🦪 Stuffed mussels (midye dolma)
Midye dolma are mussels stuffed with fragrant rice cooked with onion, pine nuts, currants and warm spices such as allspice, cinnamon and black pepper, then steamed in their shells. They are eaten at room temperature with a generous squeeze of lemon: the shell is used as a spoon. Tangy, briny and slightly sweet, they are a classic Istanbul street food and meze.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 24 large mussels, cleaned
- 150 g short-grain rice, rinsed and soaked
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp pine nuts
- 2 tbsp currants
- 1 tsp allspice, ½ tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp black pepper, 1 tsp sugar, salt
- Lemon wedges to serve
Method
- Fry the onion in the oil until soft, add the pine nuts and toast lightly.
- Add the drained rice, currants, spices, sugar, salt and 200 ml water; cook covered for 10 minutes until the water is absorbed, then cool.
- Open each mussel with a knife at the wide end without separating the shells, and fill with a spoonful of rice.
- Close the shells, pack them tightly in a pot, add 200 ml water, cover with a plate and steam for 20 minutes.
- Cool and serve with lemon.
How to make it lighter
- Use 2 tbsp oil instead of 3 — 1 tbsp ≈ 120 kcal.
- Count your mussels: 6–8 make a sensible meze portion.
- Pair them with a fresh salad as the rest of the meal.
History
Stuffed mussels belong to the Ottoman tradition of dolma, filled vegetables and shellfish. They are closely linked to Istanbul and the Aegean coast, and street sellers with trays of midye dolma are a familiar sight along the Bosphorus and in İzmir today.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →