Food & Beverage

Among the rich flavors and dishes of Turkish cuisine, dolma has a special place. Dolma is a family of stuffed dishes that even dates before the Ottoman Empire and literally translates as "stuffed."  As a matter of fact, it is a delicious dish that you can find in the cuisines of the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Mediterranean, the Aegean, and the Middle East. Hollow out something and fill it with different ingredients. That is the most basic description of dolma. Whatever you can think of, from cabbages to fruit, if it can be hollowed out and filled with stuffing such as rice, bulgur, or meat, then it is good for enough to make a dolma. All you have to do is decide what you will fill it with. Let's examine closely the most popular varieties of this dish in Turkish cuisine.

Peppers

When it comes to dolma, stuffed peppers are the first thing that comes to people's minds, no question asked. The stuffed pepper is stuffed red or green peppers that are filled with a mixture of rice cooked with various spices and can be served cold or hot. Stuffed peppers can also be made by adding minced meat, which is usually served hot, but the meatless variety made with olive oil can also be eaten cold. The dish often decorates the tables of every Turkish household. There are also different cooking methods with different ingredients to discover. Peppers are the most popular vegetable for stuffing, but there are also lots of other interesting options.

Eggplant

Eggplants to be used for stuffing are usually preferred dried. Fresh or dried eggplants are filled with stuffing and the main ingredient of it is rice. As with stuffed pepper, stuffed aubergine can be cooked in the oven or boiled in a pot. Stuffed eggplant can be even dazzlingly delicious when prepared by experienced crafty hands.

Onions

In Turkish cuisine, we added onions to almost every dish. In this case, we fill the onions rather than add them to a dish. Stuffed with spicy rice onion stuffing creates a delicious result. This variety of dolma is a type that will make even those who don't like onions fall in love.

Artichokes

This stuffed dish from Aegean cuisine is stuffed artichokes. This healthy vegetable is hollowed out and filled with a mixture enriched with Aegean green herbs, the main ingredient of which is also rice or bulgur. The herbs from Aegean cuisine especially enrich the stuffing of this dolma. The stuffing is made by adding dill, fresh mint, parsley, and fresh onion, which creates quite a fresh taste.

Mussels

A seafood can be surprising as a stuffing dish but the taste of it will surprise you even more! Stuffed mussels are perhaps the most loved variety of dolma. Again, the main ingredient is rice, enriched with spices, and sometimes sweet ingredients such as currants are added as well. These ingredients are placed on top of clean, cooked mussels inside the shell. The shells are then closed and cookies again. It is also a very popular street food. Stuff mussels are served with a slice of lemon to enhance the flavor even more.

Grape Leaves

This variety, known by some as sarma or wrapping is perhaps one of the most difficult but equally delicious offerings of Turkish cuisine. Turkish people have a very special place in their hearts and stomachs for sarma. It's rare to find someone who doesn't like it. And you will be a fan of sarma for sure. The rice enriched with different flavors such as currants, pine nuts, cinnamon, and other spices is spread on the leaves and prepared by folding the leaves into neat rolls. There are also different types of stuffing made using leaves in this manner like black cabbage and chard.