Stuffed vine leaves with bulgur and chickpeas

Ingredients needed for your Stuffed Wine Leaves with Bulgur

The vine leaves are known around the world as Turkish or Greek specialties, prepared either with minced meat and rice or only with rice. But they are also a traditional dish in the Middle East. In Iran for example, besides meat they also add chickpeas. Nowadays, the stuffed vine leaves are mainly prepared with bulgur and chickpeas and when we add the tahini sauce instead of yoghurt sauce, we have an incredibly tasty vegan dish.

This recipe is really one of my very favourite meals. Just the taste of bulgur and chickpeas and the fresh sause with tahini and lemon make this stuffed wine leaves (or sarma) an amazing starter but also a main course.

How to make stuffed wine leaves with bulgur and chickpeas

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5 from 3 votes

Stuffed vine leaves with bulgur and chickpeas

Vegаn stuffed vine leaves with bulgur and chickpeas and a tasty garlic-tahini sauce. Really delicious, aromatic and different - try this interesting recipe!

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

For the stuffed wine leaves

• 400 g canned whole wine leaves
• 1 cup Chickpeas canned or precooked
• 1/2 cup bulgur
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 Lemon the zest and half juiced
• 1 handful chopped parsley
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 small onion
• Salt to taste
• black pepper to taste

For the tahini sause

• 3 tbs sesame tahini
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 Lemon juiced
• 1 clove garlic
• 3 tbs Water
• Salt to taste

Instructions

• Cook the bulgur according to the package instructions.
• Use a blender or food processor to chop the chick peas into really small pieces. They should not look like mash, but more like a soft grainy mass. Then, add the other ingredients – the finely grated lemon peel, the lemon juice, the onion, the garlic and the parsley (minced).
• Wash the vine leaves. Take the ones that are whole and dry them with a kitchen cloth. We do so that the filling sticks well to the leaves and they do not open while cooking.Put some other vine leaves (you can use broken ones here), as a layer on the bottom of a pot. This is done so that the stuffed vine leaves don’t stick and tear while cooking.
• Depending on the size of the leaves, place 1 tsp or 1 tbsp of the filling on one leaf. Then, roll up the leaves and place them at the bottom of the pot. You’ll need at least one full layer of stuffed vine leaves on the bottom, so choose the size of the pot wisely and make sure it is not too big.
• Once all rolled up vine leaves are in the pot, cover them with a plate and for extra weight, place a bowl with water on top of it. Pour in water until the stuffed vine leaves are just covered.
• Let the vine leaves cook on low heat for 30 minutes.
• Put all the ingredients for the sauce in a blender or food processor and blend until a smooth mixture is obtained. Serve the cooked vine leaves at room temperature with the tahini sauce and some lemon.