Greek stuffed peppers and tomatoes (gemista)
Peppers and big tomatoes filled with herby tomato rice and baked with potato wedges until soft and caramelized, a Greek summer classic.
- 115 min total
- 35 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 4
- About $3.61 a serving
- 560 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 3 tomatoes, large
- 3 green bell peppers
- 1 yellow onion, finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ¾ cup long-grain white rice
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- ½ cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh mint, chopped
- 2 russet potatoes, cut into wedges
- ¾ cup feta cheese, crumbled
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
From your pantry
- 2 tsp salt, divided
- ⅓ cup olive oil, divided
- ½ tsp sugar
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ½ cup water
Each serving has about 560 calories, 18 g protein, 68 g carbs and 25 g fat, and costs about $3.61 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No tomatoes? Roma tomatoes work.
- No green bell peppers? Red bell peppers or yellow bell peppers work.
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No long-grain white rice? Jasmine rice or basmati rice works.
- No fresh parsley? Cilantro works.
- No russet potatoes? Yukon Gold potatoes work.
- No feta cheese? Goat cheese works.
- No plain Greek yogurt? Plain yogurt or sour cream works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the oven to 375°F.
Preheat. Preheating means turning the oven on before you start, so it’s fully hot when the food goes in. Food that starts in a cold oven cooks unevenly and doesn’t brown the same.
How you’ll know: The oven beeps or its light clicks off, usually 10 to 15 minutes after you turn it on.
the tops off the tomatoes and peppers and keep them as lids.
Slice. Slicing means cutting food into flat pieces of about the same thickness. Even slices cook evenly, so none are raw while others burn.
How you’ll know: Lay a few side by side: they’re close to the same thickness from one end to the other.
Scoop the tomato insides into a bowl and them.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
Dolly’s tip: Use a spoon to scoop the tomatoes, leaving a sturdy wall so they hold up in the oven.Pull the seeds out of the peppers.
Sprinkle the insides of the hollow vegetables with ½ teaspoon salt and set them in a large baking dish.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a over medium heat and cook the onion and garlic until soft, 5 minutes.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium heatTimer: 5 min
Stir in the rice, tomato pulp, tomato paste, parsley, mint, sugar, pepper and 1 teaspoon salt. 5 minutes, until the rice starts to soak up the juice.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Medium heatTimer: 5 min
Spoon the filling into the vegetables, filling them only three-quarters full, and put the lids back on.
Dolly’s tip: The rice swells as it bakes. Overfilled vegetables burst or leave hard rice in the middle.the potato wedges with 1 tablespoon oil and the rest of the salt and tuck them between the vegetables. Pour the water into the dish and everything with the last 2 tablespoons oil.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Drizzle. Drizzling means pouring a thin, slow stream over the top of something. A thin stream spreads a little flavor a long way.
How you’ll know: You see thin lines across the food, not a puddle collecting underneath.
Cover with foil and 45 minutes. Uncover and bake until the rice is tender and the tops are , 30 to 40 minutes more.
Bake. Baking means cooking in the oven with dry heat all around the food. It cooks evenly from every side, so you can mostly leave it alone.
How you’ll know: It’s golden on top and passes the recipe’s check, like a clean toothpick or the right temperature.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Timer: 80 min
Let them 10 minutes. Serve with feta over and a spoonful of yogurt.
Rest. Resting means letting cooked meat sit for a few minutes before you cut it. It keeps cooking gently, and more of the juice stays in the meat instead of running onto the board.
How you’ll know: Loosely covered with foil, it stays hot, and very little juice runs out when you slice it.
Crumble. Crumbling means breaking food into small, rough bits with your fingers or a spoon, like feta or ground meat in the pan. Small bits spread through the dish, so there’s some in every bite.
How you’ll know: The pieces are small and uneven, about pea-size, with no big clumps left.
Timer: 10 min
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
More dinners like this
Sheet pan aloo gobi
55 min
Aloo matar (potato and pea curry)
50 min
Vegetable maqluba (upside-down rice with eggplant and cauliflower)
110 min
Turkish stuffed zucchini with rice (kabak dolması)
80 min
Vegetarian dinners ›Make-ahead and freezer-friendly ›What to make with rice and bell peppers ›What to make with rice and tomatoes ›What to make with bell peppers and tomatoes ›