lot of peppers in my cooking life—various types of chiles filled with an assortment of ingredients and the usual tomato-based sauce either on top or spooned around the edges. Most versions make tasty dishes, whether you use ground beef, sausage, or poultry or go vegetarian with a mix of hearty sautéed vegetables such as mushrooms, eggplant, squash, and so on.

This time, I opted to top the peppers with a cheese sauce instead of tomato, and spice it up a little with jalapenos—yes, more fat and calories than tomato-based, but you need only two to three tablespoons to dress the peppers. Small portions mean less guilt. The cheese sauce should have a creamy texture without being too stiff so that it pours well over the peppers. Think queso dip, only thinner.

This recipe is a mini celebration of the pepper, as each part of the dish features one: mild bell as the base, spicy jalapeno for the sauce, and just plain hot habanero in the filling. Chiles are beautiful things. But if you prefer your food on the milder side, you can easily adjust the heat in this dish by using only one habanero and one jalapeno, or skip the spice altogether and use some finely chopped poblanos or Anaheims.

Also check out Beef-and-Cheese-Stuffed Peppers with Tomatillo Salsa.

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the Stuffed Peppers

• 2 large bell peppers (various colors, if desired), halved through the stem ends, seeds removed
• 1 tbsp olive oil, plus more for oiling
• 3/4 lb ground sirloin
• 2 habanero chiles, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped
• 1/2 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 large roma tomato, chopped
• 3 tbsp chopped cilantro, plus more for garnish
• 1 cup cooked white rice
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Peppers Ready to Boil

For the Sauce

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 jalapeno chiles, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped
• 1/4 cup nonfat milk
• 1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

For the Stuffed Peppers

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the bell pepper halves. Boil 5 minutes, until crisp-tender. Remove and cool while the filling cooks.
2. Preheat the oven to 375° F.
3. Heat a skillet over medium heat and add the olive oil. Add the ground sirloin, chiles, and onion and cook 5 minutes, crumbling the beef into small pieces.
4. Add the tomato, cilantro, and cooked rice and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the vegetables are tender and most of the liquid is absorbed, about 4 minutes.
5. Lightly oil an 8 X 8 baking dish and place the pepper halves in it cut-side up. Divide the beef-rice mixture and spoon into each pepper shell.
6. Bake, uncovered, 10 minutes.

Browned Beef, Chiles, and Onions

Cooked Beef-Rice Filling for the Peppers

Stuffed Peppers Ready to Bake

For the Sauce

1. Heat a saucepan over medium heat and add the olive oil. Add the jalapenos and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the milk and gradually stir in the cheese a little at a time, stirring constantly to prevent clumping.
3. Continue stirring until the cheese is completely melted and the texture is creamy, but not too thick. 
4. Season with salt and pepper and keep warm, covered, over low heat until ready to use.

Chile-Cheese Sauce

Beef-and-Rice-Stuffed Peppers with Chile-Cheese Sauce

To serve, place 1 stuffed pepper on each of 4 plates and spoon 2-3 tablespoons of cheese sauce over the top of each. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve.