Greek Dolmades Recipe with Lemon Sauce
Serves 50
30 mins prep
100 mins cook
130 mins total
Greek dolmades are so delicious. They're filled with a herby rice and meat mixture, and they look beautiful served on your table.
Lemon sauce
Gently remove the grape leaves from the jar; start by grabbing from the center of the jar and gently pulling the grape leaves up and out. Flatten the roll of leaves out so you can easily grab them to fill them. Set aside in a bowl or plate.
Prepare the large pot: Set aside 8 grape leaves. Layer the bottom of the pot with a drizzle of olive oil and then layer 4 grape leaves, overlapping them to cover most of the bottom of the pot. Then add 4 slices of lemon, another drizzle of olive oil and layer 4 more grape leaves. Set aside.
Make the filling: Combine the ground beef, rice, diced onion, salt, pepper, olive oil and fresh minced dill and mix to fully combine.
Fill the grape leaves: Lay a grape leaf, vein side up, flat on your work surface. Place 1 tablespoon of filling in the center of the leaf and then fold the left and right sides together and then roll up to complete a roll.
Repeat until all of the filling is used and place the grape leaf rolls one by one into the pot, seam side down, beside eachother, tucking them in tightly beside eachother. You'll more than likely have two layers of rolls and thats ok!
Cook the dolmades: Once all of the dolmades have been placed in the pot place a small-medium plate on top of the rolls, making sure the plate covers only about 2/3-3/4 of the diameter of the pot. Pour water into the pot, filling about halfway up the side. Bring to a boil over high heat and then turn to medium-low to keep at a simmer. Cook for 80-100 minutes, making sure to check the water level every 20 minutes to ensure it doesn't get too low. If needed, add water to keep the level around the halfway mark (you may need to add about 2-4 cups water during the cooking time).
When the dolmades are done, remove from the heat and let sit while you make the sauce.
Make the lemon sauce: using a blender, blend together the water or chicken broth along with lemon juice, 1 tbsp cornstarch and 2 eggs. Transfer to a small pot over medium heat, stirring often and let it thicken as the sauce cooks – about 3-4 minutes. Season with 1/2-1 tsp salt. Remove from the heat.
Serve the dolmades and allow people to spoon over the amount of lemon sauce they would like. Top with more fresh dill if desired and cracked black pepper and fresh lemon wedges.
