The Sultans of Stuffed

Onions Baked with Spiced Beef and Herbed Rice in Tomato Sauce

1 hour 30 minutes
Serves 4
DinnerMiddle Eastern
Herb's take

Tonight, we're channeling classic Middle Eastern comfort food, vegetables stuffed with fragrant rice and beef, then slow-baked in a tangy tomato bath. You'll learn the fine art of hollowing onions (spoiler: it's easier than you think and way more impressive than a bell pepper). I scaled up the onion quantity to balance your pound of ground beef, so everyone gets a generous orb of glory.

Ingredients

Yield
4

Instructions

  1. 01
    Preheat your oven to 375 F.
  2. 02
    Cut about 1/2 inch off the stem end of each onion and peel. Carefully hollow out each onion from the root end with a spoon or melon baller, leaving about 2-3 outer layers intact for stuffing. Reserve the inner onion flesh.
  3. 03
    Finely chop 1/2 cup of the reserved onion flesh.
  4. 04
    Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté the chopped onion with the garlic for 3 minutes until soft.
  5. 05
    Add the ground beef. Cook, stirring to break it up, until just losing its pinkness, about 4 minutes.
  6. 06
    Stir in the rinsed rice and cook for 2 minutes, letting the rice toast a bit in the beefy juices.
  7. 07
    Add parsley, dill, allspice, cinnamon, cumin, 1 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp black pepper. Stir for 1 minute, then remove from heat.
  8. 08
    Stuff each hollowed onion with the beef-rice mixture, packing it in firmly but not so tightly the onion splits. Set stuffed onions in a snug-fitting baking dish.
  9. 09
    In a bowl, whisk together crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, water, lemon juice, sugar, and the remaining 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper.
  10. 10
    Pour the tomato sauce over and around the stuffed onions in the baking dish. Drizzle remaining 2 tbsp olive oil on top.
  11. 11
    Cover tightly with foil and bake for 45 minutes.
  12. 12
    Uncover and bake an additional 20-25 minutes, until the onions are tender and the sauce has thickened.
  13. 13
    Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

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