My dad's Greek stuffed tomatoes are perfect for a healthy summer dinner

Aug 07, 2026 02:01 AM - 2 hours ago 3

My dada has a Greek crockery for immoderate juncture and season.

Need a speedy pasta dish? How astir youvetsi. Heading to a potluck? Whip up a cookware of pastitsio. Feeling sick? Avgolemono soup will cure you! And there's nary amended dessert than baklava.

Now it's herb season, and my dada has a crockery for that too. He loves whipping up yemista — tomatoes stuffed pinch a substance of rice, crushed beef, and herbs. It's light, healthy, and comforting, which is why I ever petition it erstwhile I sojourn my parents.

Here's really to make it.

Yemista was 1 of the galore Greek dishes I grew up with.

The connection yemista intends "stuffed" successful Greek. True to its name, the crockery traditionally consists of tomatoes and doorbell peppers stuffed pinch atom and crushed beef, past baked successful the oven.

Yemista (also spelled gemista) was a play staple of my childhood. My parents immigrated to the US from Greece successful the 1980s and loved making the dishes they grew up with. Their nutrient helped maine link to my civilization arsenic a first-generation Greek American and instilled an early and enduring emotion for Mediterranean cooking.

My dad, an fantabulous location cook, has taught maine really to make galore classical Greek dishes. And he thinks his yemista is simply a cleanable summertime dinner.

My dad's yemista only needs a fewer ingredients.

To make yemista astatine home, you'll need:

8 (relatively large) tomatoes
1 lb of crushed beef
½ onion, chopped
⅔ cup of atom (we usage the medium-grain Calrose rice)
¾ cup of parsley
1 clove of garlic

Although yemista is traditionally made pinch some tomatoes and doorbell peppers, my dada has recovered that doorbell peppers successful the US are thicker than successful Greece — and frankincense trickier to navigator evenly pinch tomatoes.

Now he usually conscionable makes yemista pinch tomatoes, but the process to navigator peppers is the same. Feel free to travel these instructions and effort some if you desire!

We statesman by chopping the bulb and parsley.

This will beryllium for our yemista filling.

Then it's clip to hole the tomatoes.

Cutting tomatoes for my Greek dad's yemista

After washing your tomatoes, usage a bully weapon and portion disconnected the apical of each one, including the stem.

Don't propulsion the tops away! You'll request them again earlier the tomatoes spell into the oven.

Scoop the filling retired of each tomato.

Scooping retired herb filling for Greek dad's yemista

You'll want to scoop retired the tomato's halfway and flesh, leaving capable abstraction to adhd the yemista filling (as seen above). My dada recommends utilizing an crystal pick scooper to get the filling retired since it's sharper, but a spoon will besides work.

If you're making 8 stuffed tomatoes, prevention the soma of 5 of them successful a vessel — you'll request them for the filling. My dada recommends utilizing the leftover soma to make a elemental herb condiment for pasta.

Pro tip: If you're doing stuffed doorbell peppers arsenic well, you'll scoop them retired the aforesaid way, conscionable make judge to propulsion the seeds away.

There are 2 methods you tin usage to make the herb "sauce" for the yemista filling. The easier 1 involves a nutrient processor.

Tomato chunks successful the nutrient processor for yemista

Using a knife, region the difficult halfway from each mini shot of herb filling you've scooped out. Put the remaining soma successful a nutrient processor to finely chop everything.

If you don't person a nutrient processor, you tin execute akin results pinch a grater.

Carefully descent your shot of herb filling up and down the grater complete a bowl, removing the soma from the core. Don't effort to grate the difficult halfway — we only request the soft portion of each tomato.

This tin beryllium a small trickier, particularly for an inexperienced chef, truthful watch retired for your fingers!

Your vanished herb "sauce" should look for illustration this.

Set it speech until it's clip to make the filling.

Arrange your herb "cups" successful a 9-inch-by-12-inch baking dish.

Pouring retired h2o successful tomatoes for yemista

Dump immoderate other h2o from the herb cups correct into the baking dish.

Now it's clip to make the filling.

First, adhd a drizzle of oliva lipid to a ample sauté cookware complete mean heat.

Let the oliva lipid power up, past adhd the onion.

The bulb should navigator for a mates of minutes, until browned.

Now, propulsion successful the crushed beef.

Salting crushed beef successful cookware for yemista

Season the beef pinch brackish and freshly crushed achromatic capsicum for other flavor.

And apical it pinch immoderate of the chopped parsley.

Only usage half of the parsley you've prepped.

Give everything a bully mix.

Use a spatula aliases woody spoon to break up the crushed beef, cooking it until the nutrient has browned.

Add the herb "sauce" and atom erstwhile the nutrient has browned.

Remember you'll request ⅔ cup of rice.

Now fto it simmer.

This will return astir 5 minutes, until astir of the h2o successful the condiment has reduced.

But don't fto the filling get excessively barren — we request immoderate liquid to thief the atom navigator successful the oven.

Throw successful the remainder of the parsley.

Give it 1 past mix, and voilà — your filling is done!

Using a spoon, capable each herb cup pinch the beef-and-rice mixture.

Remember, the atom will grow successful the oven. Make judge you don't overfill the cups.

Your filled herb cups should look for illustration this.

Depending connected the size of your tomatoes, you mightiness person immoderate other filling. Unfortunately, since it contains earthy rice, there's not overmuch you tin do pinch it.

If you person other tomatoes, you tin ever scoop them retired and capable them pinch the other stuffing, aliases set your look adjacent clip to usage little crushed beef.

Put the tops backmost connected the tomatoes and adhd immoderate h2o and oliva oil.

Adding h2o to tomatoes successful cookware for yemista

You'll want to adhd half a cup of h2o to the pan, on pinch a spoonful of oliva oil. Both thief forestall the herb cups from sticking to the pan.

Then cook the yemista.

Tomatoes pinch tops connected earlier going successful the oven for Yemista

Place the baking crockery connected the mediate rack of your oven, group to 360 degrees Fahrenheit.

It takes astir 1 hr and 15 minutes to 1 hr and 30 minutes to navigator the yemista, depending connected the oven. Check connected them astir the 45-minute mark.

My dada has a instrumentality to spot if the yemista is ready.

Scoop a spot of the stuffing from a herb and sensation it to spot if the atom is cooked. If it still tastes chewy aliases crispy, the yemista needs much baking time.

After taking your yemista retired of the oven, fto it beryllium for 5 to 10 minutes.

This helps the yemista cool and sorb each those delicious flavors you worked truthful difficult on.

The yemista is ready! And location are truthful galore ways to bask it.

Season the stuffed tomatoes pinch immoderate oregano and freshly cracked achromatic pepper. You tin besides service them topped pinch a yogurt-and-garlic sauce, conscionable for illustration my grandfather ever loved.

To make the sauce, return 1 cup of Greek yogurt and adhd a minced clove of garlic. Mix everything together, past adhd a spoon aliases much connected apical of each stuffed tomato, depending connected your preference.

Yemista besides goes awesome pinch my dad's Greek potatoes.

Yemista is terrific each twelvemonth round, but it's particularly delicious successful the summer.

Yemista is cleanable for the summer, erstwhile tomatoes are astatine their peak. I emotion the blistered texture of the roasted tomatoes, which are juicy and subtly sweet. The operation of the atom and beef is ever comforting, but the crockery is colorful and patient — a hallmark of the Mediterranean fare beloved by Greeks.

When I was a kid and my parents made yemista pinch some tomatoes and peppers, I ne'er ate the capsicum shells but ever asked for much tomatoes. And my champion friend, Nausheen, would ever petition it whenever she came complete for meal successful precocious school. She still talks astir it to this day.

Whenever you determine to eat it, I dream my dad's yemista brings you arsenic overmuch joyousness and comfortableness arsenic it has fixed maine done the decades.

As the Greeks would say, kali orexi!