Lovely layers of roasted vegetables, tomato and spinach sauce and creamy cashew bechamel stack up to make this plant-based lasagne. This recipe uses roasted pumpkin and eggplant, but you could use whatever vegetables you have in the fridge.
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 packet of lasagne sheets
4 cups of spinach
1 tin of diced tomatoes
1.5 cups of cashew nuts
1/2 butternut pumpkin
1 medium eggplant
Juice of half a lemon
2 tsp of maple syrup
1 medium potato
1 brown onion
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 Tbsp of nutritional yeast
1 clove of garlic (or more if you like!)
6 cherry tomatoes
Fresh basil
Method
1. Preheat your oven to 180 C (350 F) and boil the kettle.
2. Soak the cashews in boiling water (enough to just cover them).
3. Slice the vegetables (approximately 1/2 cm thick).
4. Place the vegetables in a baking dish and splash 1/4 cup of water over them.
5. Cook for approximately 25-30 minutes (while you make the sauce and bechamel).
6. Peel the onion and potato (you can leave the potato skin off if you prefer). Roughly chop and place in a pot of water. Bring to the boil and cook until the vegetables are soft (approximately 8-10 minutes).
7. Meanwhile, place tinned tomatoes and maple syrup in a fry pan and cook on a medium heat, stirring for 1-2 minutes. Then add half the salt and pepper.
8. Add the spinach and stir until spinach is completely cooked. Set sauce aside.
9. Once the potatoes and onions are soft, drain the water and place them in a blender. Add the cashes (including the water they were soaking in), lemon juice, nutritional yeast and the other half of the salt and pepper.
10. Blend on high until smooth and creamy. If the mixture appears too thick, gradually add a little more water until the desired consistency is reached. It should be thick but able to be poured.
11. Now that you have your vegetables, sauce and bechamel ready, it's time to layer the lasagne!
12. Layer in the following order:
Tomato sauce
Lasagne sheets
Eggplant
Tomato sauce
Lasagne sheets
Pumpkin
Bechamel
Lasagne Sheets
13. Repeat this order twice and finish with a layer of tomato sauce and bechamel.
14. Top with halved cherry tomatoes.
15. Bake in the oven for approximately 30-40 minutes. When a knife is easily inserted into the lasagne, it is ready to eat!
16. Top with fresh basil leaves.
17. Enjoy!
Danielle McDonald
Accredited Exercise Physiologist
M.Clin.Ex.Phys (Rehab), AEP, AES, ESSAM