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Gemista

Published: Dec 8, 2022 by Lisa Russo

Spread the hangry love....

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.

Stuffed tomato and capsicum with potato chunks and zucchini discs on a blue patterned plate.
Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

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.

Jump to:
  • 🥘 Ingredients
  • 🔪 Instructions
  • 📖 Recipe
  • 💭 Other Veggie Mains
All the ingredients required to make gemista laid out on a stone surface.

🥘 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.

White bowl containing the gemista filling ingredients in separate piles. A small bowl of short-grain rice to the side.

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.

Hollowed out whole tomatoes and capsicum waiting to be filled; the filling in a white bowl to the side.

We start the bake at a higher temperature uncovered to get a bit of colour on the veg.

Bird's eye view of a roasting dish containing blistered whole tomatoes and green capsicum, potato chunks and zucchini discs.

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.

Bird's eye view of finished gemista fresh out of the oven - ugly delicious , slightly charred vegetables.

📖 Recipe

Stuffed tomato and capsicum with potato chunks and zucchini discs on a blue patterned plate.
Print Recipe
Gemista (or yemista) are traditional Greek stuffed vegetables. This ugly-delicious baked recipe makes a great veggie main course or side dish.
Before you start
Read the recipe carefully – you’re going to chop up one of the capsicums and hollow out the other three. You need to empty the tomatoes but keep their insides. Some of the potato is grated, the rest is chunked. You peel and grate one of the zucchini, you leave the rest unpeeled and slice. Just read the instructions carefully and you’ll be fine 😉
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.
Prep Time35 minutes mins
Cook Time1 hour hr 10 minutes mins
Resting time10 minutes mins
Total Time1 hour hr 55 minutes mins
Author: Hangry Miss

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 pan
    4 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 pan
    3 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 zucchini
    500 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 potatoes
    salt
    Tablespoon dried mint
    large handful fresh parsley
    Tablespoon tomato paste
    100 g short or medium grain rice
    Tablespoon lemon juice
    180 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 well
    180 g olive oil
    Tablespoon dried oregano
    salt
  • 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 bowl
    3 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 juice
    250ml water
    lemon juice

Notes

Make Ahead

You can fully prepare the gemista up to two days in advance. Keep well covered in the fridge. Take out of the fridge while the oven is preheating
 

Leftovers

Keep for up to 5 days in the fridge
 

Reheat Leftovers

Gemista reheats well in the microwave. If you have a whole cooked dish to reheat, you might find it easier to do in the oven. You can add 125ml (½ cup) of water around the gemista, cover with foil and bake at 160°C until heated through. This will take about 20 minutes, depending on whether the dish was cold out of the fridge or at room temperature.

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me using a pasta machine with one of my sons.

Hello! I'm Lisa. I’m the recipe developer, cook, photographer, and author behind Hangry Miss. I am a genuinely angry/often hungry person, who finds it convenient to blame my Sicilian parents for both attributes.

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