Many delicious dishes are not eaten often due to lack of time. In this recipe I have adapted my more time-consuming rolled Dolmas, or Grape Leaves, and deconstructed them. Now I can have one of my favorite dishes in about 30 minutes!

Deconstructed Grape Leaves for Instant Pot

1/2 jar grape leaves- (rinsed well if in salt brine)

2 cups basmati rice

1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 cup olive oil (separate)

1 1/2 small-med onion, finely chopped

1 cup water

3 cups water (separate)

juice from 2 lemons ~1/4 cup

juice from 1 lemon (separate)

lemon zest (optional)

3 tbls dried currants

2 tbls golden raisins

1 tsp salt

3 tbls fresh dill, chopped

3 tbls fresh mint, chopped

Instant Pot cook manual 4 min, 10 min natural release

Directions

– Rinse Basmati rice and soak covered for 15 minutes. Strain.

-Use sauté button and  cook onion until translucent.  Add rice, 1 cup water & juice from 2 lemons. Simmer  (still on sauté) about 5 min, remove inner pot and set on a hot pad away from heat. Mix in zest, salt, dill, raisins, currents and mint. Set aside.

-Rinse grape leaves & cut off stems. Then chop grape leaves into small pieces, putting them in a small bowl of water to help the pieces separate from each other. Once all cut swish around the water bowl and drain with hands or strainer.

-Add rice and water to instant pot with cooked onion and spices. Mix in grape leaves leaving enough to toss on top after mixing. Add juice from one lemon, remaining chopped leaves and 1/2 cup olive oil.

-Close and cook per directions above.

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I love the Divina brand Grape Leaves, no need to pre-rinse this brand! They are salted lightly leaving only the delicious flavor of the leaves.

  

Rice mix set aside:

Size we chopped the leaves after snipping off the stem with kitchen scissors.

Water rinse to get the leaves to break apart after being cut.

View of mix right before I put the lid on after I topped with lemon, leaves and olive oil.

Finished!

Hope you enjoy as much as my family does 🙂