Rice

Rice in Greek cooking plays two quite distinct roles that rarely overlap: it goes in raw as a stuffing, absorbing flavour as it swells inside a vegetable or vine leaf during cooking, and it is simmered loose into rice-and-vegetable dishes closer to a wet pilaf than a dry, separate-grained rice dish.

Gemista, stuffed tomatoes and peppers, and dolmades and koupepia, stuffed vine leaves, all use the first method: raw medium grain rice mixed into a filling, packed in tight, and left to cook through and swell inside its vegetable or leaf casing rather than being pre-cooked. Overfilling is the most common mistake, since the rice needs room to expand as it absorbs liquid.

Spanakorizo and prasorizo, spinach and leek rice respectively, use the second approach, rice simmered directly in a dilled, vegetable-heavy liquid until tender, deliberately looser and wetter than a standard pilaf, closer to a thick soup than dry rice. Medium grain rice is the standard choice across both methods, since it releases enough starch to thicken a dish naturally without turning gluey.