Got an over abudance of courgettes this summer? These courgettes stuffed with rice, ground turkey, fresh herbs and cinnamon, this dish is a surefire summer hit!
بِسْــــــــــــــــــــــمِ اﷲِارَّحْمَنِ ارَّحِيم
السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته
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Until then, I'll just have to somehow survive this heat.
But there are some many good things about the weather here. One being that we get to enjoy summer's bounty. Like courgettes for instance. Courgettes (or zuchinni) are a REAL Algerian vegetable. Present in almost every Algerian dish from Couscous, to Rechta, Chourba to Dolma. They overtake Algerian gardens and markets. It's easy to come back from the market with monster sized bags of of these babies for next to nothing. They one of the lowest calorie foods out there, a mere 17 calories per 100g yet pack are a nutritional powerhouse. It contains no saturated fats or cholesterol. Its peel is good source of dietary fiber that helps reduce constipation and offers some protection against colon cancers. It is a very good source of potassium, fiber, vitamin A, vitamine C, folates, carotenes, lutein and zea-xanthin. And also have moderate levels of iron, thiamin, pyridoxine, riboflavin and minerals like iron, manganese, phosphorus, and zinc. Yeah, so you know my kitchen is always brimming with courgettes.
They're great as fritters, in quickbreads, muffins, stuffed, broiled, sauteéd, grated or puree into pancakes, made into dips or tapenades or even raw in salads.
One of my favorite ways to enjoy courgettes are stuffed. Algerian stuffed Dolma that is. What is Dolma you ask? Dolma comes from the Turkish word dolması which means stuffed. It's a universal term for any vegetable that's hallowed out and stuffed. Usually a mixture of ground meat, sometimes rice, frik, bread or other vegetables are used. I've shared the traditional Dolma Qarâa that uses potatoes, courgettes and is cooked with chickpeas. Today, I'm going to change it up a little bit by presenting MY favorite dolma that uses rice instead of my late MIL's breadcrumbs, peas and is sans el-akda, the lemon and egg thickener.
Healthy changes: By replacing the usual ground beef with lean ground turkey I've lower the lower saturated fat and calories making this more heart healthy. Also by replacing the chickpeas with green peas I've reduced the calories, lower the carb and fat content and upper the protein by 2.5grams. Peas are really little powerhouses of nutrition. Peas have anti-aging and anti-cancer properties, as well as high levels of anti-oxidants and vitamins zinc, Vitamin A, E and C. These vitamins can help fight against wrinkles, alzheimer’s, arthritis, bronchitis, osteoporosis and candida, high blood pressure and bad cholesterol.
Just one cup of peas contain 44% of your Vitamin K which helps to anchor calcium inside the bones. It’s B vitamins also help to prevent osteoporosis. And peas are also enviromentally friendly. Peas work with bacteria in the soil to ‘fix’ nitrogen from the air and deposit it in the soil. This reduces the need for artificial fertilizers since one of their main ingredients is nitrogen. After peas have been harvested the remaining plant easily breaks down to create more organic fertilizer for the soil.
And finally by replacing the breadcrumbs with rice, this dish becomes gluten - free. To be Paleo or Primal friendly, simplly omit the rice and make all meat filling and meatballs.
Don't like courgettes? No worries. You can easily use another vegetable to stuff, for example potatoes, summer squash, pumpkin, onions, aubergines, tomatoes, cardons or even make celery bundles.
- Looking for more mouthwatering Algerian main dishes? Try this Algerian Chicken and Olives. Or this Algerian Meat and Potatoes.
- Or prehaps healthy Algerian vegetarian dish? Try this Algerian garden vegetable stew.
- Or browse through the recipe index to get inspired.
HOW DO YOU LIKE TO make your favorite algerian healthier?
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Salem aleykoum
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your delicious recipe, i like it!!!!
Have a nice day!
Aawrwb sis, at what point do you put the peas in the sauce? I can't find it in the recipe.. JazakAllahu khir
ReplyDeleteLOVE this dish - saw it in my Pinterest feed today and knew *just* what to do with the surplus of qar'aa the man brought home. Didn't have the energy today to actually hollow them out and stuff them, so I just cut them in thirds, and added them to the sauce, and made plain meatballs (omitted the rice and egg). Also used smen/ghee instead of oil and chicken broth instead of water to amp up the flavor, thyme/nutmeg instead of coriander/cinnamon, and added some peeled new potatoes as there's a surplus of those too masha'Allah. I like the idea of adding fresh coriander tho, will have to try it that way next time insha'Allah!
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