Rainbow Chard Dolma

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Early Summer

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1hr 45mins

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12 dolma

Jarvi from Otter Oaks inspired this recipe when I was asking about how they like to use their rainbow chard. Dolma more generally refers to any stuffed vegetables (pepper, zucchini, etc.) but here we’ll try to recreate stuffed grape leaves, replacing the grape leaves with rainbow chard. The filling is pretty flexible—add ground meat, use couscous or quinoa instead of rice, or include any other veggies that are kicking around in the fridge. Check out this Instragram post for more photos of the rolling technique.

Ingredients

from your CSA Club Share

from your pantry

  • Short grain white rice – 1/2 c 
    • I used Illinois-grown cahokia rice
  • Cumin – ¼ tsp
  • Dried dill – ¼ tsp
  • Ground clove – 1 pinch
  • Salt – 2 big pinches

larder items

tools

  • Large pot
  • Small pot
  • Strainer

Directions

mise

  1. Rinse the rice well, and then cover with plenty of water and allow to soak for at least 15 mins.
  2. While the rice is soaking, fill a large pot with water, salt well and bring to a boil.
  3. In the meantime, prep your vegetables;
    1. Small dice the onion and chard stems
    2. Rough chop the tomato
  4. Once the water is boiling, prepare a large bowl of ice water.
  5. Add the rainbow chard leaves to the boiling water for 30 seconds.
  6. Remove the chard leaves from the boiling water and move immediately into the ice bath.
  7. Drain the boiling water from the pot and return to the stove top on medium heat.
  8. Add a generous amount of oil, and saute the onion and chard stems until soft, ~ 2 mins
  9. Add the tomato and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated, ~ 3 mins.
  10. Turn off the heat, and add the drained rice, peas, cumin, dill, clove, green garlic salt, and salt, and mix to combine.
  11. Drain the chard leaves and remove the rice mixture from the pot into a bowl.

cook

  1. To form the dolma, place a chard leaf flat on a work surface. Add ~1 T of the rice mixture on top of the chard towards the bottom and roll like a burrito. 
    1. Each piece of chard leaf should be about 4”x5”. You can use multiple pieces, as long as there is plenty of overlap. Be careful not to roll too tightly that you rip the leaves. If it does rip, you can always patch it up with another small piece of chard.
  2. Place your dolma into a small pot with the seam side down.
  3. Repeat the previous two steps, continuing to pack the dolma tightly into the pot until the bottom of the pot is filled with a single layer of rainbow chard dolma. 
  4. Gently cover the dolma with water and add a small ceramic or glass plate or bowl in your pot to hold them down.
  5. Place the pot over medium heat until it comes to a simmer, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30 mins, all while leaving the plate or bowl where it is.
  6. Remove the pot from the heat, and carefully drain the water and remove the plate.

plate

Carefully transfer the dolma from the pot to a plate. Garnish with a drizzle of olive oil or a dollop of tzatziki or yogurt and serve.