Make the rice stuffing:

1. Soak the rice. Soak the rice in lots of warm water with 1 tsp of salt for 30 min. Then rinse with cold water and drain thoroughly.

2. Make the stuffing. Heat ⅔ of the olive oil in a deep non-stick pan over medium heat and cook the chopped onions with 2 tsp of salt until soft but not browned, about 7 min. Stir in the paste, grated tomatoes, and sugar. Add the drained rice and cook for 7 min, stirring from time to time. The rice should have softened by then but still be crunchy.

3. Take the rice mixture off the heat. Take the pan off the heat. Pick the leaves from the parsley sprigs. Discard the sprigs and chop the leaves. Add them to the rice, along with the dried mint, black pepper, and the juice of 1 lemon. Combine and set the rice stuffing aside to cool down for a bit.

    

Stuff the grape leaves:

1. Prepare the grape leaves. Quickly rinse the leaves under cold running water to remove the salt. Snip off their stems with a pair of scissors. Pile the grape leaves on a plate, shiny side facing down (veins side facing up). Put any damaged leaves (leaves with holes or ripped leaves) aside, you’ll use them later on.

2. Stuff a leaf. Put a leaf on your work surface, shiny side down (veins side facing up). Put a line of stuffing along the longer side of the leaf (near the bottom, where you snipped off the stem). Don’t put too much stuffing or you won’t be able to roll your sarma properly. 1 tsp of stuffing is more than enough for most leaves.

3. Roll! Starting from the stuffing side, roll the leaf around the stuffing for one full turn. Then fold in the sides and continue rolling into a cigar shape. Check out the process photos if you’re unsure about the stuffing/rolling process. Repeat until you are out of stuffing and/or grape leaves. It might help to sprinkle some water on the leaves to get them to stick and prevent the Turkish stuffed grape leaves from opening after you roll them.

    

Cook:

1. Place the leaves in the saucepan. Put half of the damaged leaves at the bottom of a large saucepan or a stewpot. Tightly packed the stuffed grape leaves on top of the damaged leaves. Drizzle the rest of the olive oil over them. Cut the remaining lemon in half. Slice half of the lemon and scatter the slices over the sarma. Squeeze over the other half of the lemon. Cover everything with the rest of the damaged leaves.

2. Cook the Turkish sarma. Place an inverted plate on top, covering as much surface as possible. Put something heavy on top of the plate to make sure the sarma won’t budge. Add just enough water while pushing the plate down to cover the sarma, 475ml (2 cups) should do. Bring to a boil and then cook over medium-low heat for 50 min. Taste one sarma (be careful, they will be very hot). If the grape leaf isn’t soft enough to your liking, cook for another 10 min and then taste another one. You can add more water if the bottom of the pan looks dry.

3. Drain. When they are cooked, take off the weight but keep the plate and carefully tilt the pan or pot over a sink to drain the remaining water. Serve warm or fridge-cold with a big dollop of Turkish yogurt.