My dad’s Greek stuffed tomatoes are perfect for a healthy summer dinner

• 1 pound of ground beef
• ½ onion, chopped
• ⅔ cup of rice (we use the medium-grain Calrose rice)
• ¾ cup of parsley
• 1 clove of garlic

Yemista is terrific all year round, but it’s especially delicious in the summer.

Yemista is perfect for the summer, when tomatoes are at their peak. I love the blistered texture of the roasted tomatoes, which are juicy and subtly sweet. The combination of the rice and beef is always comforting, but the dish is colorful and healthy — a hallmark of the Mediterranean diet beloved by Greeks.

When I was a kid and my parents made yemista with both tomatoes and peppers, I never ate the pepper shells but always asked for more tomatoes. And my best friend, Nausheen, would always request it whenever she came over for dinner in high school. She still talks about it to this day.

Whenever you decide to eat it, I hope my dad’s yemista brings you as much joy and comfort as it has given me through the decades.

As the Greeks would say, kali orexi!