1 tablespoon olive oil
1 white or yellow onion, diced
1 large or 2 small carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2¾ cup water
1½ cups cooked lentils (or 1 can, drained; if boiling from scratch, this is about ½ cup dry)
Salt and pepper
¾ teaspoon ground cumin
1½ tablespoons lemon juice
⅔ cup currants
1 medium sized head of green cabbage
3 cups stress-free tomato sauce (recipe below), or 1 25-ounce jar marinara sauce
Heat the oil in a large sautee pan. Add the onions, along with a pinch of salt. Cook the onions for 5 minutes, or until they're soft. Add the carrots and celery. Cook for another 2 minutes. Add the rice to the pan. Toast the rice, stirring frequently, for a full five minutes; you want it to smell lightly toasted and fragrant. Add the 2¾ cups water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover the pan, and cook for 30-35 minutes, until the rice is tender. Stir in the lentils, ½ teaspoon salt, a generous dash of pepper, the cumin, the lemon juice, and the currants. Preheat your oven to 350F. Spread about a cup of the tomato sauce over the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. To prepare the cabbage rolls, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Submerge the whole head of cabbage in the water for 3 minutes. Use tons to remove the head from the pot, and run it under cold water. Slip the first few outer skins off; they should be very easy to remove in one whole piece. Return the cabbage to the pot for 2 minutes, and then repeat the process. Do this until you have 12 whole, par-boiled cabbage leaves. Pat the leaves gently to dry them, and reserve remaining cabbage to toss into salads or slaws. Use a paring knife to trim down the thick stems of the cabbage leaves--just the way you'd prepare collard leaves for raw wraps (tutorial here). Add a generous ½ cup of the rice lentil mixture to the center of the leaf. Tuck in the bottom and the top, and then fold one side over the filling tightly. Wrap the other side over and around the roll, making sure to keep things snug, and place the whole roll, seam side down, in the baking dish. Repeat with all twelve cabbage leaves. Top the leaves with the remaining two cups of tomato sauce. Bake the rolls for 30-35 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and darkened on top of the rolls. Remove from heat and serve.