How much to stew dolma semi-finished product in a pan. How to cook dolma in grape leaves according to a step-by-step recipe with a photo. frozen grape leaves

Dolma is stuffed cabbage, but not with cabbage, but with grape leaves. The filling, as in cabbage rolls, is rice and minced meat, and different ones. But dolma can also be vegetarian.

Tasty and fragrant dolma is traditionally prepared in Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Iran, Syria, Armenia, Azerbaijan. However, cabbage rolls made from young grape leaves have also become popular in the cuisine of other nations. Recently, a Norwegian acquaintance taught my Moscow Armenian friend how to cook “real dolma” 🙂 “I will show you the recipe for dolma as it is,” a real Scandinavian guest shared his secret.

Cabbage rolls in grape leaves are much more tender than their counterparts in cabbage leaves. They have a pleasant sourness and amazing aroma. Believe me, if you have not tried it yet: the tenderness and aroma of dolma do not boil soft! As for cooking, twisting “dolmushki” is a pleasant and exciting business.

Ingredients

  • minced meat (pork + beef) - 350-400g
  • rice - 60-80g
  • onions - 1-2 pcs.
  • vegetable oil - 50-70 ml
  • butter - 30-40g
  • carrots - 1 pc.
  • black pepper, salt
  • balsamic vinegar - less than 1 teaspoon
  • zira (ground)
  • dill and parsley - medium bunch
  • dry herbs (cilantro, mint, basil)
  • grape leaves - 40-55 pcs.
  • cauldron or stewpan for 2-2.5 liters

Cooking

    Leaves for dolma. For dolma, only fresh grape leaves (small and young) are suitable. They are very tender and fragrant.

    Select leaves for dolma in advance, excluding all coarse and large leaves (especially old ones). Rinse thoroughly under running water. Then for a few seconds (5-10) dip in boiling water, remove into a colander, let drain and cool.

    Canned leaves can also be used for dolma. They are very easy to prepare. Wash young, not very large and tough grape leaves cold water. Then in batches of 5-10 pieces, dip in boiling water for 5-10 seconds. Let cool a little and, stacking in piles of 5-10 pieces, roll into rolls. Fold the resulting blanks (rolls) into a sterile jar (preferably 700-800g). This volume is enough for a one-time preparation of dolma for a family. Separately, prepare a hot brine at the rate of 1 tablespoon per 600 ml of water. Pour the hot brine over the grape leaves and roll up the lid. Before using canned leaves, it is advisable to soak in cold water for 5-10 minutes.

    Stuffing for dolma

    Peel the onion, wash and cut into cubes. Melt the butter in a frying pan. Add vegetable oil and chopped onion. Make it transparent.

    The authentic dolma recipe does not contain such an ingredient as carrots, and this step can be skipped. But here it's a matter of taste. If you use carrots, peel and rinse them. Grate on a coarse grater and combine with a lowered onion. Cook until soft about 3-5 minutes.

    Rinse rice thoroughly and boil in salted water for 3-5 minutes. Drain in a sieve and rinse with cold water.

    Combine rice and sautéed vegetables in a bowl.

    Salt and pepper to your liking.

    Traditional dolma should contain minced lamb meat, sometimes with the addition of beef. However, the more familiar to us ground pork and beef will not spoil its taste either. Enter the prepared minced meat into the rice mixture.

    Add zira and dry herbs, pour in vinegar. Cut the washed dill and parsley and also combine with the rest of the ingredients. Stir the filling for dolma thoroughly.

    Preparation of dolma rolls. Lay the vine leaf upside down. Put some filling at its base.

    Cover the filling with the protruding edges of the grape leaf.

    Bend the sides to the center.

    Roll the dolma into a tight roll. Do the same with the rest of the leaves.

    Laying dolma in a container and cooking. Place the blanks in a cauldron or stewpan (lightly grease them with olive oil) in tight rows. After filling one row, you can lay out one or two more layers. Cover the last layer of dolma with grape leaves without filling (if there are enough leaves).

    Add 2-3 more tbsp. l. olive oil and close the food with a plate turned upside down along the diameter of the saucepan, having built a kind of press. This is done so that the dolma rolls do not open during cooking.

    Now fill the dolma with water or broth, vegetable or meat, so that the dolma is covered by 1-2 cm. Place on the stove and bring to a boil. Reduce the fire and cook the dolma (under the lid) until tender, about 50-60 minutes. During the cooking process, add more water if needed.

    After that, carefully so as not to burn yourself, remove the plate and tilt the stewpan to one side. Very carefully scoop some fragrant juice out of the pan - you will need it in order to prepare the sauce.

Serve drizzled with sour cream, curdled milk or hot sauce. One of the most delicious sauces is listed below. Dolma is served with it in Greece.

Egg-lemon sauce and dolma cream

Ingredients:

  • 5 lemons
  • 5 eggs
  • 1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch (for cream)
  • ½ teaspoon salt (for cream)
  • a little less than half a teaspoon of pepper (for cream)

How to cook:

  1. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites into a thick meringue. Continuing to beat, add the yolks to them, lemon juice and juice from a saucepan. Your egg and lemon sauce is ready.
  2. If you are not going to cook the cream, then pour the dolma in a saucepan with the prepared sauce and carefully tilt the saucepan by the handles in different directions so that the sauce spreads better over the food.
  3. If you want to make a cream, do the following. Pour the corn starch into a small saucepan and dissolve it in 200 g of water. Then add ½ teaspoon salt and a little less pepper to the starch.
  4. Heat the dissolved starch over medium heat.
  5. As soon as the starch liquid is warm, add the previously prepared egg sauce to it. Continuing, stir vigorously for 2-3 minutes until you have a creamy consistency. (Be aware that the mixture can curdle very quickly.)
  6. Pour the dolma with the finished cream and again tilt the pan in different directions so that the cream is evenly distributed.

I walked around the market and noticed grape leaves for sale. I decided that I can pamper my loved ones and relatives with dolma. These are the so-called small cabbage rolls in grape leaves, the progenitors of the well-known cabbage rolls in cabbage leaves. Taste the dolma and then compare it with the recipe for delicious cabbage rolls. Like cabbage rolls, dolma can be stored in the freezer as a semi-finished product for several months. Therefore, you can always prepare another batch for the future.

Dolma is a wonderful oriental dish that will be an excellent decoration for both a festive and everyday table. And what can we say about the usefulness of this delicious dish! Grape leaves contain a lot of dietary fiber, which improves digestion and stimulates metabolic processes in the body. Frequent use of grape leaves improves vision, potency and slows down the aging process. Perhaps that is why dolma is so valued among Eastern centenarians.

Dolma has many different cooking options, but I will tell you the recipe as close as possible to the traditional one.

Ingredients:

  • 50 pieces of salted grape leaves (you can use fresh);
  • 500 ml of water or meat broth for cooking dolma;

For filling:

  • 0.5 kg of minced meat (lamb + beef or pork + beef);
  • 0.5 st. rice
  • 2 large onions;
  • a small amount of vegetable oil for frying;
  • small bunches of greens: mint, basil, parsley;
  • zira — a pinch;
  • salt;
  • ground black pepper;


Recipe for a delicious classic dolma

1. Rice must be thoroughly washed 5-6 times until the water becomes clear. Next, pour our rice with boiling water so that the water slightly covers it and leave to swell. This way, the rice absorbs water and won't take away the juice from the minced meat, which will make the dish more juicy.

Or, you can boil rice until half cooked. To do this, rinse the rice well, add water, bring the water to a boil and boil for about a minute over medium heat.


2. Cut the onion very finely and set the pan to heat up.


3. Add vegetable oil to a preheated pan and spread the onion. Saute the onion, stirring evenly, until translucent.


4. When the onion has become transparent, pour our slightly swollen rice into the pan. Stir evenly so that the rice absorbs the onion juice. After that, the filling for dolma will become even tastier. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool.


5. Cut the parsley very finely and put it in a deep bowl, in which we will prepare the stuffing for minced dolma.


6. Add minced meat to parsley.


7. Add spices, salt and pepper. We mix.


8. Put the onion with rice to the minced meat. Mix thoroughly again.


9. While the minced meat is infused, we will prepare the grape leaves. For dolma, you need to use young green leaves, and they should be collected in the spring. Such leaves are preserved for a year in advance in lightly salted water. Jars of blanks can be found on the market with pickles from private traders.

Carefully straighten the finished grape leaves and remove the petioles. We sort through each sheet, putting aside the damaged ones. We will also need them, but not for wrapping dolma, but for a substrate in cauldrons.

If you use fresh young leaves, then before cooking they need to be poured with boiling water and held in this form for about 10 minutes.


10. We lay out the grape leaves with the smooth side down, the veins should be directed upwards.


11. Spread a little stuffing closer to the middle of the sheet.


12. Close the filling with the bottom edge of the leaf.



14. We roll up our first dolma with a tight tube.



15. We fold the rest of the dolma using the same technology.


16. We lay part of the prepared grape leaves on the bottom of the cauldron in 1-2 layers.



18. We cover the dolma laid in a cauldron with the remaining grape leaves.


19. Fill with meat broth or water so that the liquid slightly covers the dolma. We put a plate on top, and, if necessary, put a load on top. The latter is necessary so that the dolma does not turn around during cooking.


20. Put the cauldron on the fire and bring to a boil. When the water boils, reduce the heat to a minimum and continue to cook for 1-1.5 hours on a slightly noticeable boil. Then remove the cauldron from the fire and leave for 10-20 minutes to brew.

The most delicious dolma ready. Serve with sour cream or sour cream and garlic sauce. Bon appetit!


The peoples of Asia Minor have long been famous for the variety of their cuisine. One of the brightest dishes is dolma, which in classical technology is stuffed with rice and minced meat grape leaves.

In our understanding, these are cabbage rolls, in which grape leaves are used instead of cabbage. The dish is extremely tasty and, rest assured, it is worth the effort spent on its preparation.

The history of the dish

Dolma is extremely common in the cuisines of the peoples of Transcaucasia, Central and Western Asia, the Balkan Peninsula and even North Africa. All national cuisines have their own special cooking technology and each of them is special in its own way.

The dish belongs to Armenian cuisine, which has long been famous for its best recipes.

The Armenian people claim that they were the discoverers of dolma, and only then, the dish became popular in other national cuisines.

According to the Armenians, this food was extremely common in the court cuisine of the Ottoman Empire, and this is not strange because the recipe is distinguished by its taste and originality.

The benefits and harms of dolma

Grape leaves are widely used in medicine, they are rich in a huge amount of vitamins, trace elements, nutrients so their usefulness is undeniable. With the regular use of dishes based on grape leaves, you can get rid of many ailments, such as migraine, varicose veins.

They are also useful in diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and the genitourinary system. Grape leaves strengthen the immune system and are a natural elixir of youth.

However, people who are overweight, have ulcers, or are diabetics are advised not to eat grape leaf dishes. Because, in this case, dolma will harm the body. In any case, you should consult your doctor.

Difficulty and cooking time

Dolma is a rather complicated dish, because it involves 4 stages of preparation: preparing the leaves, preparing the filling, wrapping the filling in leaves and stewing itself.

Given this, we can say that it takes at least two hours to cook dolma. But the hostess can be sure that the time and work spent is worth it. The taste of the dish is spicy and refined at the same time.

Food preparation

The most important step in the preparation of products is to find the right grape leaves. It is best to buy them salted, but since the leaves are folded, the hostess cannot be sure of their integrity. Before use, such envelopes must be poured over with boiling water to soften the leaves a little.

If fresh leaves are purchased, they must be soaked in salt water for at least 20 minutes and be sure to cut off the cuttings from each leaf so that they twist more easily.

How to cook dolma

A classic and simple recipe for cabbage rolls in grape leaves.

Ingredients:

  • grape leaves - about 100 pieces;
  • pork - 1 kg;
  • optional bones for broth;
  • round rice - ½ cup;
  • onions - 4 heads;
  • sunflower oil - 50 g;
  • a pinch of salt;
  • ground black pepper - 1 tsp;
  • coriander - ½ teaspoon;
  • cilantro - a bunch;
  • parsley - a bunch;
  • tarragon - less than a bunch.

This amount of products is designed for approximately 20 servings.

Cooking:

The bones need to be fried until a delicious golden brown appears. Pour in water and cook the fragrant broth for about 1 hour.

In the meantime, prepare the filling. In classical technology, pork must be minced. Cut two onions into large cubes and fry in sunflower oil. Mix with meat, add rice, chopped herbs, seasonings and mix thoroughly.

The most aesthetically responsible part of preparing a dish is twisting the envelopes. Apply the filling to the dull part of the grape leaves. Then, on the sides, the leaves are folded and twisted into a tube.

Now you need to fold the dolma into the pan with the seams down. Pour the broth around the edge of the pan and simmer for about an hour.

Approximately, for one serving of dolma - 150 grams, there are 60 kcal, which is 55% fat, 30% protein and 15% carbohydrates. Nevertheless, the dish is healthy and incredibly tasty.

Cooking options

Since several peoples are fighting for the right to be called the discoverers of this dish, there are also several options for preparing the dish: for Armenian technology, Azerbaijani and Moldovan.

Also, dolma can be prepared from pickled grape leaves and in a slow cooker. Each of the recipes is unique and has its own unique taste.

Dolma in pickled grape leaves

Ingredients:

  • 50 pickled grape leaves;
  • 5 kg minced lamb;
  • 5 l of meat broth;
  • 6 tablespoons coarse-grained rice;
  • 5 bulbs;
  • 50 grams of butter;
  • 50 ml vegetable oil;
  • fragrant herbs: dill, parsley, cumin;
  • spices: salt, ground pepper.

Cooking:

If the meat is on the bones, then you need to separate the pulp from the bones, cook the broth on them, and grind the meat with a meat grinder or blender. Otherwise, any meat broth can be used.

Pour boiling water over the rice and cover with a lid so that it steams a little. After 10-15 minutes, strain and add to the meat.

We clean the onion from the lusok, wash it from the remnants of dirt and cut into cubes. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and fry the onion in a mixture of oils until a golden hue appears. Add to stuffing.

Fresh herbs must be washed under running water and finely chopped. Pour into the filling along with spices and mix thoroughly.

Place the vine leaves on a work surface with the smooth side down. We put the filling in the center of the sheet and wrap it with an envelope.

In a saucepan with a thick bottom, put the dolma seam down, pour in the broth, cover with a lid and simmer for about an hour. Then the filling will be tender, and the taste of the dish will amaze your guests.

Delicious Armenian dolma with beef

Ingredients:

  • 1 kg of beef;
  • ½ cup of rice;
  • tomato;
  • bell pepper;
  • 50 grape leaves;
  • 2 onions;
  • bunch of parsley;
  • spices: basil, ground pepper, paprika, salt.

Cooking:

Grape leaves are scalded with boiling water, washed, cut off the veins. Rice is also thoroughly washed.

We wash the vegetables and parsley, remove the skin from the tomato. We chop the parsley, and pass all the vegetables, rice and meat through a meat grinder, add spices and mix.

We spread the filling on the leaves, wrap the envelopes and simmer over low heat for at least 50 minutes.

Dolma with vegetables and spices will surprise you with its taste.

Azerbaijani dolma with lamb

Ingredients:

  • lamb - 0.5 kg;
  • grape leaves - 20-30 pieces;
  • round rice - 5 tbsp. spoons;
  • eggs - 2 pcs;
  • onions - 2 pcs;
  • greens: cilantro, mint;
  • spices: salt, ground pepper.

Cooking:

We clean the meat from veins and grind. Grind the greens and onions, add to the meat, beat the eggs, pour in the pre-washed rice and spices, mix.

We wrap the filling in leaves, forming envelopes, put the dolma in a saucepan and simmer for at least an hour.

This technology for making dolma is that the filling with the help of an egg is more tender and does not crumble. The dish will certainly surprise the relatives of the hostess.

Moldovan dolma

Ingredients:

  • 30 leaves of grapes;
  • ½ kg of meat (lamb, pork, beef);
  • 3 onions;
  • 50 ml sunflower oil;
  • 1/3 cup rice;
  • 2 tablespoons of tomato paste;
  • 1 carrot root;
  • salt and pepper to taste

Cooking:

We grind the meat, cut the onions and carrots into cubes and stew all this in sunflower oil until a ruddy hue appears.

We wash the rice, add it to the meat and simmer for another 10 minutes in tomato paste. When the filling has cooled, add chopped herbs, spices and mix.

We spread the leaves with a smooth surface down, put a fragrant filling, wrap it with envelopes and simmer for about 40 minutes. Incredible Moldovan dolma will surprise you with its piquant taste.

Recipe in a slow cooker

Ingredients:

  • 5 kg minced meat;
  • 20 leaves of grapes;
  • 1 onion;
  • 4 tbsp. spoons of rice;
  • 50 gr butter;
  • 50 grams of sunflower oil;
  • 1 bunch of greens;
  • salt and spices to taste.

Cooking:

Rice is washed. We turn on the slow cooker, pour vegetable oil and, in the “frying” mode, fry the chopped onion until golden brown.

In a small bowl, mix the minced meat, fried onions, rice, spices, chopped herbs and butter.

We spread the filling on previously prepared leaves, form envelopes and carefully fold them into the slow cooker with the seam down. We fill hot water to cover the envelopes and turn on the “extinguishing” mode for 1 hour.

Cooking dolma in a slow cooker is easy and simple, and most importantly - delicious.

Video recipe

There are several main secrets:

  1. In order for the dish not to burn, put grape leaves on the bottom of the pot or multicooker.
  2. We fold the envelopes with the seams down so that they do not turn around during the extinguishing process.
  3. When all the envelopes are folded into the pan, it is best to fix them by pressing them with a plate. In this case, during the boiling process, the filling will not come out of the envelopes.

Dolma is considered one of the simple and delicious recipes in the world, only young leaves are good for a dish. Then the dolma is tender and melts in your mouth. This dish is suitable for every day and for the festive table.

Dolma from grape leaves is a very tasty and not very difficult dish to prepare that everyone can make at home, but to make dolma tasty, you need to know how to cook it properly, so in this article we will take a closer look at how much time and how to cook dolma in a saucepan.

How much to cook dolma from grape leaves

The cooking time of dolma differs from ordinary cabbage rolls, with which many people compare it, while regardless of whether it is made from fresh grape leaves or canned ones, the cooking time remains the same:

  • How long to cook dolma in a saucepan? Dolma is cooked on average for 55-60 minutes over low heat, after boiling water in a saucepan.
  • How much to cook dolma in a slow cooker? In a slow cooker in the “Extinguishing” mode, dolma is boiled for an average of 50 minutes until cooked.
  • How long to cook dolma in a double boiler? In a double boiler, on average, they cook 1 hour for a couple in a double boiler.

Having learned how long it takes to cook dolma from grape leaves, we will further consider the process of its preparation and cooking.

How to cook dolma in a saucepan

Cooking dolma is not a complicated process, the main thing is to do everything consistently and follow the tips below:

  • We prepare a saucepan with a thick bottom, put 1-2 layers of grape leaves on the bottom in it and then carefully lay out the dolma, seam down, tightly applying to each other in several layers.
  • Fill the dolma with cold water or broth so that the liquid is 1 cm higher than the dolma. If the dolma floats, you can press it with an inverted plate during cooking.
  • On medium heat, bring the water in a saucepan to a boil, then reduce the heat and over low heat, cover the saucepan with a lid, cook dolma for 55-60 minutes.
  • After cooking, we set aside the pan from the heat and let the dolma brew in the broth for 10-15 minutes so that it is juicier.

Note: to make dolma tastier, you can cook a quick and delicious sauce after it has been welded. The recipe for dolma sauce is very simple: finely chop the greens, squeeze out 2 cloves of garlic, salt to taste and mix with sour cream.

In conclusion to the article, it can be noted that knowing how many minutes and how to cook dolma in grape leaves in a saucepan correctly, you can quickly and tasty cook it at home for yourself and your loved ones. Your reviews and helpful tips how to cook dolma in grape leaves (with beef, pork or lamb), leave in the comments to the article and share it in in social networks if it was helpful to you.

At home, to boil dolma, you can use a variety of devices. The time taken for this process will depend on the intervention option. For example, to prepare a product from minced meat and grape leaves (dolma) in the traditional way, you will have to spend about 45-50 minutes.

In a slow cooker and a double boiler, it needs to be cooked 1 hour. The fastest semi-finished product is boiled in the microwave, it takes no more 15 minutes. But when choosing the best option impact should be guided not by how much time it takes to bring the component to readiness, but by the taste and aroma of the final result.

Important and useful facts about dolma

Before you start cooking dolma or boil a semi-finished product, you should learn more about the features and characteristics of this dish. This will allow you to get the most delicious and aromatic delicacy, and not boiled minced meat in a shell of grape leaves.

  • A real Armenian dish is made from minced lamb, but products made from beef or pork are also acceptable. But poultry meat in this case is considered an absolutely unsuccessful option.
  • Dolma does not have to be boiled in water. The dish will turn out more juicy and rich if you use meat broth or a bouillon cube as a medium.
  • In addition to grape leaves, minced meat is wrapped in eggplant leaves, beets and even sorrel.
  • By the way, the leaves are not necessarily taken fresh, salted no less successfully cope with the task. When choosing a fresh component, you need to remember that it must be light, i.e. young. But it is better to refuse very large and dark elements, no matter how much you process them, you cannot achieve the desired degree of softness.

Tip: If you want to give a familiar dish a more refined taste, then it is recommended to add minced meat in addition to onions, herbs and peppers, some grated carrots and pumpkins.

  • Boiling water is used to soften grape leaves. Young elements are simply scalded, and age ones are boiled for 3-5 minutes. Considering the fact that this nuance is often ignored by manufacturers of semi-finished products, it is better to cook dolma from beginning to end on your own.
  • It is worth considering that this dish should be steamed, not fried, so the bottom of the cooking container must be laid out with leaves (grape or at least cabbage). An additional plus of this technique is that dolma will be much juicier.

Ready dolma does not have to be served immediately hot. Not less than delicious dish It will seem even after it has cooled down, only it must be served with herbs and lemon. A good addition would be sour cream sauce.

How to cook dolma?

In the case of boiling dolma, an important role is played not only by how long the processing will continue, but also how to organize it. Here are the basic recommendations for processes depending on the impact option.

  • In a saucepan. We take a container with a thick bottom, lay out a layer of grape leaves, we place dolma on them in one layer. Fill it all with water so that the water covers the entire structure by 1 cm. Next, lay out another layer of the product and cover it all with grape leaves. If the product begins to float, then we press down the mass with an inverted plate of a suitable diameter. Close the saucepan with a lid. Boil the contents on low heat for 45-50 minutes after boiling.

  • In a steamer. Everything is much simpler here, because dolma will be steamed anyway. You just need to put the blanks in the appropriate bowl (for this they usually use a stand with holes so that the juice does not accumulate and soften the leaves too much) and set the timer for 1 hour. If the device starts for a long time, then we detect the hour from the moment the steam is supplied.

  • In a multicooker. Two approaches can be used here. The first involves processing a semi-finished product, as in a saucepan. In this case, everything is organized in exactly the same way, the “Extinguishing” mode is set and the device starts up for 50 minutes. Or you can steam the dolma by putting it in a special basket. Then you need to pour some water into the bowl, assemble the structure, set the "Steam" mode and set the timer for 1 hour.

  • In the microwave. This option allows you to cook a semi-finished product in just minutes. It is necessary to tightly lay the component in a deep heat-resistant dish, add a little salt, pour over the melted workpieces butter(a couple of tablespoons) and pour a glass of water or broth. We close the contents of the dishes with a plate or lid, cook at medium power for 15 minutes.

It is not recommended to boil dolma in a pressure cooker, because. it will be hard to find optimal temperature and duration of exposure. But the mantle cooker will give a good result. The exposure time will also be from 50 minutes to an hour. In extreme cases, the semi-finished product can be boiled in a colander, fixed over a pot of boiling water.

Sometimes no tricks for boiling dolma help. Most likely, this simply indicates the low quality of the blanks. In order not to face such a problem, you need to cook the dish yourself, especially since it is quite simple.

  • To prepare minced meat, we need 300 g of lamb, onion, three tablespoons of rice, salt and pepper. Additionally, we take 7-8 salted or fresh grape leaves, 4 cloves of garlic, herbs, half a glass of sour cream.
  • Rice is soaked for 10 minutes in hot water, mixed with minced lamb, grated onion, add salt. If salted leaves are used, they must be poured with boiling water and left for 12 hours to get rid of excess salt. Immediately before use, we cut the cuttings from the elements.
  • We spread the sheet, cooked minced meat on it, wrap it so that we get a small sausage. The resulting blanks are boiled by one of the methods listed above.
  • While dolma is cooking, prepare the sauce of sour cream and grated garlic. Serve the finished dish with sauce and chopped herbs.

It is worth considering that the quality of the leaves used may affect the taste characteristics of the finished product. If you cook dolma from fresh leaves, then salt the minced meat well and do not forget to add water in which the components are cooked. But salty leaves, even soaked, will fill the product with the desired degree of salinity without that. But in this case, the minced meat will have to be slightly salted and peppered. In general, all the nuances of processing semi-finished products become apparent only with experience.