Gemista (or yemista) are traditional Greek stuffed vegetables. We hollow out tomatoes and capsicum and replace with a rice and vegetable stuffing. We surround the gemista with chunked potatoes and zucchini and bake for an hour or so. The gemista will be plump and meltingly soft. This ugly-delicious dish is Greek food personified!
Gemista (pronounced ye-meesta) is the epitome of everything that's good (and healthy) about Mediterranean food. It contains fresh vegetables, rice, herbs ….and (lots of) olive oil. Please don’t try and hold back with the oil. Its abundance here is paramount to achieving soft, delicious, flavoursome gemista.
This dish ticks lots of boxes:
- fun and easy to prepare – no special tools needed
- one pot meal – all the cooking happens in the oven
- best at room temperature
- better eaten a day or two after making
- can make ahead and throw in the oven when needed
- reheats easily, without compromise to texture or flavour
The quantity suggested here serves from 3 to 12 people. Three people would be a generous main course, assuming a whole capsicum and a whole tomato each. Twelve people would be a side dish of half a tomato or capsicum each.
This dish happens to be vegan and gluten-free. Apart from tasting delicious, this fact makes it a dish worth having in your wheelhouse. It is substantial enough to be a meal in its own right. Its soft richness works exceptionally well with a Greek salad. Salty feta cheese, fresh acidic tomatoes and crunchy cucumber contrast perfectly. You could serve it as part of a Greek feast, with other classics such as lamb shoulder or moussaka.
🥘 Ingredients
Try to find capsicum and tomatoes that are even-sized, for consistent portioning. It’s not the end of the world if there is some variation though; it will still cook fine and ‘work’. I've suggested weights for the tomatoes and capsicums that will make emptying and filling them easy. This would be quite fiddly if you use smaller veg. The amount of filling is perfect for stuffing 3 capsicums (we chop up the fourth) and 3 tomatoes.
Green capsicum/bell peppers - I like green for the colour contrast against the tomatoes. The filling is naturally sweet. If you prefer sweeter capsicums, go for yellow, orange or red. These are riper versions of the same vegetable.
Potato – I’ve found that new potatoes work well here. Potatoes cooked like this won’t go crisp – the low cooking temperature and mostly covered cook see to that. We want the potatoes to melt in the mouth and soak up all those wonderful pan juices
Short-grain rice – a risotto-type rice, such as arborio is important. It absorbs all the flavours added to it as it cooks and swells up. This leaves the gemista tender, but not sloppy. The rice will end up very soft, not at all al dente. There is no need to precook the rice
Lemon juice – important to spritz over finished dish to add a pop of zing and freshness
Olive oil – this dish is unapologetically oily. Don’t hold back and use a good quality extra virgin olive oil
🔪 Instructions
This is a very satisfying dish to prepare. We waste nothing - we scoop out the tomato flesh….but add it back again. We use the zucchini and the potato two ways. Both are finely chopped for the filling and roughly chunked to surround the gemista. We stuff three of the capsicum and finely chop the fourth. The recipe sounds complex, but trust me – follow the steps in the recipe card below and it will be a breeze. Prep takes about 35 minutes.
Use a tablespoon with a thin sharp edge to scoop out tomato/capsicum contents. It’s handy for cutting through the membranes without piercing the skin. Cup the capsicums and tomatoes in the palm of your non-dominat hand and scoop with the other.
We make the filling with a mix of rice, tomato flesh, grated potato and zucchini, chopped capsicum, tomato puree, salt and herbs.
We make our vegetable ‘bowls’, prepare our filling and chunk up our other veg to dot around the gemista. Now we only have to assemble our dish for the oven. Fill the veg loosely, almost to the top; don’t overfill or pack down. The rice will swell and grow, pushing the vegetable caps up a bit.
We start the bake at a higher temperature uncovered to get a bit of colour on the veg.
We take the gemista out of the oven and reduce the heat. We then pour a little water around the gemista (not on top) to help create a flavoursome stock. This acts as a braise for the potatoes and zucchini and creates steam to cook the rice. We cover the dish with foil and return to the oven. We bake for another hour or so, until the rice is cooked all the way and the potatoes are very soft.
📖 Recipe
Equipment
- Baking dish, about 20 x30 cm. You want all the stuffed veg to sit in a single layer, but still be quite a snug fit. The capsicums can lie on their side if that works better.
Ingredients
- 4 green capsicums/bell peppers divided
- 3 large tomatoes
- 500 g zucchini approx. four small
- 500 g potatoes approx. 3 medium sized, divided
- salt
- Tablespoon dried mint
- large handful fresh parsley
- Tablespoon tomato paste
- 100 g short or medium grain rice uncooked, no need to rinse
- Tablespoon lemon juice
- 180 g olive oil divided
- Tablespoon dried oregano
- 3 whole cloves
- 250ml water
- lemon juice to serve
Instructions
- Preheat Oven - to 200°C
- Capsicums - put the ugliest capsicum aside (for chopping up later). Cut a small cap off the remaining three (the stem end) and keep these. Empty the inside carefully with a thin-edged spoon. You can discard these seeds and white membrane. Place the empty capsicums in the roasting pan4 green capsicums/bell peppers
- Tomatoes - cut a small cap from all the tomatoes and reserve these. Scoop out the insides of the tomatoes with a spoon and tip out into a sieve set over a large bowl (don’t discard anything). You’ll use the seeds and flesh retained in the sieve, plus the tomato juice in the bowl underneath later. Place the empty tomatoes in the roasting pan3 large tomatoes
- Zucchini & Reserved Capsicum - cut off a section of zucchini that is about a quarter of the total weight. Peel and coarsely grate this into a large bowl (leave the rest of the zucchini unpeeled). Finely dice the ‘ugly’ capsicum from before and add this to the grated zucchini500 g zucchini
- Prepare Filling - peel all the potato. Cut a chunk that is about the size of an egg and coarsely grate this. Set the rest of the potatoes aside for later. Add the grated potato to the zucchini and capsicum bowl. Chop up the tomato pulp from the sieve and add this (along with any seeds). Add 1 ½ teaspoons salt, mint, finely chopped parsley, tomato paste, rice, lemon juice and HALF the olive oil (90ml/6 Tablespoons)500 g potatoessaltTablespoon dried mintlarge handful fresh parsleyTablespoon tomato paste100 g short or medium grain riceTablespoon lemon juice180 g olive oil
- Stuff Vegetables - fill the tomatoes and capsicum with the rice mixture and top with their caps. Don’t press down or over-fill. You want to be able to place the lids back on without seeing the rice, which will swell as it cooks and absorbs liquid. Keep any rice left over
- Zucchini & Potatoes - to the tomato juice, add the remaining oil (90ml/6 Tablespoons), the oregano, ½ teaspoon salt and combine. Cut the remaining zucchini (unpeeled) into 1 cm slices and add to the bowl. Cut the rest of the potatoes into chunks and add these. Mix together well180 g olive oilTablespoon dried oreganosalt
- Add Chopped Vegetables - dot the zucchini and potatoes around the stuffed capsicums and tomatoes. Add any rice mixture that's left over. You want everything to be a fairly snug fit. Stick the cloves into three of the potatoes. Drizzle over any remaining oil from the bowl3 whole cloves
- Uncovered Bake – place in the oven (uncovered) for about 15-20 minutes at 200°C
- Covered Bake – take the dish out of the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 160°C . Add some water in the corner of the dish so that it leaves a layer beneath the contents. Cover with foil, return to the oven and bake for another 1 hr and 10 minutes, until the rice is really soft with no bite. Remove the cloves from the potato before serving. Spritz with lemon juice250ml waterlemon juice
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