Mahashi (Middle Eastern stuffed vegetables)
Squash and eggplant stuffed with a savoury and herbaceous meat and rice mixture then simmered in a rich tomato sauce.
Equipment
- Zucchini corer https://amzn.to/3IacotM (affiliate link)
- Food processor https://amzn.to/3Xfooyc (affiliate link)
Ingredients
- assorted veggies, squash and small eggplants enough to snugly fill a 12-inch pot when standing. My pot fit about twelve zucchini and five eggplants
- kosher salt
For the stuffing (hashwa)
- 1 lb ground meat beef or lamb
- 1 small onion minced
- black and white pepper
- 1 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp coriander
- pinch cardamom
- pinch Aleppo pepper
- 1 cup medium or short grain rice washed (I recommend Egyptian rice- https://amzn.to/3DPumyQ affiliate link)
- 1 cup mixed minced fresh herbs I used half parsley, half cilantro, dill is a common choice as well
- olive oil
For the sauce
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 3-4 cloves garlic minced
- 5 tbsp tomato paste
- 6 cups water
Instructions
- Cut the tops of the veggies and hollow them out using a zucchini corer.
- Sprinkle liberally with kosher salt and set aside. The salt will draw moisture out of the veggies.
- In a hot pan with some oil, saute ground meat with spices until only cooked half-way. Add chopped onion and allow to soften then remove from heat.
- In a small bowl, mix the meat with rice and fresh herbs.
- Shake off the water that was drawn out of your veggies.
- If using eggplant, sear the skins in the pan you cooked the meat in.
- Stand veggies upright in a pot that holds them snugly. You can tuck onion quarters, garlic or other aromatics between to fill gaps and add flavour.
- Using fingers or a small spoon, drop the stuffing in. Don't jam it in too tightly, the rice needs room to expand.
To make sauce
- Heat up some olive oil in a small sauce pan and saute garlic for a few minutes, then add tomato paste. Saute 4-5 minutes.
- Add water and plenty of salt and pepper. Taste it. It should be assertively seasoned.
- Pour sauce over the veggies until they are covered about 3/4 of the way.
- Bring to a boil, turn down to medium heat and cook covered for about 45 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes afterwards.
- Serve hot with sauce spooned over and yogurt on top.
Notes
It is difficult to give an exact number of veggies that you can fill with this amount of stuffing, as this is affected by many variables such as the size of your veggies, the manner in which they are stuffed etc. For the photographed recipes I actually had the perfect amount of stuffing for those veggies. It is common to have left over veggies or stuffing. Left over stuffing can be cooked separately as you would cook rice, for an herbed meat and rice dish. You could also freeze excess for later use.
Finely minced tomato can also be added to the stuffing.