Stuffed tomatoes & peppers (Yemista)
Stuffed tomatoes & peppers (Yemista)
: Explore with taste
Cuisine: Greek
Cook time:
Total time:
Ingredients
- 1½ lb of lean ground beef
- 6 large ripe tomatoes
- 3 large green peppers
- 3 large yellow peppers
- 2 large zucchinis cut in half
- 2-3 potatoes cut in wedges lengthwise
- 2 onions finely chopped
- 4 cloves of garlic chopped
- 1 cup tomato juice + the pulp of the tomatoes
- 1 Tbsp. of tomato paste
- ½ cup of parsley finely chopped
- ½ cup fresh oregano finely chopped
- ¼ cup fresh mint finely chopped
- 12 Tbsps. of rice
- ½ cup olive oil
- 2 cups of water
- salt & pepper to taste
- sugar
Instructions
- In large skillet, brown ground beef. Rinse and set aside.
- Wash the tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini very well. Cut the tops off from each tomato and pepper, but do not discard. Cut zucchini in half.
- With a spoon, empty the tomatoes of all their pulp without puncturing the skin, and save the tomato pulp. Scoop out the zucchini pulp and also save. Scoop out pepper pulp and discard. Puree tomato pulp and set aside.
- Arrange tomatoes, peppers and zucchini in a deep baking pan. Sprinkle each tomato & pepper with a pinch of sugar.
- Coat potato wedges with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and place them between the vegetables in the pan.
- Use the same skillet you used to brown the beef , and heat the oil over medium heat. Sauté the onions and garlic.
Once onions get soft, add the rice, the pureed tomato pulp, and zucchini pulp. Cook until onions are translucent. 
- Add tomato paste, water, chopped parsley, chopped mint, chopped oregano, the ground beef, salt & pepper and cook until most of the water has been absorbed.
- Fill each tomato & pepper with the ground beef and rice mix, but allow a little room for expansion. Cover them with their tops. Fill each zucchini half, and leave uncovered.
- Pour the tomato juice to the pan with a little oil, sprinkle Parmesan over the tomatoes & peppers and bake for about 90 minutes or so at 375F or until the peppers and tomatoes are soft and the tops are brown.
- Turn the oven off, and let the food seat for a while before serving.
Notes
Along with tomatoes and peppers we like to use eggplants, zucchini, and potatoes.
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