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

My dad's yemista, a classic Greek dish, is the perfect dinner for summer. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider

My dad has been making yemista, a classic Greek dish, for as long as I can remember.

His version features tomatoes stuffed with rice, ground beef, onion, and parsley.

My dad's recipe is delicious, easy, and perfect for summer when tomatoes are in peak season.

My dad has a Greek dish for any occasion and season.

Need a quick pasta dish? How about youvetsi . Heading to a potluck? Whip up a pan of pastitsio . Feeling sick? Avgolemono soup will cure you! And there's no better dessert than baklava .

Now it's tomato season, and my dad has a dish for that too. He loves whipping up yemista — tomatoes stuffed with a mixture of rice, ground beef, and herbs. It's light, healthy, and comforting, which is why I always request it when I visit my parents.

Here's how to make it.

Yemista was one of the many Greek dishes I grew up with.

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The word yemista means "stuffed" in Greek. True to its name, the dish traditionally consists of tomatoes and bell peppers stuffed with rice and ground beef, then baked in the oven.

Yemista (also spelled gemista) was a weekly staple of my childhood. My parents immigrated to the US from Greece in the 1980s and loved making the dishes they grew up with. Their food helped me connect to my culture as a first-generation Greek American and instilled an early and enduring love for Mediterranean cooking .

My dad, an excellent home cook, has taught me how to make many classic Greek dishes. And he thinks his yemista is a perfect summer dinner.

My dad's yemista only needs a few ingredients.

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To make yemista at home, you'll need:

8 (relatively large) tomatoes

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

Although yemista is traditionally made with both tomatoes and bell peppers, my dad has found that bell peppers in the US are thicker than in Greece — and thus trickier to cook evenly with tomatoes.

Now he usually just makes yemista with tomatoes, but the process to cook peppers is the same. Feel free to follow these instructions and try both if you desire!

We begin by chopping the onion and parsley.

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This will be for our yemista filling.

Then it's time to prepare the tomatoes.

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After washing your tomatoes, use a good knife and slice off the top of each one, including the stem.

Don't throw the tops away! You'll need them again before the tomatoes go into the oven.

Scoop the filling out of each tomato.

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You'll want to scoop out the tomato's core and flesh, leaving enough space to add the yemista filling (as seen above). My dad recommends using an ice cream scooper to get the filling out since it's sharper, but a spoon will also work.

If you're making eight stuffed tomatoes, save the flesh of five of them in a bowl — you'll need them for the filling. My dad recommends using the leftover flesh to make a simple tomato sauce for pasta.

Pro tip: If you're doing stuffed bell peppers as well, you'll scoop them out the same way, just make sure to throw the seeds away.

There are two methods you can use to make the tomato "sauce" for the yemista filling. The easier one involves a food processor.

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Using a knife, remove the hard core from each small ball of tomato filling you've scooped out. Put the remaining flesh in a food processor to finely chop everything.

If you don't have a food processor, you can achieve similar results with a grater.

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Carefully slide your ball of tomato filling up and down the grater over a bowl, removing the flesh from the core. Don't try to grate the hard core — we only need the soft part of each tomato.

This can be a little trickier, especially for an inexperienced chef, so watch out for your fingers!

Your finished tomato "sauce" should look like this.

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Set it aside until it's time to make the filling.

Arrange your tomato "cups" in a 9-inch-by-12-inch baking dish.

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Dump any extra water from the tomato cups right into the baking dish.

Lightly salt the interior of each tomato for extra taste.

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Our yemista is almost ready for the oven!

Now it's time to make the filling.

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First, add a drizzle of olive oil to a large sauté pan over medium heat.

Let the olive oil heat up, then add the onion.

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The onion should cook for a couple of minutes, until browned.

Now, throw in the ground beef.

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Season the beef with salt and freshly ground black pepper for extra flavor.

And top it with some of the chopped parsley.

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Only use half of the parsley you've prepped.

Give everything a good mix.

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Use a spatula or wooden spoon to break up the ground beef, cooking it until the meat has browned.

Add the tomato "sauce" and rice once the meat has browned.

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Remember you'll need ⅔ cup of rice.

Now let it simmer.

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This will take around five minutes, until most of the water in the sauce has reduced.

But don't let the filling get too dry — we need some liquid to help the rice cook in the oven.

Throw in the rest of the parsley.

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Give it one last mix, and voilà — your filling is done!

Using a spoon, fill each tomato cup with the beef-and-rice mixture.

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Remember, t...

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