Sogan Dolma (stuffed onions) is a Turkish dish that's easy to prepare and melt-in-your-mouth delicious! The stuffing combines rice, meat, herbs, and spices, so you know it's packed with flavor. Serve Soğan Dolmasi with homemade pita bread on the side.
Would you like to save this recipe?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
If you can't get the hang of rolling grape leaf dolma 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 onion dolma, but she always added stuffed onions to other kinds of dolma she prepared, usually because she ended up with too much filling mixture and onions were always available.
I usually add stuffed onions to mixed vegetable Iraqi dolma, along with stuffed peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, and other vegetables. But if you're one of those people who hunts for the onions among the other stuffed veggies, I made this recipe especially for you, my nephew, George, and my niece, Alexandra!
Jump to:
😍 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. You can enjoy them 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 you can easily make it vegetarian by swapping out the meat for an additional ½ cup of rice.
🔖 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. Find the recipe in this Assyrian dolma recipe.
- Spices: Compared to most of my dolma recipes, this one 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 make it from scratch using my pomegranate syrup recipe. 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.
*See recipe card for a full list of ingredients.
🧅 How to Make Stuffed Onions
Step 1: Slice the ends off the onions, then peel. Use a sharp knife to slice the 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.
Step 2: While the onions are cooking, wash the rice to remove most of the starch, then cover with warm water to soften.
Prepare the Filling
Step 3: 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
Step 4: 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.
Step 5: 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
Step 6: In a small saucepan, whisk tomato paste, lemon juice, butter, and ½ teaspoon salt with 2 cups of water. Bring the sauce to a boil over medium heat. Pour the sauce over the stuffed onions.
Cooking Instructions
Step 7: Place a large plate over the onions (optional), then cover with the lid and cook over medium heat until the liquid begins to boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 1 hour, or until the rice absorbs the juices and becomes 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 of Turkish 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 into 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.
- Use the onion hearts in vegetable broth, or dice and add to the filling, instead of using a fresh onion. Or use them 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.
🫑 More Dolma Recipes
If you enjoy this Soğan Dolmasi recipe, check out these other related posts!
Did you make this recipe?
📖 Recipe
Would you like to save this recipe?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Slice the ends off the onions, then peel. Use a sharp knife to slice the 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 the onion layers.
- While the onions are cooking, wash the rice to remove most of the starch, then cover with warm water to soften.
- 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.
- Separate onion layers, removing the thin membrane between them if visible. Place 1 heaping tablespoon of filling into the center of each layer, then roll to make a tight bundle.
- 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.
- In a small saucepan, whisk tomato paste, lemon juice, butter, and ½ teaspoon salt with 2 cups of water. Bring the sauce to a boil over medium heat. Pour the sauce over the stuffed onions.
- 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 the heat to the lowest setting and simmer for 1 hour or until the juices are absorbed and the rice is tender.
- Allow the onion dolma to set for 15 minutes before serving.
Nutrition
Notes
- If using larger onions, the layers will be too long and should be sliced into two pieces.
- If using a smaller pot, you will have more than one layer, which is perfectly fine. If the center layers of the onions aren't soft enough to roll, just plop them back into 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. Placing a large, flat plate over the onions is a good way to keep the stuffed onions submerged in the tomato sauce.
Bridget says
I confess I used a mixture of ground burger and ground pork but it was delicious. I also added a small smashed garlic clove to my tomato paste and cooked it out a bit and then added water, a couple bay leaves, a bit of cayenne and the stems from parsley just for added flavor in the broth. I also just used lemon zest instead of lemon juice.
I will make this again and if I can find lamb I’ll use that!
Thank you for this recipe!
Hilda Sterner says
I love that you had to confess, Bridget. 🤣 You are forgiven! I approve of all the other changed. So glad you enjoyed it!
Tash says
Hi there!
I’m planning on making this recipe for a Friendsgiving I’m hosting this Saturday. I was thinking I could do all the prep up until step 6 (pouring the sauce over the stuffed onions) the night before and put it in the fridge overnight. Then I would throw it in the oven or simmer it on the stove until ready to serve on Saturday.
Do you foresee any issues with this approach? Do you think I would have to reconstitute the sauce with additional water? Would love your input—excited to try this out! I’m going to be pairing it with a simple yogurt sauce and mujadara 😊
Thank you in advance!
Hilda Sterner says
Hi Tash, I see no issues at all! This is a fool-proof recipe. The only issues that could come up when preparing it is having the rice be under-cooked, which is easy to fix, add a little more liquid and cook longer. Good luck!
Kat says
Saw someone making these in an instagram reel and thought about making them for a few weeks. Google recommended your recipe and it worked out great, my dad loves them! Didn't have any parseley so I put in a basil/oregano mix instead and we had them with sour cream (all out of yogurt :/ ). Do you think these would be okay to freeze?
Hilda Sterner says
Thanks, Kat, I appreciate your comment! I haven't tried freezing them before, they're always gone the same day that I make them. You could try freezing a few and seeing how the texture ends up. I would guess they would get even softer, which isn't a bad thing!
Erin says
I one-and-a-halved this recipe to feed all my roommates and it was perfect. I subbed lemon juice and a little sugar for the pomegranate molasses and I think it worked out alright. Also added a red bell pepper to the filling. Overall so delicious, wonderful recipe, everyone should make it! Thank you!!!
Hilda Sterner says
Hi Erin, that was a great substitution you did right there, good job! Thank you so much for coming back and leaving a review!
Chloe Simmons says
These are so, so, so good. I followed the recipe exactly and served with lemony greek yogurt and fresh parsley. 10/10 would recommend! Thank you for publishing this fantastic recipe. 🙂
Hilda Sterner says
Hi Chloe, Thank you so much for coming back to leave a review. I'm so glad you enjoyed this dish!🥰
Andrea says
Can I bake this instead of simmering it on the stovetop? What temp would you suggest?
Hilda Sterner says
Hi Andrea, yes you can, I would bake them covered for 1 hour at 350 degrees F.
Anonymous says
Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Hilda Sterner says
Thank you for taking the time to rate the recipe!
Timothy says
Loved it and I also added a few additions to it like some Lemon Zest in the filling mixture along with substituting beef broth instead of water. I also used Italian short white rice as a replacement for regular grain.
TJ from Wisconsin,USA
Hilda Sterner says
Hi Timothy, Thanks for your feedback. I love your substitutions!
Justice B says
I love your recipe, I made it a few times now! Thank you for sharing it!
It’s so good especially with yogurt.
They’re great on their own but I usually make a little extra of the sauce, add a few more spices and thicken it to eat them with rice and yogurt. That way I don’t finish the entire batch too quickly haha
Hilda Sterner says
Hi Justice,
Thank you so much for taking the time to review this recipe. I am so glad you like it, and I agree, dolma is always better with garlic & dill yogurt!
Stephanieee says
I'm about to try to conquer this recipe on day 1 of my period (ughhhhh send help and energy). So far ive made the pomegranite molasses and gathered the ingredients on my counter and now i need a nap lol. Will update when finished but im certain it will be amazing. Im sub'ing the meat for mushrooms and adding some other regionally appropriate veggies
Hilda Sterner says
Hi Stephanie, wish I could be there to help, no one should make dolma on day 1 of their period, lol! Looking forward to hearing how it goes!
Rachel C says
Hilariously, I am doing the very same thing today. Been craving onions like crazy so my husband suggested dolma. Sounded great at the time but now I’d so much rather a nap lol
Hilda Sterner says
Naps are always good!
Karly says
I am also about to conquer this on my day 1-can't find pomegranate molasses in BF Montana but I am going to try to make my own with pom juice as well! This was a really trippy comment for me to read lol. I cannot wait to try!!
Hilda Sterner says
Good luck, girl, you got this. Where in MT do you live? You can drop by and get some from me, lol!