Cracked Wheat Stuffed Red Cabbage

Method

1. Place the mushrooms, soaked walnuts and shelled pistachios in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped; you can also do this by hand.
2. Preheat a large frying pan, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil then fry the sage leaves until crisp – roughly 1-2 minutes, then remove from the oil and place to one side. Fry the onion on a medium-low heat in the sage infused oil until completely soft, then add the garlic and cook for around 1 minute.
3. Add the mushroom and nut mixture to the frying pan, along with a generous pinch of salt, a few cracks of black pepper and allspice then fry for 10-15 minutes to remove the excess moisture. Mix the cooked cracked wheat with the mushroom mixture and stir through the crispy sage, season to taste then leave to one side.
4. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil – large enough to fit your cabbage. Cut the core out your cabbage as best you can, whilst keeping the cabbage whole and intact, without removing any of the leaves. Submerge the cabbage in the water and simmer for 15-20 minutes, the water should turn a deep blue. If the cabbage doesn’t fully submerge, flip it over in the pot halfway through cooking. Carefully remove from the pan, leave until its cool enough to handle then begin to pull away the leaves, if the inner leave aren’t coming away easily, return it to the pan and continue simmering for a few minutes, do this until you have removed all the leaves – the central leaves will be a bit small, but can be saved for another use.
5. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
6. Remove the bottom section of the stem by slicing a small triangle into the base of each cabbage leaf, this will make it easier to roll, but if the leaves are particularly pliable this step might not be necessary. Place a good spoonful of the mixture onto the base of the cabbage leaf, fold both sides over and roll it away from you to create a cylinder. Repeat until you have used all your mixture or ran out of cabbage leaves.
7. Place each stuffed cabbage leaf into a deep roasting tin or dish and position them snuggly together in rows. Mix the vegetable stock, wine and cranberry sauce together in a jug then poor over evenly. Brush each cabbage roll with a little olive oil then place in the oven for 35-40 minutes.
8. Once cooked sprinkle over the chopped fresh parsley and serve.