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STUFFED VEGETABLES - MEMULAIM

BY NAOMI MERAN

FILLED TOMATOES WITH RICE, MUSHROOMS, TREE NUTS, CRANBERRIES AND HERBS

STUFFED VEGETABLES - MEMULAIM

What's the night? When my mother's answer back then was “Memulaim”, it meant chili peppers, courgettis, tomatoes or aubergines filled with a minced meat, herbs and rice mixture, cooked in tomato stock and baked in the oven. I always liked that very much. “Memulaim” means “filled” from Hebrew. Stuffed vegetables are very popular in Jewish cuisine and vary depending on their origin and cook. Countless nationalities live in the immigrant country of Israel, who have brought their own recipes and ingredients with them and have thus shaped Israeli cuisine. You can find Mediterranean, Moroccan, Syrian, Lebanese, Iraqi, Arab and Palestinian influences in Israeli dishes. And stuffed vegetables taste just as varied. Polish and Hungarian Jews liked to fill cabbage leaves, Egyptian and Moroccan Jews liked artichokes, Syrian Jews liked to add nuts and raisins to the filling. And so, every Jewish community has its own memulaim recipes.

• 6 tomatoes
• 1 cup of rice
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 3-4 portobello mushrooms (alternatively: mushrooms or mixed mushrooms of your choice)
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• ½ teaspoon fenugreek
• ¾ teaspoon allspice ground
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• Cook 1 pinch of cardamom or 1 capsule with the mushrooms
• salt
• pepper
• 2 tbsp cranberries, roughly chopped
• 6-8 tree nuts, roughly chopped
• A hand full of parsley, finely chopped
• 8 leaves of peppermint, finely chopped
• 2 dl vegetable stock
• 3 tbsp tomato puree
• 4-5 tbsp breadcrumbs (gluten-free)
• olive oil
• 2 tsp zaatar

PREPARATION

1. Boil the rice, drain, place in a large bowl and set aside
2. Cut off the tomato lid, carefully scoop out with a spoon. Be sure to keep tomato paste.
3. Roughly chop the cranberries and add to the rice
4. Roughly chop the nuts, add to the rice
5. Chop the parsley and peppermint, add to the rice
6. Finely chop the portobello (or mushrooms of your choice)
7. Finely chop the onion and garlic
8. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, add the onions, after 1-2 minutes add the garlic and sweat a little
9. Then add the ground coriander, fenugreek and ground allspice and mix everything. Reduce heat. 10. Add the mushrooms and fry them.
11. Add a capsule of cardamom (or a pinch of cardamom powder). Season with salt, pepper and cinnamon. Turn the mushrooms until they are soft.
12. Let the mushrooms cool down a bit and then also add to the rice and mix everything well
13. Mix the vegetable bouillon with the tomato paste (the inside of the tomatoes), tomato puree and 1-2 tbsp olive oil
14. Place the tomatoes in a baking pan and fill with the rice, mushroom and nut mixture. So that the tomatoes stand well, you can cut a very fine layer off the bottom with a sharp knife.
15. Mix the breadcrumbs, olive oil, zaatar and a little salt and serve as a topping on each tomato. Close the tomato with the lid
16. Carefully pour the tomato-bouillon mixture around the tomatoes
17. Bake the tomatoes for about 30 minutes in a hot, preheated oven

MEMULAIM:

STUFFED TOMATOES WITH MUSHROOMS AND RICE

MEMULAIM:

STUFFED TOMATOES WITH MUSHROOMS, RICE, SPICES, HERBS, NUTS AND CRANBERRIES

The stuffed tomatoes can also be prepared in advance and then just baked in the oven. They are also delicious when cold!