Greek Gemista - Stuffed Peppers and Tomatoes with Rice
The vegetables are hollowed out and their insides chopped back into the filling. Herbs, rice and pine nuts, nothing else - gemista needs no minced meat and in Greece is usually made exactly this way.
Why this dish is good for you
The filling uses the scooped-out flesh, so nothing is lost - vitamin C and lycopene included. Seven grams of fibre a portion, and the pine nuts bring the magnesium and vitamin E that rice lacks.
Ingredients
- Tomatoes(large, firm fruit; cut off the lids and hollow them out)600 g
- Bell pepper(four large ones, deseeded)500 g
- Courgette(finely diced, into the filling)200 g
- Rice(weighed raw, short grain - it doubles as it swells in the filling)150 g
- Onion(finely diced)150 g
- Olive oil45 g
- Pine nuts(toasted in a dry pan)25 g
- Parsley(flat-leaf, roughly chopped)20 g
- Mint(fresh, chopped)8 g
- Salt4 g
Method
- 1
Cut the lids off the tomatoes and peppers and set them aside. Scoop out the insides of the tomatoes, keep them and chop them finely - they become the liquid of the filling.
- 2
Heat the oven to 180 degrees.
- 3
Sweat onion and courgette in the olive oil for ten minutes, add the chopped tomato insides and reduce for five minutes.
- 4
Stir in the raw rice, pine nuts, parsley, mint and salt. The rice stays raw - it cooks inside the filling in the oven.
- 5
Fill the vegetables only three quarters full, because the rice swells, put the lids back on and stand everything tightly together in a dish.
- 6
Pour in a finger's depth of water and bake covered for 50 minutes, then uncovered for another 15 to 20 minutes until the lids take colour. Serve lukewarm.
🍅 Warum der Reis roh in die Füllung kommt
Precooked rice takes up no more liquid and turns to mush in the oven. Filled in raw, it soaks up exactly the juices the tomato and pepper release as they bake - which is why the filling tastes of the vegetables rather than of rice.
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