Overview
Iraqi dolma is different from Greek or Lebanese dolma. Where the Levant uses just vine leaves, Iraqis fill an entire tray with hollowed vegetables: peppers, onions, eggplants, tomatoes, courgettes, sometimes potatoes, all stuffed with the same spiced rice and lamb mixture, then packed tight into one wide pan and slow-cooked under a sweet-sour tomato pomegranate broth. The result is a centrepiece dish where every diner gets a different vegetable to break into. Loved across Baghdad, Mosul and Basra, served at Friday family lunches and during Ramadan iftar. The pot is brought to the table whole, the cook ladles broth across, everyone reaches in.
The Ingredients
For the vegetables to stuff
- • 4 Green Bell Capsicums (Crysp)
- • 4 Brown Onions (Crysp), large
- • 4 Eggplants (Crysp), small
- • 4 Cherry Tomatoes on the Vine (Crysp), large
- • 30g vine leaves, jarred (optional)
For the filling
- • 400g lamb mince
- • 250g basmati rice
- • 30g Parsley (Crysp)
- • 20g Coriander (Crysp)
- • 2 tbsp tomato paste
- • 2 tsp baharat
- • 1 tsp ground cumin
- • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- • 4 tbsp olive oil
- • Salt & black pepper
For the cooking broth
- • 800ml stock
- • 3 tbsp tomato paste
- • 3 tbsp pomegranate molasses
- • 2 Crysp Limes, juiced
- • 1 tbsp Peashoots (Crysp), to garnish
Instructions
Hollow the Vegetables
Cut the tops off the bell peppers, scrape out seeds. Cut the tops off the cherry tomatoes (large ones), scoop out flesh and reserve. For onions, cut a small cap off the top and bottom, peel, then make one slit from top to bottom of each onion through to the centre. Boil the prepared onions in salted water 8 minutes until soft, drain. Once cool enough to handle, separate the onion layers, each layer becomes a wrapper. For eggplants, cut tops off and use an apple corer or thin knife to hollow out the centres carefully (reserve the flesh).
Build the Filling
Rinse the rice 3 times. Finely chop the parsley, coriander, and the reserved tomato flesh from the cherry tomatoes. In a large bowl, combine all filling ingredients, mix thoroughly with your hands. The mixture should be uniform and slightly tacky, season generously, raw rice and lamb need more salt than you think.
Stuff Each Vegetable
Fill each bell pepper with filling, leaving 1cm of space at the top (the rice expands). Fill each cherry tomato similarly. Fill each eggplant cavity. For the onion layers, place 1 to 2 tablespoons of filling in each layer, roll up like a small dolma. If using vine leaves, roll a few additional cigars with leftover filling. Cap the bell peppers and cherry tomatoes with their reserved tops to seal.
Pack the Tray
Use a wide oven-safe pot or deep baking dish (28cm wide). Place the largest, heaviest stuffed vegetables (peppers, eggplants) standing upright on the bottom, packed tightly. Tuck the stuffed onion rolls and any vine leaf cigars into the gaps between them. Place the stuffed cherry tomatoes on top, they will collapse slightly, that is fine.
Pour the Broth and Bake
In a jug, whisk together the stock, tomato paste, pomegranate molasses and lime juice. Season with salt. Pour gently over the stuffed vegetables, the liquid should come up about three-quarters of the way up the vegetables, not covering them. Cover the pot tightly with a lid or foil. Place in an oven preheated to 180°C, bake 1 hour 30 minutes. Check at 1 hour, the rice should be cooked through and the vegetables collapsed slightly inward. If still firm, bake 20 minutes more.
Uncover and Brown
Remove the lid or foil for the last 15 minutes of baking. The vegetables will develop a slightly caramelised, glossy surface, the broth will reduce and thicken. The kitchen will smell of pomegranate, tomato, and slow-cooked lamb.
Serve from the Tray
Take the tray to the table whole, this is the Iraqi way, no individual plating. Pile peashoots in the centre between the vegetables. Each diner picks the vegetable they want, places it on their plate, and ladles a few spoons of the dark glossy broth across. Eat with warm flatbread on the side. Children get the cherry tomatoes (sweetest), elders get the eggplants (softest), guests get the onions (most prized).
The Tradition
Iraqi dolma tepsi (tepsi means "tray" in Arabic) is the Friday lunch in Baghdad, Mosul and Basra, the centrepiece dish that arrives at the table whole and feeds the entire extended family. The technique of using multiple hollowed vegetables in one pot is uniquely Iraqi, distinguishing it from the single-vegetable dolmas of Greek and Lebanese cuisine. Pomegranate molasses in the broth is the Iraqi signature, giving the dish its sweet-sour edge that other regional versions do not have. In Baghdad's old market, dolma tepsi has been served daily for over a century at restaurants like Al-Tikya. In Dubai, Iraqi restaurants like Saj Lounge and Al Iraqi Restaurant offer it daily. The pomegranate is what makes it Iraqi, the rest is universal Arab.
💡 Pro Tip: Save the reserved eggplant flesh from hollowing the eggplants. Chop it finely, sauté it with olive oil and a pinch of salt for 5 minutes, and add it to the filling mixture. This is the Iraqi grandmother trick that keeps nothing wasted and gives the filling extra depth and silkiness. The dolma without this step still works, with it the filling tastes properly homemade.
