Dimitra’s stuffed tomatoes recipe

Photo: Stefania Mizara/IRC

Earlier this year the IRC in Greece hosted cooking workshops for refugee and local women living on the island of Lesbos. Some of the women who took part talked to us about their experience and shared the recipe of the dish they shared with the group. Dimitra shares her recipe for stuffed tomatoes. 

Born and raised in Lesbos, Dimitra’s grandparents came to Greece as refugees from Asia Minor. She learned this stuffed Tomatoes and Peppers recipe from her grandmother. 

“I chose this dish because it is fresh and summery. Mostly, because I made the Asia Minor version, just like my grandmother did, where we put pine nuts and raisins together with the rice, in the tomatoes and peppers.”

“The situation on Lesbos is hard for both refugees and locals but we shouldn’t lose our humanity.” Said Dimitra. 

Follow the recipe to learn how to make stuffed tomatoes.

Ingredients: 

• 5 large tomatoes 
• 5 large green peppers 
• Two thirds a cup of Feta cheese 
• 10 spoons of rice (1 spoonful for each tomato/pepper) 
• 1 onion, grated 
• 1 zucchini, grated 
• 1 garlic clove 
• 2 large potatoes 
• 3 ounces pine nuts 
• 3 ounces raisins 
• 2 spoons fresh chopped parsley 
• 2 spoons fresh chopped mint 
• 2 spoons fresh chopped basil 
• Smoked paprika, chilli flakes, salt and pepper to taste 
• Olive oil 

The stuffed tomatoes recipe serves approximately 5 people.

Photo: Stefania Mizara/IRC

Steps 

• Cut the tops of the tomatoes and peppers, remove the insides and grind the tomato that comes out of the inside.  
• Grind the onion and garlic.  
• Finely chop the herbs.  

The workshops were held in Nan restaurant in Mytilini on the island of Lesbos.

Photo: Stefania Mizara/IRC

• Grate a zucchini and drain it. 
• Rinse the rice.  
• Put the rice, the ground onion and garlic, half the grated tomato, the herbs, the zucchini, the feta cheese and the pine nuts with the raisins in a bowl.  
• Add a cup of oil, smoked paprika, salt and a little hot paprika.  

"We knew that local women did not usually have the chance to meet refugee women and interact with refugee women and that giving them this chance could bring a change in attitudes and a warmer welcome." Said Martha Roussou, Senior Advocacy Manage for the IRC.

Photo: Stefania Mizara/IRC

• Mix them well and fill the tomatoes and peppers with the mixture.   
• Place them in the pan in which we have put the rest of the coarsely chopped tomatoes, potatoes and the stalks from the parsley.  
• Put the ‘lids’ on the tomatoes and peppers, add salt and pepper, add a little oil and put them in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for at least 1 hour.  
• When the lids are well cooked, they are ready.

On taking part in the IRC’s workshop, Dimitra said: “It was a great experience, I saw some differences in the way women cook around the world.”

Photo: Stefania Mizara/IRC

Recipes from home

This recipe is part of our Recipes from Home series. These recipes have been shared by refugee and Greek women who took part in the IRC’s cooking workshops held at Nan restaurant on the Island of Lesbos in Greece. The aim of the workshops is to bring together local and refugee women, to promote common experiences and mutual understanding through the universal language of food. 

The cooking workshops were supported by the Western Union Foundation.