Yalangi

Hand-rolled grape leaves stuffed with a rich mix of rice, tomatoes, parsley, and onions, cooked in olive oil and pomegranate molasses. A savory, tangy appetizer served cold.

🥄 Ingredients

• 1 kg Egyptian rice or any short-grain rice other than basmati
• 1 kg grape leaves, either pickled (2 medium jars of 500 g each) or 1 kg fresh leaves
• 250 g good quality olive oil or 1 cup
• 3 medium onions (400 g)
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 green bell pepper (sweet or hot, as desired)
• 1 red bell pepper (sweet or hot, as desired)
• 3 large tomatoes, blended
• 1 bunch parsley
• 1/2 bunch fresh mint
• 2 green onions
• 1/2 cup pomegranate molasses
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons red pepper paste
• 1 tablespoon Turkish coffee grounds
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon seven-spice mix
• Broth ingredients:
• 3 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon dried mint
• Juice of 7 lemons or 2 tablespoons citric acid (citric acid is not harmful to health, contrary to popular belief; it is the same as lemon juice and is healthy).
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon salt of salt
• 1 tablespoon dried mint
• 1 tablespoon dried mint
• Juice of 7 lemons or 2 tablespoons citric acid (citric acid is not harmful to health, contrary to popular belief).
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons citric acid
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon citric acid ...

👩‍🍳 Instructions

1. Aleppo Method:
2. Soak the rice, after washing it, in blended tomatoes for at least 1 hour.
3. Chop the onion and sauté it in a pot with olive oil until golden. Then add the red and green bell peppers and cook for 5 minutes. Now add the tomato paste, pepper paste, and pomegranate molasses to the mixture and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the rice and mix well. Sprinkle with salt, coffee, and the remaining seven-spice mix. Cover and cook for 5 minutes over low heat. Do not add any water to the rice; let it simply absorb the liquid from the vegetables.
4. At the end, while the rice is still hot, add the chopped parsley, chopped mint, and chopped green onions. Stir everything together, cover, and let it cool.
5. General Arabic Method:
6. Mix all the ingredients together while cold, then wrap the mixture in grape leaves. However, this method will result in a soft filling after the vegetables inside wilt, and it won't have the same intense flavor as rice cooked over a fire.
7. Now that you've finished rolling the yalangi as I explained in the stuffed grape leaves recipe, the rolls should be slightly thicker, about twice the size of the stuffed grape leaves with meat, because this dish has different ingredients. Cover the leaves with water, add lemon, garlic, mint, and salt, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 3 1 hours. You can be sure they're cooked by then; there's no need to check.

🌹 Decoration

Garnish the yalangi dish with lemon slices.