These Greek Slow Cooker Stuffed Tomatoes or Gemista are stuffed with rice and fresh herbs and baked in a tomato sauce. This twist on a classic Greek dish can be made with or without ground meat (for a vegan option) and is made without any babysitting in a slow cooker.
These slow cooker Greek style stuffed tomatoes or gemista are an easier way to enjoy this classic dish. You can easily swap tomatoes for peppers too or do a medley of different stuffable vegetables.
If you have tried gemista or Greek stuffed tomatoes (and other vegetables), then you know how delicious they are! Packed full of rice and fresh herbs, these stuffed tomatoes are full of flavour and sure to please the whole family.
The beauty of this dish is that it can be made more hearty by including ground beef (or other ground protein such as turkey or lamb) or left without it for a vegan meal.
This meal is not only hearty and downright delicious, it’s pretty simple to make too. It does require a bit of prep work to prepare the rice filling but it is super simple and doesn’t take too long at all.
This recipe is very similar to my Gemista (Greek Stuffed Peppers and Tomatoes) recipe which I already have on my site but with some tweaks. Aside from the obvious change in instructions to reflect cooking in a slow cooker, the recipe is also scaled down a bit.
Since a slow cooker bowl is smaller than the casserole dish I typically use in my oven recipe, the recipe is scaled down by about half for the filling portion and I opt to use medium sized tomatoes instead of large ones so they can fit better in the bowl.
Substitutions and Tips for making Slow Cooker Stuffed Tomatoes (Greek Gemista)
- You can do all the prep work in advance: I like to prep the entire meal the night before and set it in the fridge overnight. Then in the morning, I just drop the slow cooker bowl into the cooker on my way out the door. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy! By the time I come home, I have a delicious home cooked meal ready to go!
- Use medium sized tomatoes: To optimize how many tomatoes you can fit in the bowl of your slow cooker, I use medium sized tomatoes. They are big enough to stuff but not so large that you struggle to add enough to the slow cooker.
- Place your tomatoes upside down in the slow cooker. When making this dish, I always turn my tomatoes upside down so that the top of the tomato becomes the bottom. They tend to stand up better this way. Otherwise, they are wobbly and don’t stay still.
- Swap any stuffable vegetable you like: No need to use only tomatoes in this dish. You can easily replace some of the tomatoes with peppers or small eggplants, for example.
- Make your potatoes bite sized: While in my oven version of gemista, I use larger wedges of potatoes, in this slow cooker version I cut them up into bite sized pieces so they can easily be arranged around the tomatoes. This makes it possible to add in about 2 or 3 medium sized potatoes for a heartier meal.
- Leave out the ground meat for a vegan meal.
- Swap in a leaner meat for a healthier version: typically, Greek stuffed tomatoes are made with ground beef (some use lamb too). You can also swap in other lean ground meats such as turkey or chicken.
Ingredients in Slow Cooker Stuffed Tomatoes (Greek Gemista)
- Tomatoes for stuffing: Medium sized, about 6 or as many as you can fit in your slow cooker bowl.
- Other veggies: Potatoes, onions and garlic. Onions and garlic add flavour to the filling. I arrange the potatoes in the slow cooker to cook alongside the stuffed tomatoes for a complete, all-in-one meal.
- Olive oil: Use good quality olive oil.
- Ground beef: You can omit this to make this a vegan recipe.
- Rice: long grain rice is preferable but any white rice works for this recipe. You can also make this recipe with brown rice but if you do, I recommend par-boiling it first as brown rice takes longer to cook.
- Tomato sauce
- Seasoning: Salt, pepper and herbs including parsley, basil, mint and dried oregano
Note: For ingredient quantities and full instructions, go to the recipe card at the end of the post.
How to make Slow Cooker Stuffed Tomatoes (Greek Gemista)
1. Arrange Tomatoes. Arrange tomatoes in the slow cooker bowl to ensure they fit. It should fit about 6 medium sized tomatoes but you can adjust depending on the size of your tomatoes).
2. Slice and scoop. Prepare the tomatoes by cutting off the tops and scooping out the insides of the tomatoes with a spoon. Arrange the tomatoes in the slow cooker.
3. Season. Season the potatoes with salt, pepper and oregano and toss together. Arrange the potato wedges around the tomatoes.
4. Prepare the filling. In a saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat and add the onion. Saute until they begin to turn translucent. Add the garlic and saute for another minute or so. Add the ground beef and brown it, breaking up any large pieces as it cooks. Once the meat is browned, add the fresh herbs, rice, and half of the tomato sauce and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
5. Stuff. Scoop the filling into the tomatoes and place the tomato tops back on top. Drizzle the tomatoes with more olive oil (optional) and season the outsides with salt and pepper. Add the remaining tomato sauce.
6. Bake. Bake in the slow cooker on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours or until the tomatoes have softened the rice filling is cooked.
How to store and reheat leftovers
Once cooled, the stuffed tomatoes can be placed in an airtight container and stored in the fridge for a few days. To reheat, place them in a pan with a few tablespoons of water. Cover the pan with foil and reheat in the oven at 350F until they are warmed through.
Reheating in the oven is the best method but you can also reheat them in a microwave, making leftovers great for work lunches.
What to serve with Slow Cooker Stuffed Tomatoes (Greek Gemista)
Since this meal is hearty and filling, all it needs is some feta cheese, crusty bread and a nice salad or vegetable side dish. Some of my favourites quick and easy salads to serve alongside this dish are: Greek Salad, Radish Cucumber Salad, or Cucumber Feta Salad.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!
-Cathy
Looking for more slow cooker meals? You may also like:
Slow Cooker Chicken and Potatoes
Roast Beef in the Slow Cooker
Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup
You may also like these Greek stuffed vegetable dishes:
Papoutsakia (Greek Stuffed Eggplant)
Dolmades (Greek Stuffed Grape Leaves)
Slow Cooker Stuffed Tomatoes (Greek Gemista)
Ingredients
- 6 tomatoes medium size
- 2 potatoes cut into bite sized pieces (use as many potatoes as you can fit in your slow cooker around the tomatoes)
- 1/4 cup olive oil + more for drizzling over dish before it bakes
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 onion diced
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1/2 lb ground beef (omit to make this a vegan recipe)
- 1/2 cup rice uncooked and rinsed
- 1/2 jar tomato sauce divided
- salt and pepper
- 2 tablespoons mint
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley and basil
Instructions
- Arrange tomatoes in the slow cooker bowl to ensure they fit. It should fit about 6 medium sized tomatoes but you can adjust depending on the size of your tomatoes). [Tip: Place your tomatoes upside down in the slow cooker so that the top of the tomato now becomes the bottom. They tend to stand up better this way, otherwise they are wobbly and unstable.]
- Prepare the tomatoes by cutting off the tops and scooping out the insides of the tomatoes with a spoon. Arrange the tomatoes in the slow cooker.
- Season the potatoes with salt, pepper and oregano and toss together. Arrange the potato wedges around the tomatoes.
- In a saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat and add the onion. Saute until they begin to turn translucent. Add the garlic and saute for another minute or so.
- Add the ground beef and brown it, breaking up any large pieces as it cooks.
- Once the meat is browned, add the fresh herbs, rice, and half of the tomato sauce and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
- Scoop the filling into the tomatoes and place the tomato tops back on top.
- Drizzle the tomatoes with more olive oil (optional) and season the outsides with salt and pepper. Add the remaining tomato sauce.
- Bake in the slow cooker on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours or until the tomatoes have softened the rice filling is cooked.
Note: Metric ingredient measurements are provided as a courtesy using a third-party calculator and are rounded to the nearest unit. The recipes provided on this site have not been tested with metric measurements and their accuracy cannot be verified.
Nutrition
The nutritional information provided is based on third-party calculations and is an estimate only. Accurate nutritional facts will vary based on the particular brands used, portion sizes, measurement accuracy and more.
