Vegetarian Gemista: Greek-Style Stuffed Roasted Vegetables

[Music] hi everyone welcome to dimitra's dishes so today I'm going to teach you how to make a lovely meatless Monday entree because who doesn't want to go meatless every now and then I'm going to teach you how to make my vegetarian yummy stuff there basically stuffed peppers and tomatoes that are filled with a vegetarian filling very delicious you won't miss the meat I promise we're gonna go over the sauce ingredients first because it just has a few steps the sauce is my basic sauce that I made over and over again I would like to name it the magic sauce and maybe write a little cookbook about it because it's a basic base rest it's a basic recipe that you must have as part of your recipe repertoire because it's used over and over and over again and here's another example however we're gonna use it the ingredients are so simple and easy I have some onions that are sauteing in some olive oil in here in my pot there's some canned pureed tomatoes I always buy canned tomatoes because they're nice and sweet and then I pureed them don't have to worry about looking for crud the crushed kind and they're always unseasoned I have a little bit of sugar salt pepper a little bit of red pepper flakes and some oregano that's it so once the onions are nice and golden we're just gonna grate and I also forgot to mention if this is gonna be some garlic in this the recipe calls for one garlic clove but these are small so I'm using two so now we're just gonna add the grated garlic in here and just let it warm through a few seconds then we're gonna add our pureed tomatoes a little bit of salt some freshly ground black pepper some oregano and it's totally optional if you like some heat you're gonna put some crushed red pepper flakes we're gonna let this cook about ten minutes or so until it thickens a bit and then we're gonna move on to the next step so after ten minutes or so the sauce will have thickened I also added a little bit of sugar about a half a teaspoon you're gonna go in and taste it and adjust the seasoning if it needs more salt or pepper but at this point it tasted really good to me I'm gonna add it to my baking pan if you want to you can put some sliced kalamata olives in here but this is good for me I'm gonna set it aside and this is gonna be the base the sauce is done it's in the baking pan use whichever baking pan you have gonna set it aside and we're gonna go over all of the rest of the ingredients so I have 2 Tomatoes 2 bell peppers some garlic that's peeled any short grain rice that you have then I have some olive oil zucchini and onion some potatoes cut into wedges a little bit of salt pepper some oregano feta cheese fresh mint and fresh parsley so the onion that I have here is really just for show so I remember to list it as one of the ingredients I used half of the onion for the sauce and I use the other half of the onion for the filling so in my pan right here I just sauteed onion and olive oil just until it was nice and soft just like we started off most recipes if that takes anywhere between 10 to 15 minutes and now I'm just gonna add my garlic in there so here it is just integrated over my microplane and just add it in there until it warms through we're just gonna put in there grated garlic just needs to warm through it doesn't need to cook any more because it's cut so finely that it will burn if you heat it too much the garlic is good to go so now we're just gonna add our rice in here and just we're just gonna cook it in the oil and in the onions until it's translucent that's gonna take four to five minutes so while that's happening we're also seasoned a little bit so while that's happening we're just going to get our vegetables ready so I'm just going to cut the tops off because I'm going to save them and take the insides out we're going to discard all of the seeds now you can do this with all bell peppers or all tomatoes it's up to you what you prefer we're also going to slice the tops off of the tomatoes so we're going to scoop out the center of the tomato because we're going to use that in the filling just like that you have a nice little place for the filling to sit what I'm going to do is I'm just going to chop up this tomato so that way you can just melt right into the filling when we add it so once the rice starts to become a little bit translucent around the edges we're gonna add the tomato in and then I'm just gonna chop up the zucchini I'm just gonna chop up the zucchini into little cubes and because I like to season every step of the way we're gonna see them with a little bit of salt and some freshly ground black pepper just like that I'll add the zucchini in we're gonna season again with a little bit of salt and some more freshly ground black pepper give everything a nice mix and then we're gonna add some water and we're gonna cook this over high heat medium high heat for a few minutes until the rice absorbs all the water and everything reduces down a bit and I'll show you what it looks like as soon as we get there after about 7 or 8 minutes on high heat the water and the liquids are going to be absorbed the tomatoes are going to break down and the zucchini and the rice are gonna be almost halfway cook through this is where you want to stop and turn the heat off at this point we're just gonna chop up finely chop up our herbs now I have some mint fresh mint and some fresh parsley you can use dill if you like as well the more herbs the better in this very fresh tasting dish so I'm just gonna take the pot off of the heat I'm gonna add the herbs in when the herbs hit that hot mixture it just smells incredible and fresh in here mix it up really nicely and then last but not least I'm going to add the feta cheese in here you can leave this vegan if you want and just leave the fat out maybe add some finely chopped kalamata olives but I love feta cheese so I'm just gonna crumble it in here and mix it up and last but not least I forgot that I'm just gonna add a little bit of dried oregano just mix it up and I'm gonna set this aside now this is done now we're just going to put everything all together so I'm gonna bring my pan that has the sauce in it I'm gonna put my potatoes in here and I'm also gonna season them a little bit with some salt with a little bit of oregano and a tiny bit of black pepper and now it's time to fill the peppers will do the peppers first we're just gonna go ahead and put the filling in here and put it in the sauce same thing with the tomatoes if you want to cut the acidity of the tomatoes you can sprinkle them with a tiny bit of sugar inside I'm not gonna do that because I feel like the sauce has so much flavor I want it to taste really really fresh so I'm not even gonna season the insides with any salt or anything I think the filling has a lot of flavor so we're good in that area and many times recipes for a yummy start tell you to fill them three quarters of the way up because the rice is gonna continue to cook in here but there's not that much rice in this filling and even if it does puff up a little bit during cooking it's gonna be fine so I like to fill them all the way up to be honest I don't like to waste any of this filling so I'm just gonna let this fill and cook alongside the vegetables inside the sauce I'm gonna put the tops on my vegetables and now I'm just gonna drizzle the tops of the vegetables with just a little bit of olive oil and this is optional you don't have to do this and I'm gonna sprinkle a tiny bit of salt I'm gonna cover the top with some parchment paper and then with aluminum foil my oven is preheated at 400 degrees Fahrenheit I'm gonna cook these covered for about 35 to 40 minutes then I'm gonna uncover them and let them cook at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for another 40 minutes 35 to 40 minutes or just until the potatoes are fork tender and everything is beautifully cooked and I'm going to show you what that looks like as soon as without the yummy star ready they baked covered at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 minutes and I uncovered them and then you're gonna want to let them bake as long as it takes for the potatoes to cook fully mine took about 45 minutes this time you can always raise the temperature a little bit because it's nice when the vegetables get a little a nice char on top you could take it all the way up to 450 degrees if the sauce starts to dry up go ahead and add just a little bit of water like a quarter to half cup of water that should keep everything nice and balanced we're gonna go in and give this a taste now I'm gonna take some of this filling that's that's sitting over the sauce and just caramelized really beautifully but take a look at how gorgeous these vegetables look pan is still really hot look at how nice and charred this bell pepper is how beautiful that filling looks so nice and refreshing and the sauce has thickened let me get some of that sauce too onto my plate perfect now again you could also you could chop up some tell them about the olives and you could have added them to the filling whatever your favorite vegetable is go ahead and use that you could do eggplant you could do mushrooms get creative and let me know how you switched it up in the comment section down below I always love to hear how you guys recreated these recipes and if you can please share pictures of me on Instagram and on Facebook I always I get so happy when I see the pictures anyway I'm gonna go in and give this a taste still steaming hot mmm I love that tomato sauce put it over anything and it should you know it's gonna be good but I love the way the zucchini has just gotten the perfect amount of like softness to it it's just almost melts in your mouth when it when you eat it the rice is perfectly cooked you could also add scallions to this so if you are using scallions either leave out all of the onions and just put an equal amount of scallion in it or once the onions softened go ahead and add maybe five six chopped up scallions and it'll add more freshness and just flavor to the meal you guys need to try this out the recipe as always is on the website www.cpsc.gov in the description box let me know what you think thumbs up and subscribe if you haven't and I will see you all next time yes

Channel: Dimitra's Dishes

Views: 79,989

Keywords: cooking show, greek food, greek recipes, Dimitra Khan, euro bakery and cafe, easy recipes, gemista, vegetarian meals, greek vegetarian, stuffed vegetables, roasted stuffed veggies

Id: v3k82NMQPM0

Length: 10min 37sec (637 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 25 2019