Salantourmasi

My granddaughter Freya asked me to cook stuffed onions after seeing them on tik-tok. A quick trawl of the internet and I came across a Greek dish called Salantourmasi. I liked the addition of lemon juice to this recipe but it could be substituted with red wine vinegar. 

Ingredients
serves 4

8 onions, medium sized

for the stuffing

180g short grain rice (like arborio)
4 tbsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, finely chopped
250g lentils, cooked
250g mushrooms, finely chopped
1 tomato, grated
3 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp lemon juice
15g fresh parsley, chopped 
15g fresh mint, chopped
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
250ml onion water
1 tsp veg stock powder
1/2 tbsp dried oregano

for the sauce

400g peeled tomatoes, blended
250ml water
4 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground

more flat-leaf parsely for garnish

Method

Rinse the rice with cold water until it runs clear. Put in a bowl and leave to soak. 

Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Season with some salt.

Cut the top and bottom off the onions and remove the first, thicker layer of onion. Drop the prepared onions into the boiling water and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from the water and set aside to cool enough to handle. Keep 250ml of the water to use later.

Next, open a tin of chopped tomatoes into a large bowl. Using a hand blender whizz into a smooth pasata. Add all the other ingredients and stir well. Season to taste.

In a large frying pan over a medium heat add the olive oil, then the finely chopped onions. Cook for a few minutes before adding the garlic. Cook for a further 5 minutes until the onions have softened.

Add the mushrooms and cooked lentils. Continue to cook for another few minutes until the mushrooms soften.

Drain the rice and add the the frying pan. Also add all the remaining ingredients, including the reserved water from boiling the onion. 

Stir well and bring to a simmer, 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 220C. 

Use an ovenable deep dish, like a lasagne dish or the bottom of a casserole dish.

Pour a thin layer of the tomato sauce on the bottom. 

Seperate the layers of the onions, using your fingers to push out through the middle. Try and keep the layers whole as they will be easier to stuff but it doesn't matter if they split. 

Fill the onion ring with as much as it can take. If it has split, then roll up the onion to wrap around the filling. Place the stuffed onion into the baking dish. 

Repeat the process for all your onions, until you have filled a single layer of tightly fitting stuffed onions.  Use another smaller baking dish for any extra stuffed onions you may have.

Pour the tomato sauce over the stuffed onion just enough to cover them. 

Tightly wrap foil over the top of the baking dish to keep in the moisture. Bake for 30 miuntes.

Then remove the foil and continue to cook for a further 25-30 minutesand the onions have started to caramelised. 

Remove from the oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

Sprinkle over some chopped flat-leaf parsley.