Warak Enab- Stuffed Grape Leaves

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Warak Enab are delicious stuffed grape leaves with lamb and stuffed zucchini making for a show stopping meal. It may take some time to roll all the grape leaves, but this recipe gives you step by step photos, and a video to follow along to make it an easy process to follow. It’ll feed a very happy crowd!

What does warak enab mean?

Warak Enab in Arabic translates literally to grape leaves. This recipe is for delicious Middle Eastern grape leaves stuffed with spiced rice and meat and slowly cooked into mouthwatering perfection alongside tender lamb chops in a tangy lemon broth.

Why should I make mahshi warak enab?

The flavors in this dish are like nothing you’ll have tried! The vine leaves get all nice and tangy from the lemony broth, the rice is all smushy and enhanced with the spices in the meat, it’s just a dish that you have to make at least once, and you’ll be so proud that you did.

I get excited anytime a family member makes warak enab. Stuffed vine leaves, or warak enab, are a delicious show stopping dish. The centerpiece for any special occasion, and proof of your mom or Tata’s love for you. Palestinians pride themselves on undergoing the arduous process it takes to prepare these, and the neater and tighter your vine leaves are, the more a source of pride it is.

Mine were not even remotely neat, but the delicious factor totally overshadows that. Not your typical 30 minute meal, and therefore not in the realm of my every day recipes, but making this once in a while is so worth it.

What are Stuffed Grape Leaves?

A very commonly eaten dish in the Mediterranean and Middle East, and a complete labor of love. Also known as stuffed vine leaves, grape leaves are filled with a rice mixture, and completed one of two ways. They are either vegetarian, or made with minced meat that’s been mixed into the rice stuffing. The vegetarian ones are more commonly eaten cold, and the meat version hot.

What are the ingredients for warak enab?

The rice:

Rice: short grain Egyptian or calrose rice

Ground lamb: No need to cook this in advance, the ground meat will cook inside the vine leaves. You can also omit this if you want vegetarian warak enab. I use just a little because I like my recipe to be more rice intensive, but you can go up to 1lb (500g) of meat if you prefer.

Diced tomato

Diced onion

Garlic

Fresh parsley

Spices: seven spices, cinnamon, salt, pepper 

Olive oil

Prepare your rice stuffing. This is made with short grain (Egyptian rice), raw ground lamb, and flavor enhancers. I add tomato, onion, garlic, parsley, and spices like seven spices (or all spice) and cinnamon. Salt and pepper of course, and a drizzle of olive oil.

I like my rice stuffing to be more about the rice and less about the meat, so I use less ground meat then some other recipes you might find, but feel free to adjust this amount upwards. You can use up to 500 g (1 lb) of ground lamb.

To assemble and for the broth:

Sliced potatoes and sliced tomatoes for lining the pan

Lamb chops or lamb neck pieces

Baby marrow (Summer squash) and eggplant for stuffing 

Lemon juice

Vine leaves: I get these either fresh if I can find them, or out of a jar. Regardless,  you’ll need to drop them briefly into boiling water or soak them in hot water for a few minutes. This will get rid of their briny flavor if they are jarred, or cook them briefly if they are fresh.

Tomato paste (optional but helps add some flavor to the broth)

Olive oil

Water or broth: Either hot water or hot water with a vegetable or chicken stock cube dissolved in it.

How to roll warak enab:

Once your stuffing mixture is ready, prepare your vine leaves. Jarred vine leaves need to be soaked in hot water for a few minutes to lose some of their brininess. I’ve never made this with fresh vine leaves, because jarred ones are so easy to find and work with.

Once the vine leaves have soaked, drain them, and cut off the short knobby stem at the base of the leaves. The leaves might cling together, so separate them carefully, leaf by leaf.

The wide base of the leaf should be closest to you and the pointy top bit away from you. Place a heaped teaspoonful of the stuffing mixture in the center of the leaf, then roll the leaf, tucking in the sides, and rolling from the bottom over the stuffing, tucking in the sides of the leaf as you go, and rolling right up to the top till you have a tight little parcel. Picture a tortilla being rolled, making sure the sides tuck firmly in so it doesn’t fall apart.

If the vine leaf you are working with tears, don’t worry, just use another or try and patch up the tear by folding another part of the leaf over it.

This takes practice and a lot of time, but the end result makes you forget all that. The goal is to have the vine leaves rolled tightly enough so that they don’t fall apart in the lengthy cooking process.

Watch the video in the recipe card to see this in action!

Stuff the remaining vegetables in the dish:

To stuff the zucchini and eggplant, they need to be hollowed out with a zucchini corer, scraping as much of the interior as you can out of them, but carefully so they don’t break. These should be stuffed with rice 3/4 full. This post here gives a lot more tips on that.

For a great recipe using the cored baby marrow, try making these baby marrow fritters. They are SO good.

How to cook warak enab:

The key is a low and slow cook, in order to make sure that the raw rice inside the stuffed grape leaves and stuff vegetables cooks through. The way you do this is to make sure that you have enough broth coming up to the top of the pot to submerge the vine leaves.

Once broth comes to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for anywhere between 1.5-2 hours (even longer if you need)! Start checking at 1 hr and 15 minutes. When the vine leaves and vegetables are soft and rice is cooked through, add the lemon juice and simmer for another 15 minutes. Then it’s ready!

What to serve Warak Enab with:

My favorite thing to eat grape leaves with is yogurt. Trust me! You can do plain yogurt or a yogurt with mint and cucumbers, recipe here. You can also do a light salad. This is a heavy meal in its own right, so anything you serve this with should be very simple.

Storing leftover grape leaves:

Store leftover unstuffed grape leaves in their brine if you got them out of the jar. If you used fresh ones, blanch them for a minute in hot water, then transfer to an ice bath to cool. Squeeze out any excess water and freeze bundles of grape leaves in air tight freezer bags. They’ll last up to 6 months, and will thaw in minutes.

Store the stuffed warak enab in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. Eat either cold or warmed up. You can also freeze them either cooked or uncooked for up to 3 months.

Recipe FAQs:

For more classic Middle Eastern Recipes:

 

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