Mahshi – stuffed vegetables
Ingredients
- 500 g zucchini, medium size – koos-a
- 500 g long, white eggplant – be-tin-gan a-bi-ad
- 500 g long, black eggplant – be-tin-gan is-wid
- 500 g green pepper – fil-fil akh-dar
- 500 g medium, hard tomatoes – ta-ma-tam
- 2 cups rice – roz
- 1 cup parsley, finely chopped – bar-doon-is
- ½ cup coriander, finely chopped – koz-ba-ra
- 3 tbsp margarine – sam-na
- 3 tbsp tomato paste – sal-sa ta-ma-tam
- 2 medium onions, finely chopped – ba-sal
- salt and pepper – malh and fil-fil
Directions
Preparing the vegetables and stuffing
- Mix the parsley, coriander, onion, margarine, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Dissolve the tomato paste in 2 cups of warm water and add this to the mix.
- Wash the rice well, drain and add to the bowl. Stir to mix all ingredients well.
- Wash the tomatoes, zucchini, eggplants and peppers well and cut of their tops.
- Remove the insides of vegetables by holding the vegetable in your hand and pressing the tip of a sharp knife into the center of the vegetables until close to the end. Turn the knife continuously to remove the insides of vegetables. Make sure you do not cut a hole in the vegetable!
Stuffing and cooking the vegetables
- Stuff each vegetable with 1-2 tbsp of stuffing, using your fingers. Press on the stuffing to pack it firmly inside the vegetables. Do not fill the vegetable completely with stuffing to allow space for the rice to expand during cooking.
- In a large, deep non-stick pan, arrange the stuffed vegetables standing up, with the openings facing upwards.
- Add warm water to the pan until ¾ of the length of the vegetables is covered.
- Cook the vegetables on medium heat until the rice and vegetables are done. Add 1/2 cup of boiling water if needed.
- Arrange stuffed vegetables on a serving platter and serve immediately.
Tips
- Fried minced meat or dried mint can be added to the stuffing.
- Instead of tomato paste 2 cups of tomato juice can be added to the onions and the margarine. In this case boil this mixture until it thickens and then add it to the rest of the ingredients as above.