I love stuffed vine leaves, it’s one of the family meals I remeber as I was growing up my Mum making regularly, especially when we had visitors. The best stuffed vine leaves are made with leaves fresh off the vine, but failing that, the vine leaves preserved in brine make a good substitute.

I begin by boiling the vine leaves in water for about 10 minutes, this makes them more maleable, and also takes some of the briny taste away. I usually just put them for about 10 minutes in the microwave on full power, works just as well.

I add a chopped onion which has been fried until golden and then simmered for about 10 minutes in a tin of chopped tomatoes, to the minced pork, long grain rice, salt, pepper, cinnamon, ground cloves and dried mint, also the juice of a lemon.


Here I’m ready for the assembly job:

Each vine leaf is filled with about a tablespoon of the filling and then wrapped carefully, just tight enough to keep the vine leaves tight, but not tight enough that the cooking rice causes the leaves to split.


The vine leaves are placed in a hob proof casserole, in layers.

I use an upturned plate and a large pebble I bought from Cyprus especially for this job!
Of course it was washed and boiled before being used….

The vine leaves are simmered for 45 minutes until the rice and meat are cooked through and the vine leaves have absorbed all the water.
Here’s the finished stuffed vine leaf: