Delicate vegetarian dolma recipe with a melt-in-your-mouth cheese and rice filling with lots of dill and parsley.

Stuffed Vine Leaves with Ricotta, Rice and Herb Filling

These vegetarian dolmades are another tasty version of the Turkish sarma (with meat) or the Vegetarian sarma. This time using rice, cheese, and lots of fresh herbs. And if you like them, you could also try these fish stuffed leaves, they are amazing! Or these vegetarian leaves with mushrooms.

Another recipe that is easier to make than you would think at first glance. People tend to think that making stuffed cabbage or vine leaf rolls is really difficult. Well, the thingies do look impressive after all, they really make you think you might need some special skills or lots of experience to make them properly.

Rest assured, you will not need any special skills and even a beginner will be able to roll these cheesy vegetarian dolmades. After making 3 or 4 rolls, you will get the hang of it and things could not get any easier. However, rolling the parcels will take a bit of time, so it is better to make this recipe on a day when you are not stressed with time.

Ingredients

Vine leaves:

I used vine leaves from a jar to make the rolls, they are usually readily available in any larger supermarket around here.
You could also buy vacuumed, but I prefer the jarred ones, they are softer.
To make them even softer, I boil the leaves shortly. Many people don't do that, but I have always done it, the way my grandmother always did, and the way my Syrian friend who gave me the recipe for the Syrian Stuffed Leaves does as well. Let the vine leaves drain well and cool a little bit before using them.

Rice:

I prefer using short-grain rice (Milchreis in Germany) for making cabbage or vine leaf rolls.
I used to take long-grain rice before, but although the rolls were tasty, I was never satisfied with the texture, they were always supposed to be softer, squishier.
So, I switched to short-grain rice, and voila, my rolls finally have that comforting structure I remember from my childhood.

Dairy:

Ricotta and feta.
Adding some feta makes them heartier.

Herbs:

Fresh herbs like dill and parsley and lots of them.
No dried herbs for this recipe, they would not work, you will need all the flavor of the fresh ones.

Other ingredients: onion, vegetable broth and spices.

Tips for making vegetarian dolma

The filling was enough for 32-35 rolls. You might have a bit more or less depending on the size of your leaves and how large you make the rolls.

Prepare a few more vine leaves than you would think you need, some leaves will break and some will be two small for filling. In such case, use two vine leaves to form one roll. Just place the two leaves over each other in order to form a larger “leaf”.

I soak the rice in boiling water before using it. This makes sure that the rice is properly cooked inside the rolls, there's nothing worse in this case than biting on a roll full with grainy rice, the rice in the rolls should be really soft.

This dolma recipe requires the use of lots of herbs. Ricotta has a pretty delicate taste and if you don't add other ingredients that have a stronger flavor, you might not be so pleased with the resulting dish at the end. So do make sure that you add all the required fresh herbs and that you are very generous when seasoning the filling. Taste and add more salt, pepper, chili flakes/cayenne pepper until you are satisfied with the flavor.

How to serve?

The recipe makes about 32-35 stuffed vine leaves.
It serves 2 or 3 people with a salad on the side (a nice bean salad, for instance, that is what we had) or 5-6 people as an appetizer before a more filling main dish.