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Stuffed tomato and capsicum with potato chunks and zucchini discs on a blue patterned plate.
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Gemista

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
Cook Time1 hour 10 minutes
Resting time10 minutes
Total Time1 hour 55 minutes
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.