Grape leaves, a popular staple of heart-healthy Mediterranean cuisine, are rich in vitamins and minerals. They are considered one of the most traditional Mediterranean dishes. It contains minerals, vitamins, fibers, and other nutrients that are important to the human health and body, and it’s considered to be of high nutritional value as well. For those watching their weight, it's very low in calories. Plus, they have been used for centuries and are still used in herbal applications
It can be eaten raw or cooked, and served in different forms, it can be prepared as a main meal by stuffing the leaves with a mixture of rice, meat, onions and a little of spices and salt, and then cooked with the oil or fat or Middle Eastern ghee, and this hot stuffed grape leaves dish is called warakenab or yabrak. The other way to cook it is to serve it as a kind of appetizers, but here it should be cooked with oil and the filling is composed of rice and vegetables and a little of spices and salt. Most Levantine Arabic-speaking countries like to call these delicious vegetarian stuffed grape leaves yalanji, there is no doubting it’s one of the tastiest traditional Mediterranean delicacies out there!