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
- 01Preheat your oven to 375 F.
- 02Cut 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.
- 03Finely chop 1/2 cup of the reserved onion flesh.
- 04Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté the chopped onion with the garlic for 3 minutes until soft.
- 05Add the ground beef. Cook, stirring to break it up, until just losing its pinkness, about 4 minutes.
- 06Stir in the rinsed rice and cook for 2 minutes, letting the rice toast a bit in the beefy juices.
- 07Add parsley, dill, allspice, cinnamon, cumin, 1 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp black pepper. Stir for 1 minute, then remove from heat.
- 08Stuff 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.
- 09In a bowl, whisk together crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, water, lemon juice, sugar, and the remaining 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper.
- 10Pour the tomato sauce over and around the stuffed onions in the baking dish. Drizzle remaining 2 tbsp olive oil on top.
- 11Cover tightly with foil and bake for 45 minutes.
- 12Uncover and bake an additional 20-25 minutes, until the onions are tender and the sauce has thickened.
- 13Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.
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