Gemista - Greek Stuffed Vegetables

4.79 from 14 votes

Gemista - Greek Stuffed Vegetables

These Greek stuffed vegetables are baked in the oven along with potatoes, and plenty of olive oil. It's a light, flavorful dish made only with fresh ingredients.

Prep Time40

Cook Time1

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Greek

Keyword: Oven baked, vegetables

Servings:

Calories: 598kcal

Ingredients

For The Filling:

1 very ripe tomato
1 small green bell pepper minced
3 garlic cloves grated or pressed
1 small onion minced
1 small zucchini grated
1 tablespoon spearmint leaves minced
2 tablespoons parsley minced
1½ tablespoons basil minced
13-14 tablespoons parboiled rice
4 tablespoons olive oil

For The Stuffed Vegetables:

4 medium-sized tomatoes
4 medium-sized bell peppers
2 medium-large zucchinis
1 medium-sized eggplant
3 medium-sized potatoes
120 ml olive oil
fine sea salt
ground pepper
aluminum foil

Instructions

Prepare The Vegetables:

Rinse all the veggies. Trim off the stem of the peppers if it's too big and cut the ends of the zucchinis.
Slice off the top of each vegetable (about 1-2cm thick) except the small zucchini, ripe tomato, and pepper that are used for the filling.
Scoop the tomato insides with a pointy tablespoon, into a bowl and set aside.
Prepare the peppers. Remove any seeds and white membranes from the peppers leaving their insides clean.
Prepare the zucchinis. Using a melon baller or a sharp knife, remove most of the inside flesh of the zucchinis and discard it. Leave a 1-2cm thick wall lining.
Place all veggies in a large pan leaving enough space around them to place the potatoes later on.

Make The Filling:

Preheat oven to 220°C / 430°F.
Grate the tomato insides and the ripe tomato for the filling into a large mixing bowl using a box grater.
Add the remaining ingredients for the filling, season with salt and pepper, and mix well.
Hollow the eggplant the same way you did the zucchini.
Stuff each vegetable using a spoon. Stir the filling after stuffing each vegetable and try to distribute it evenly to all the vegetables. Put the tops back on.
Peel the potatoes, rinse, cut them into thick wedges, then cut each wedge in half.
Add the potatoes all around the veggies to hold them in place.
Drizzle with olive oil on top of the veggies. Season them with salt and pepper. Add also a splash of water to the pan.
Bake for about 1 hour. After the first 20-25 minutes of baking, carefully cover with aluminum foil, to prevent veggies from burning on top. You can taste the rice to see if it's done. If there's still too much water in the pan, uncover it and give a final roast for about 10 minutes.

Nutrition