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Zeytinyagli Yaprak Sarmasi

A Turkish dish of vine leaves stuffed with a rice and nut mixture, cooked in olive oil and lemon juice.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and pine match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,062 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Zeytinyagli Yaprak Sarmasi

Time50 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the leaves

  1. Wash vine leaves and remove coarse stems.

  2. Put water and a teaspoon of salt in a pot. Bring to boil and add half of the leaves. Simmer for 4-5 minutes, turning over once.

  3. Simmer the other half in similar fashion.

  4. Measure the cooking liquid and complete it to 2 ¾ cups, then set aside.

Make the rice filling

  1. Peel, wash, and finely chop onions; place in pot with oil and nuts, cover, and sauté for 20 minutes over low heat, stirring occasionally.

  2. Stir a few times with the lid removed so nuts brown.

  3. Wash and drain rice, add to pot, and stir a couple of times.

  4. Add remaining salt, sugar, and 1 ¾ cups of hot cooking liquid; stir and sprinkle with currants.

  5. Simmer on medium then low heat for 10-15 minutes until liquid reduced.

  6. Wash parsley and dill, remove stems, and finely chop.

  7. Add parsley, dill, mint, spices, and lemon juice to cooked rice; leave covered for 10 minutes.

Wrap and cook

  1. Place vine leaves so that the side with veins faces inside when wrapped.

  2. Place prepared filling on one side of leaf, fold side edges over filling, then wrap.

  3. Cover bottom of shallow saucepan with vine leaves and removed parsley and dill stems, then place wrapped vine leaves over them.

  4. Place a heat-proof flat plate over the leaf wraps (dolmas).

  5. Heat remaining boiling liquid and add to pan slowly, pouring from the edge of the dolmas.

  6. Cover and simmer over low heat for 50 minutes.

  7. Transfer to serving dish when cool, and garnish with lemon slices.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

700Calories
11 gProtein
34 gFat
95 gCarbs

Counts 12 of 14 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 12 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Pine Nut1 oz (28g)191
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Dill5 sprigs fresh (1g) / 1 tsp dried4
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Peppermintnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Olive + pinetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Pine + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together284 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Olive + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Olive + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,994 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Vine leaves
Wrap the filling and hold it together while the rolls cook.
Rice
Absorbs the cooking liquid and oil, becoming the bulk of the tender filling.
Olive oil
Carries flavour and adds richness, helping the rice stay moist and separate.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it sautés, building the base flavour of the filling.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the herbs and balances the sweetness and spices.
Pine nuts
Browning in the pot adds a toasty, nutty aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Simmer the rolls over low heat with a plate on top. Low, steady heat keeps the leaves tender and the rice cooking evenly without splitting the wraps. The weight of the plate keeps the rolls packed and submerged so they hold their shape.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, olive, pine, nuts, rice, sugar, parsley):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, olive, pine, nuts, rice, sugar, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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