Stuffed vine leaves with minced meat, rice, tomatoes and herbs. Simply delicious!
See how simple it is to create this great-tasting dish below and don’t forget that you can always print it.
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Koupepia – Stuffed Vine Leaves
Ingredients
- 1.5 Kg Minced Pork , double minced
- 380 g Carolina Rice
- 120-150 Vine Leaves
- 3 Medium – Large Yellow Onions , finely minced
- 1200 ml Vegetable Broth , or Chicken Broth, home made
- 250 g Tomato Paste
- 1000 g Water , warm
- 100 ml EVOO , Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 30 g Butter
- 1 tbsp Sweet Chilli Flakes , ground, or sweet paprika not smoked
- 2 tbsp Dry Mint , ground
- 1 tsp Cinnamon , ground
- ¾ tbsp All-Spice , ground
- 2 tbsp dry Oregano , ground
- 2 tbsp dry Coriander , ground
- 4 tbsp Lemon Juice
- ¾ cup fresh Parsley , leaves picked and finely chopped
- 1 ½ tbsp Sea Salt
- 1 tsp freshly ground Black Pepper
Instructions
- Start by placing in a large jag the tomato paste along with the warm water. Stir to dilute and add the mint, cinnamon, all-spice, oregano, coriander, salt and pepper and mix well. Keep Aside.
- Place a large pot on medium heat and add the oil and butter. Allow to heat up and for the butter to melt and add the onions, sauteing them for 4’. Add the minced meat and break it down with a wooden spoon. Cook for about 5’ until lightly browned. Add to the minced meat the diluted tomato paste with the spices and cook for about 10’. Add the lemon juice, parsley and rice, give it a good stir and cook for 10’ for the rice to soften a bit (provided that your rice normally needs 20-25’ to cook. If you are using par-boiled rice that needs 10’ total time to cook then the time in the meat mixture to soften should be about 7’) and remove from the heat. Allow to cool to start the stuffing.
- Place a medium pot into high fire and heat up for couple of minutes. You don’t want to start boiling. Remove from the fire and add in batches, the vine leaves and cook for about 1’ to soften. Drain and repeat for the rest of the grape leaves while you fill the leaves.
- Open one by one the vine leaves with the non-shiny side facing upwards making sure that the stem is cut and removed. Take about a tbsp full of the meat mixture and place it in the widest part of the leaf. Tuck in the side ends of the leave and roll tightly.
- Each of the rolled leaves is placed in a non-stick oven dish where we have added few grape leaves at the bottom to ensure that the koupepia don’t stick at the bottom. Each koupepi is snugly and tightly placed next to each with the end of the leaf facing the bottom of the dish.
- Pour on them the vegetable broth, making sure that the koupepia are submerged; if not add some water. Drizzle with some more oil and place a plate or a rectangular dish on top of them to make sure that they stay submerged and keep their shape.
- Cover the dish with aluminum foil and place in a preheated oven with the air circulation on and temperature set at 170°C and cook for an hour. Remove from the oven, take out the foil and the plate that was placed on top of them and return to the oven for 10’ more.
