Armenian Summer Tolma – Sun-Ripened Vegetables Stuffed with Spiced Meat and Rice
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Armenian summer tolma fills bell peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, and rounds of blanched cabbage with the same herb-rich ground beef and rice that appear in grape leaf tolma – then cooks them all together in one pot until the vegetables soften around the filling and the broth turns fragrant with basil and parsley. I make this tolma when the sun-ripened vegetables are in abundance, and the one my grandmother made every summer.
Armenian summer tolma uses the same filling as grape leaf tolma, but the wrapper changes with the season. Peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, and blanched cabbage take the place of the leaf. Each vegetable is hollowed out and packed with ground beef, onion, flat-leaf parsley, purple basil, and raw short-grain rice. The rice swells as it cooks, absorbing everything around it.
Each vegetable does something different in the pot. The tomato gives off juice that flavors the broth. The eggplant softens and turns almost creamy around the meat. The pepper holds its shape and keeps the filling concentrated inside. Like all tolma, it tastes better the next day.
The process takes some time, but none of it is difficult. Hollow out the vegetables, make the filling, fill, arrange in the pot, weigh down with a plate, and cook low and slow. If you already know the Armenian meat tolma in grape leaves, this is the same recipe logic applied to summer produce. If you want a plant-based version, use the bright herb-and-lemon filling that Armenian tolma with rice and herbs uses.
Table of Contents
Chronicles of Summer Tolma
Tolma is a traditional Armenian dish accentuating Armenian culinary history and identity; a star on a festive table. I remember tolma was one thing I craved while being away from my homeland for a short summer school in St. Petersburg. Apart from its tasty, healthy, summer vegetable flavors, tolma is a homage to Armenian culture, handed down to each generation, very much alive and vibrant worldwide.
This recipe was handed down to me by my grandmother.
Why Make Armenian Summer Tolma?
This is a perfect dish having a good balance of vegetable, meat, and rice. It takes some time to get the dish together, but it can be made ahead of time. You can make a double batch and you have a meal for two days. Tolma taste even better the next day!
Essential Grocery List and Ingredient Notes
Special Tools to Use
How to Make Armenian Tolma – Step by Step
Preparing meat mixture for Summer Tolma
If using a whole beef chunk, cube the meat and season it with salt. Grind the meat, onion, parsley and basil. Add the rice and combine thoroughly with your hands.
If using pre-ground meat, finely chop the onions, parsley, basil and rice. Combine all the ingredients together in the large bowl.
Cover and store in the refrigerator for an hour.
Prepare the vegetables for Summer Tolma
Tomatoes – Cut the top of the tomatoes leaving one side intact. With a melon baller, spoon or a paring knife, core the seeds out and set aside.
Eggplants – Peel the eggplant in stripes, meaning leave half of the peels intact, which will help to hold its shape, and the peeled part will provide enough surface to absorb all the flavors. With the paring knife, or coring tool, carve out the seeds and set aside.
Pepper – Cut the top stem side, but not all the way through. Cut and discard the seeds and cores by running the paring knife along the inside edges. You want the pepper to be still intact.
Cabbage– Boil a pot of water. While the water is boiling, with the paring knife remove the core of the cabbage and start removing leaves from the cut section starting from upper leaves. Once the water starts boiling, add a tablespoon of salt and submerge the cabbage leaves into the water.
Blanch them for 5-10 minutes until the leaves become translucent and pliable. With kitchen thongs, remove them from the water.
Once the cabbage has cooled, remove the tough veins in the middle of the leaves.
Filling the vegetables with the stuffing.
Sprinkle some salt inside the cavities of all the vegetables and prepare to assemble the tolma.
Prepare your work station for the assembly process. Have the cooking pan, cabbage leaves, vegetables and the meat filling ready.
Lay the cabbage leaves on a flat surface or cutting board, put a spoonful of meat filling on top of each leaf, just under the stem cavity, and form into an oblong cylindrical shape across the leaf.
Start folding. Bring the leaf base over the filling and tuck it in. Then fold the sides, rolling into a cylinder.
Keep rolling into cigar-shaped little logs. They should not be too tight or too loose but rather firm.
Fill in all the vegetables with the meat stuffing. Make sure you plunge it all the way in, especially the eggplants.
Arranging tolmas in the pan.
First arrange the cabbage rolls, and eggplants. You can have more than one row but make sure the tomatoes are on the top. Once cooked, the tomatoes become more delicate. Randomly scatter the eggplant and tomato scraps that we set aside earlier, as they will add to the flavor.
Cover the tolma with a few cabbage leaves and place an upside down flat plate on top. Gently press the plate and add enough hot water to cover the plate.
Bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat and cook for 45-50 minutes.
Ways to serve this Armenian Summer Tolma
- Serve as a main dish
- Serve with side of yogurt or sour cream
- Serve with the cooking juices.
More from the Armenian Tolma Family
Summer tolma is the version the garden makes possible – peppers, tomatoes, aubergines, all at their peak and all carrying the same spiced filling. The rest of the tolma family is here.
More Armenian Festive & Seasonal Dishes
Tolma-Meat -Summer
Ingredients
Stuffing
- 1 lb ground beef 15% fat
- 1 onion small
- 1/4 cup rice rinsed and uncooked
- 1/4 cup parsley
- 1/4 cup purple basil
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
Vegetables
- 4-5 eggplants small to medium size
- 8-10 bell pepper mini or small
- 8-10 tomatoes medium size
- 1 cabbage small head
Instructions
- Grind the meat, onion, parsley and basil.
- Add the rice and combine thoroughly with your hands.
- If using pre-ground meat, finely chop the onions, parsley and basil and combine all the ingredients together in the large bowl.
- Cover and store in the refrigerator for an hour.
- Meanwhile prepare the vegetables for stuffing (see the main post for details on how to prepare the vegetables.)
- Core Eggplants and tomatoes, cut the tops partially off the peppers and remove the seeds, blanch the cabbage leaves, and set them aside.
- Season the vegetable's interior with salt.
- Using the ground beef stuffing, fill the cavities of the vegetables.
- Place a spoonful of filling on a cabbage leave and roll it into a small log.
- Arrange the stuffed vegetables in a cooking pot and scatter the tomato and eggplant scraps in between.
- Blanket a few cabbage leaves on top of the vegetables.
- Put an upside-down plate on top of the vegetable to hold them intact.
- Pour water over the plate until you see it seeping onto the plate.
- Bring tolma to a boil then cover and lower the heat and let is simmer for 30-40 minutes.
