I had minced pork. I had mint. I had cinnamon. I had lemons and of course I had olive oil.

I had fresh vine leaves a friend gave me. There was only one thing to do, really!

I didn’t want to use rice, and up the carb count. I also didn’t want to use brown rice, as it’s unpredictable and I never win with it so I went with mostly shirataki rice and a bit of bulghur wheat.

This makes a lot of filling so I used 1/3 of it and froze the other two portions. They squish satisfyingly flat in freezer bags! It’s roughly 32g of carbs for the whole amount of filling, and that’s the bulghur wheat which of course you don’t have to use it you don’t want to.

Vine leaves – you can buy these ready blanched and brined. Most Turkish or Middle Eastern grocers will sell them in some form because us Mediterranean type women seem determined to make life difficult for ourselves. They can come vacuum packed or in jars. Or you could always plant a grape vine.

If they pre packaged and in brine, rinse them well!

If you do have a chance to get fresh, choose large leaves with no holes. Pour boiling water over them and soak for 15 minutes until they are softened, and then dry them off. Cut off any hard stem bits. You will roll them rough side up.

Line a pan with any torn or small ones, as that will stop them burning as they cook.

Olive oil – you will use this twice so no putting the bottle away

454g pork mince (you can use beef, or chicken, or plant based, whatever you want)

1 tsp onion powder (it’s meant to be actual onions but I had none)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp (or more) dried mint

1 tsp dried parsley (I had no fresh, my plant died)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 packs (2 x 190g sachets) of shirataki rice, rinsed and drained well

42g or 1/4 cup course bulghur wheat to add more body

60ml water

Juice of 2 lemons – divided

1 heaped tbs tomato paste*

Add at least 3 tbs of olive oil to the pan. We really don’t measure but Society tells us we should. I don’t think we listen.

Fry off the pork mince until it starts to change colour, then add in the onion powder, salt, mint, parsley and cinnamon.

Add in the drained ‘rice’ and the bulghur wheat, plus 1/4 cup or 60ml of water and the 1/2 lemon juice.

Let that all simmer until the wheat is soft and any liquid has gone. Shirataki does not absorb liquid, you need to cook it off.

Taste it and check for seasoning. It may well need more salt.

Mix in the heaped tablespoon of tomato paste. This should bind things together a bit. They are going to get cooked again, so don’t panic that the paste hasn’t been cooked off.

Now you get to stuff those leaves. *(I will admit that when I got to this point, I thought the mix was too loose and it was, because I had forgotten the tomato paste…)

Here is a tutorial video. Much easier than me trying to explain!

Lay them into the pan you have lined with the extra vine leaves. Pack them in so they don’t wander about too much.

Pour over the rest of the lemon juice, and an equal amount of olive oil.

Pour in enough water so that the koupepia are just covered, then weigh them down with a plate so they stay submerged.

Bring to the boil, turn the heat down and simmer on low, covered, for 30 minutes.

Let them cool, still covered, so they don’t dry out. I add more lemon and olive oil to serve because of course I do.

The tomatoes cooked at the bottom of the pan are also delicious.

Note: some use the meat raw and mix it with rice and all the spices, then stuff that into the leaves. It would probably make the filling hold together better doing it that way!