Spinach Dolmades drizzled in Avgolemono
Dolmades are traditionally made with vine leaves, however we have an abundance of homegrown spinach at the moment and decided to fill some spinach leaves with mince and rice, then drizzled them in a yummy avgolemono (egg lemon sauce).
Avgolemono is optional and if you prefer, you can just pour over lemon juice or even eat them with natural Greek yoghurt.
Keep in mind the amount of spinach leaves depends on the size of them. If they are small you can use one whole leaf, otherwise you can cut the spinach leaves in half and get 2 dolmades out of each leaf. We also carefully cut the hard part of the stalk off, otherwise it makes it hard to roll.
This recipe makes around 50 pieces.
Ingredients
- 1/4 x kilo pork mince
- 1/4 x kilo veal mince
- 1 x large onion, finely chopped
- 3 x eggs
- 1 x tomato, grated
- 1/2 x cup parsley, finely chopped
- 1 x cup rice
- 1/4 x cup olive oil, extra for drizzling
- 2 x cups water
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 x lemons, juiced
- spinach leaves
Method
- Place mince, rice, onion, tomato, parsley, one egg and olive oil in a large bowl and mix with hands until all ingredients are well combined.
- Add salt and pepper, mix again and set aside.
- Take a large saucepan and fill with water 3/4 of the way. Bring water to a boil.
- Blanch spinach leaves for one minute and then allow them to cool.
- One by one, begin making your dolmades by taking about one tablespoon of the mince mixture and placing it on the spinach leaf, towards the stalk end of the leaf (see photo above).
- Carefully cut large part of stalk off the end.
- Firmly roll the stalk end over the mixture, then tuck in the sides and roll up completely.
- Place dolmada into a large casserole dish.
- Repeat this process until you have used up all the mince mixture and ensure you place dolmades close together in layers, so they don’t unravel while cooking.
- Season with salt and pepper and add 2 x cups water and drizzle with olive oil.
- Place a dinner plate on top of the dolmades to weigh them down and cover with lid.
- Cook for about an hour or until mince and rice is cooked all the way through and set aside with lid still on.
- To make your avgolemono (egg lemon sauce) whisk 2 eggs with lemon juice. Take some of the juice from the bottom of the casserole dish and mix it in, continue whisking for a couple of minutes.
- Pour avgolemono over dolmades and serve.
*Image and recipe by flavours and flair
