Stuffed Vegetables

Stuffed vegetables, or m’hasha, are the Sephardic-Israeli dinner of zucchini and peppers packed with herbed beef and rice, simmered in lemony tomato sauce. The dish traveled to Israel with Jewish families from the Ottoman lands, where stuffing vegetables was the grand way to feed a crowd. Every family has a favorite vegetable — cabbage, vine leaves, or peppers — and the pot always disappears.

Vegetables that melt, a filling that sings

The zucchini turn silky and sweet as they simmer, absorbing the bright, lemony tomato sauce, while the beef-and-rice filling swells into something moist and fragrant with herbs. The sauce reduces into a rich, spoonable gravy that begs for challah or rice alongside. Each stuffed vegetable is a little package of comfort, and the pot is as much the star as the filling. Serve them standing up in the sauce, and let everyone fight over the last zucchini. Leftovers taste even better the next day, when the sauce has soaked into every corner of the vegetables.

Craving more? Explore all Israeli Kitchen recipes.

Israeli recipes →