Stuffed Onions (Sogan Dolma)

Sogan Dolma (stuffed onions) is easy to prepare and melt-in-your-mouth delicious! The stuffing is made with a mixture of rice, meat, herbs, and spices, so you know it's loaded with flavor. Serve Soğan Dolmasi with homemade pita bread on the side.

If you can't get the hang of rolling grape leaf or cabbage dolma, this recipe is for you! Soğan Dolmasi is easy enough to prepare even for the cooking-challenged.

I don't recall mom making stuffed onions dolma, but she always added some stuffed onions to other kinds of dolma that she prepared, usually because she ended up with too much filling mixture and onions were always available.

Stuffed onions are added to mixed vegetable Iraqi dolma, made with stuffed peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, and other vegetables. However, for those who hunt for the onions amongst the rest of the stuffed veggies, this recipe is dedicated to you, including my nephew, George, and niece, Alexandra!

Jump to:

• 😍 Why You'll Love This Recipe
• 🛒 What You Need For This Recipe
• 🔖 Ingredients & Substitutions
• 🧅 How to Make Stuffed Onions
• 🍽 Serving Suggestions
• 👩🏼‍🍳 Pro Tips
• 🫑 Related Recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

😍 Why You'll Love This Recipe

• Sogan dolma is much easier to prepare than other dolma recipes.
• Stuffed onions taste even better the next day and can be eaten cold or at room temperature.
• I like to prepare a batch and enjoy it for lunch throughout the week.
• This recipe is gluten-free and can easily be made vegetarian by swapping out the meat for an additional ½ cup rice.

🛒 What You Need For This Recipe

🔖 Ingredients & Substitutions

• Onions: I prefer medium-sized yellow onions. Mom recommended the ones with tapered ends because they keep the filling intact, however, either will work!
• Meat: You'll need ⅓ pound beef or lamb, diced finely. You can use ground beef, but just know that Mom would not approve. It's not the Iraqi way.
• Herbs: I added a combination of Italian parsley, fresh dill, and mint leaves.
• Garlic: Fresh garlic, never bottled.
• Tomato Paste: The tomato paste is needed for the filling and the sauce. You can make a spicy red sauce with the remaining 2 ounces. The recipe can be found in this Assyrian dolma recipe.
• Spices: Compared to most of my dolma recipes, this one only requires only a handful of spices (salt, black pepper, paprika, and cayenne). If you prefer your food mild, don't add cayenne pepper.
• Pomegranate Molasses: The pomegranate molasses adds a sweet and tangy flavor to the stuffed onions. If you don't have it, you can use tamarind syrup or substitute a teaspoon of citric acid and a tablespoon of sugar.
• Oil | Butter: You'll need olive oil in the filling and butter in the cooking liquid, but you can also substitute one for the other or use other oils including vegetable oil and avocado oil.

*A full list of ingredients can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

🧅 How to Make Stuffed Onions

Slice ends off of onions, then peel. Use a sharp knife to slice onion halfway through the layers, see photos. Add to a medium pot and cover with water. Add ½ teaspoon salt and bring to a boil, then cook for 15 to 20 minutes or until you can easily separate onion layers.

While the onions are cooking, wash rice to remove most of the starch, then cover with warm water to soften.

Prepare the Filling

Dice beef finely and add to a large bowl. Add chopped onion, parsley, mint, and dill. When the rice has soaked for 20 minutes, strain and add to the bowl. Add crushed garlic, 2 teaspoons salt, black pepper, paprika, and cayenne (optional). Mix in pomegranate molasses, tomato paste, and olive oil.

Assemble Stuffed Onions

Separate onion layers, removing the thin membrane in between them, if visible. Place 1 heaping tablespoon of filling into the center of each layer, then roll to make a tight bundle.

Pro Tip: If using larger onions, the layers will be too long and should be sliced to make two pieces.

Pack onion dolma seam-side down tightly around the edges of a wide pan or pot and work towards the center of the pot. Continue until you have used up all of the onions and the filling mixture.

Pro Tip: If using a smaller pot, you will have more than one layer, which is fine.

Prepare Sauce

In a small saucepan, whisk tomato paste, lemon juice, butter, and ½ teaspoon salt with 2 cups of water. Bring sauce to a boil over medium heat. Pour the sauce over the stuffed onions.

Cooking Instructions

Place a large plate over the onions (optional), then cover with the lid and cook over medium heat until the liquid begins to boil. Turn heat to lowest setting and simmer for 1 hour or until the juices are absorbed and the rice is tender.

Pro Tip: Placing a large, flat plate over the onions is a good way to keep the stuffed onions submerged in the tomato sauce.

Allow Soğan Dolmasi to set for 15 minutes before serving.

🍽 Serving Suggestions

All you really need to serve with sogan dolma is pita bread or lavash bread to sop up the yummy juices. You can even make a dolma sandwich!

Although sogan dolma is Turkish in origin, I like to serve it with yogurt and a spicy red sauce, Assyrian style. Because you can take the girl out of Assyria, but you can't take the Assyrian out of the girl. You can find the recipe for both in my Swiss Chard Dolma post.

👩🏼‍🍳 Pro Tips

• If the center layers of the onions aren't soft enough to roll, just plop them back to the pot of water and cook them until they're soft and pliable.
• If you have a hard time separating the onion layers, you may need to slice off a little more from the root end of the onion.
• The onions' hearts can be used in vegetable broth or diced and added to the filling, instead of using a fresh onion. They can also be used to make the spicy tomato sauce to drizzle over the dolma.
• Make sure you have some extra onions on hand in case you have more filling than onion layers.
• Some people line the bottom of the pot with steak to keep the dolma from burning. The steak cooks in the dolma juices and ends up extremely tender and delicious.
• Store leftover sogan dolma in an airtight container for up to 5 days in the fridge.

🫑 Related Recipes

If you enjoy this Soğan Dolmasi recipe, check out these other related posts!

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