The origin of stuffed grape leaves goes back to the time when Alexander the Great besieged Thebes. Food became so scarce because of embargos, so people begin to cut meat into little bits and roll it in grape leaves.
Stuffed grape leaves is a popular dish known in Arabic as “Warak Enab” and it is served cold as an appetizer, as part of the mezes that precedes the main course. It is also there on every occasion and every celebration, in Ramadan, Christmas, wedding parties... in all versions of it).
The Syrian cuisine however has two ways for cooking grape leaves, as Wara' Enab, cooked with meat; whereas Yalangi which is stuffed with a vegetarian mix with olive oil and regarded as a main part of Syrian table appetizers and does not include any meat in the filling.
Some people call the stuffed grape leaves "Dolma"; which contains additional filling like: raisins, walnuts, pine nuts and tomatoes with rice and spices.
Grape leaves are both low in calories and high in fiber. They also have high amounts of vitamin A and vitamin K. They have a very high antioxidant content.