What is sarma?

Sarma, dolma and yaprak: what is the difference?

Sarma and dolma are often used interchangeably, but they are two different things. Sarma comes from sarmak, to wrap: a leaf rolled around a filling. Dolma comes from doldurmak, to fill: a vegetable hollowed out and stuffed, such as pepper, courgette or aubergine. So a stuffed vine leaf is sarma, and a stuffed pepper is dolma. Yaprak simply means leaf, and yaprak sarma is the version made with vine leaves.

Yaprak sarma and lahana sarma

Yaprak sarma is rolled from vine leaves: thin, slightly tart and firm enough to roll. Lahana sarma uses cabbage leaves, which are softer and milder in flavour and turn out a little larger. The filling is the same in both: rice, onion, fresh herbs and olive oil. Which one you prefer is a matter of taste, and on a laid table they usually sit side by side anyway. Both are on our sarma page.

Turkish sarma and Balkan sarma

Search for sarma in the Netherlands and you will find two very different dishes. In Turkish cooking, sarma is usually zeytinyağlı: made with olive oil, without meat, served cold as meze. In the Balkans, in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia, sarma is instead a warm winter dish of fermented cabbage leaves filled with minced meat and rice, slowly braised. The same name and the same wrapping technique, but a different meal. What we make is the Turkish, vegetarian version.

When is sarma eaten?

In Turkey sarma is rarely on the table on its own. It belongs to the meze table, beside pickled vegetables such as turşu, creamy dips and bread, and it appears at iftar, at celebrations and at the Sunday family meal. Zeytinyağlı sarma is eaten cold, often with lemon and yoghurt. The meat-filled version comes to the table hot, as a main course.