Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, add your rinsed and drained grape leaves to the pot, gently separate them with a wooden spoon and let these boil for 10-15 minutes. If the grape leaves are jarred, the longer they boil – the better. I usually do this for about 20 minutes or in the time it takes me to make the filling. Carefully remove the boiled leaves to a large tray and set aside till you are ready to roll them up.

Add your rinsed rice to a large bowl. Then, in a food processor, add the parsley, cilantro, yellow and green onions and garlic. Pulse this until finely chopped. Add in the bell peppers and tomatoes and pulse again until everything is finely chopped. You can also add a yellow or orange bell pepper here if you’d like. Add the chopped veggies directly to the rice and mix everything together well. If you find any pieces or stems larger than a normal diced size, chop it down farther. This could puncture the grape leaves making them more difficult to roll up.

Add the allspice, nutmeg, lemon zest, salt and pepper and mix everything well. Then, finally add the lemon juice and olive oil. Mix everything very well to make sure each piece of rice is coated.

To a large pot with a fitting lid that you plan to cook all the grape leaves in, add 2 teaspoons of oil to the bottom and spread it out. Add your sliced tomatoes, the top with the sliced potatoes.

Start the rolling process. Place one grape leaf in front of you vein side up/smooth side down on a plate or cutting board. If there is a stem left, remove it completely. If there are some holes in the grape leaf, fold it under slightly so that a non-ripped part is covering it. Depending on the size of the leaf, place about 1-2 teaspoons of the rice filling in a line just above the bottom of the leaf where the stem was, leaving about ½ inch of space from the bottom. Then fold like a burrito – fold the grape leaf from the bottom up to cover the line of rice. Then, fold the right side towards the left and the left over towards the right. Tightly and gently roll it up to the tip of the leaf. Be careful doing this making sure the leaf doesn’t rip and that you leave room for the rice to expand. Continue this process 1000x till you’re done haha.

Once the filling is 1/3 to ½ gone, I place it all in a metal sieve on top of the bowl to catch the extra liquid. This liquid will go into the pot and add flavor to the broth used to cook the grape leaves. As you finish rolling the leaves, line the pot above the tomatoes and potatoes with the grape leaves snugly so they don’t move.

Make the broth by combining the extra liquid from the filling, tomato sauce, water and salt into a bowl and mix well. Place a small, heatproof plate upside down over the top of the filled pot with the rolled grape leaves. This keeps them in place as it boils. Place the pot over high heat and bring to a boil, cover and bring it down to a simmer and let this cook for 1 ½ hours or until most of the water has evaporated, the leaves are tender and the rice inside the leaves are cooked.