I am definately making these again, and again (In fact, these were on the Green Owl's Raw Night Mediterranean theme menu a couple months ago) .  They were so tasty, and so easy!  Lucky for me, I have grape vines in my yard, so in the morning, I went down, and picked about 15 leaves all of a good medium size.  Then I made a sea salt water solution, and soaked them in there on the counter top all day while I worked. 

Soaking them in salt water will soften them up, and make them more pliable for making the wraps, also, the leaves are easier to bite into after they are softened.

The other pre prep thing I did before I left for work was soak some almonds.  

After they've been soaked, drain and rinse, and soak in more fresh water until you are ready to make dolmas!  Soaking almonds breaks down the enzyme inhibitors, and awakens the life force for sprouting.  Raw nuts are more nutritious if they have been soaked.  Also, after almonds have been soaked it is very easy to get the skins off.  No blanching involved!   Just give it a little squeeze, and the almond will pop right out of its skin!  

 
here is a list of ingredients for raw dolmas:
12-15 medium grape leaves, soaked in sea salt water for hours
1 cup or so of raw almonds, soaked a few hours
a lot of fresh dill
handful of fresh mint
1/2 cup or so of raisins, chopped a bit
5-6 slices of sundried tomatos, soaked and chopped
lemon juice
lemon zest from one lemon
olive oil
sea salt
crushed red pepper flakes
 
Process the peeled almonds with the lemon skins (to zest it.  I just slice off the skins of one whole lemon, and add it to be processed, but if you have a microplane, you can add in the zest later), lemon juice, and olive oil, dill and mint, and salt and red pepper flakes.  Process until you have a pate like consistancy.  Scrape out into a bowl, and mix in the rasins and tomatoes by hand.  Add more lemon juice if needed.  Remember that the grape leaves are soaked in salt water, so dont add too much salt to the filling, because it will taste salty on first biting into it.  then just lay out a grape leaf, underside of the leaf up, so the darker shinier side will be on the outside of each dolma.

you can see from this leaf, that the tips are still a brighter green, that just means that the salt has not fully penitrated into all the cells, but it is still softened up rather nicely.

Start by folding the stem end of the leaf over the filling, then fold in the sides, and continue rolling up.  Simple!  continue untill all the filling is used up.  I had 15 leaves soaked, and used 12  for the amount of filling I had.
Oh my, were they awesome!  I was wishing I had made more, we ate them all up lastnight, I gave the last two away to my friend Katie, who gave me the idea to try to make raw dolmas.  Thanks Katie, and I am glad you thought the dolmas were heaven! 

I really hope this inspires you to try to make these super simple tasty good for your body treats! 
  It'll be worth it, I promise!