Dwali (Palestinian stuffed grape leaves recipe ورق دوالي) like my MIL

Dwali is my most favorite Arabic meal of all time and I've been wanting to make them like my mother in law for years now! She makes the best stuffed grape leaves I've ever tasted.. I could eat hundreds of them. I've been watching and learning from her and my Aunt when we were in Jordan so that I could try making them when we got home.. what do you think? The first image is her stuffed grape leaves, and the last image is mine, did it get it right?

Here's the ingredients I used, this recipe made about 160 grape leaves which serves about 4-5 people for dinner depending on how much they eat.

Dwali (Stuffed Grape Leaf) Filling Ingredients:
2 cups Egyptian (short grain) rice
1 teaspoon Arabic 7 spices
1 small minced tomato
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried ground garlic powder
1/4 cup fresh chopped mint (or 1 tablespoon dried mint)
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
1/4 cup fresh chopped dill
1 yellow onion & 4 cloves minced garlic, sauteed in 1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses

1. Mix the grape leave filling very well and then simmer your grape leaves about 5 minutes until they start to turn from green to a darker brown.
2. Remove grape leaves from water and place them on a plate in a stack and you can start rolling the leaves!
3. To roll grape leaves, lay out grape leaves flat across your counter.. usually about 10 at a time.
4. add filling to the bottom of the leaf. Fold the sides of the grape leaf over the rice and then roll from the bottom to the top, make sure to roll pretty tightly so that the rice doesn't fall out when cooking.
5. Stack rolled grape leaves in a container as you work. Your rolled grape leaves can be stored in the fridge up to 3 days if you don't have enough time to cook them that day.

Dwali ingredients:
4-5 pounds Lamb (bone in)
2 yellow onions, sliced
3 lemons, sliced
1 carrot, sliced
1 potato, sliced
2 tomatoes, sliced
Spices: stock cubes, salt, Arabic 7 spices
Olive Oil
Pomegranate Molasses

How to layer the pot of Stuffed Grape Leaves for Cooking:
1. In the bottom of a large pot, add potato slices, tomato slices, carrot slices, and onion slices to cover the bottom of the pot. You don't want the lamb to be in contact with the bottom of the pot.
2. Next, add your cooked lamb. (I cooked mine in my pressure cooker for 20 minutes with Arabic 7 spices and onion.) Sprinkle the top of the lamb with maggi, salt, and Arabic 7 spices.
3. Add a layer of rolled grape leaves.
4. Add more tomato slices, onion slices, lemon slices on top of grape leaves. Drizzle with olive oil and pomegranate molasses.
4. Add your second layer of rolled grape leaves.
5. Finally add more tomato slices, onion slices, lemon slices. Drizzle with olive oil and pomegranate molasses.
6. Cover your pot with a heavy heat safe plate.
7. Add boiling hot water until it is 1 inch under the grape leaves.
8. Cook on low heat until the grape leaves are done, you can take them out and taste to see if the rice is cooked. It took me about 2 hours to cook them. In the last 5 minutes of cooking, add the juice of 1 fresh lemon.
9. Remove the plate and then invert the pot of stuffed grape leaves onto a serving platter. Garnish with pomegranate jewels. Enjoy! My most favorite meal of all time!


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