mmmm....Lasagna!

I love, love, love lasagna. But who doesn't? My absolute favorite was from a restaurant in St. Louis, Schlafly Bottleworks. It was this perfect cheesy veggie lasagna and they took it off the menu! Gah! (sad face) But guess what? I asked nicely for the recipe and they gave it to me! Bless 'em! Unfortunately for you, this is not it. Ha! I can't eat dairy right now, so I'm not posting any cheesy goodness (maybe some other time...next year?) This is, however, inspired by that one, using a similar broccoli-ricotta filling that has been cleverly vegan-ized. It's a delicious dairy-free and gluten-free lasagna sure to please vegans, vegetarians, and ominvores alike.

Vegan Lasagna

1 box of lasagna noodles (I used Tinkyada Joy Pasta Organic Brown Rice noodles)
1 15oz can, or two cups diced tomatoes
2 24oz jars tomato puree (not sauce, we don't want any added salt or seasonings)
olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
salt
1 large russet potato, sliced into 1/4" thick rounds
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash
4 cups baby spinach

for vegan "ricotta" filling:
1 cup raw cashew pieces, soaked overnight
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
juice of one lemon
salt and pepper
water
1/4 c ground golden flaxseed
1/2 lb frozen broccoli florets, thawed and finely chopped

So, first let's talk about this vegan ricotta. Cashews are an amazing thing. You will find them in many different vegan recipes as a dairy replacement. You can make cashew milk, "cream" sauces, and add texture like in this ricotta substitute. You cannot substitute other nuts for this. Just trust me, don't do it.

Put your soaked cashews, garlic, and herbs in the bowl of a food processor and process until it looks grainy. It will sort of look like ricotta already, just drier. Add your lemon juice and a couple tablespoons of water. Pulse a few times to combine. You don't want it to get totally smooth like you would to make cashew butter. Now dump that out into a big bowl. Process your broccoli, if you haven't already chopped it. Combine the two and add some water, or even a little (1/2 cup) non-dairy milk, and the flaxseed. Stir well to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste. Now it should really look like a ricotta filling!

Would you know by looking that it wasn't ricotta??? I wouldn't.

Set that aside, and cook your noodles according to the package. When they are not quite al dente, so still a little more firm than you'd want to eat, drain, rinse, and put in an ice water bath. Do the same for your potato slices. Toss your zucchini and squash slices with a little olive oil and roast for about 20 min in a 400 degree oven. Roasting the veggies really adds a great flavor. (You can use any veggies you like in this, too, even leftover roasted veggies from another meal.) I left my spinach raw to layer, but you could saute it with some garlic first and that would be delicious! 

Now, while those things are cooking, go make your sauce. For the tomato sauce, you could go the easy way out and use a canned or jarred pre-seasoned variety. I won't hold it against you. But making your own is super simple and wonderfully flavorful with none of the sugar that is often hiding in pre-packaged sauces. I learned how to make simple marinara while I was in Italy. I was puzzled for the longest time because I'd order pizza and the sauce would be perfectly smooth with no evidence of garlic...yet I could taste the garlic. Well, finally, I took a cooking class and learned the trick. They infuse the oil with the garlic and then toss out the cloves. Sneaky. For the tomatoes, you can use whole canned/jarred and puree them yourself, or buy "passata", which is what they use in Italy. These are the tomatoes I like: 

The jar on the right is the passata. Good stuff. 

Heat your olive oil (a couple tablespoons) in a small skillet over low-med heat. Peel and cut in half lengthwise two cloves of garlic. Or you can just smash them. You want to expose the "heart" of the garlic to release the flavor. Toss the pieces into the hot oil and stir occasionally until they turn golden. Then remove the pan from the heat and remove the garlic from the oil. Feed it to your husband, if you'd like. Or compost it. Whatever. Allow the oil to cool off a little bit so that it doesn't go crazy and splatter when you add the tomato puree. Now add your tomato puree, your diced tomatoes, and the basil and oregano and about 2 tsp of salt (start with one, taste, and add if needed...the "saltiness" depends on the variety of salt). Salt is the magic ingredient here, it is what takes the acidity and bitterness away from tomatoes. It's what makes them good! So don't skimp.

Time to assemble: 

Sauce
Noodles

"Ricotta" filling
Potatoes

Sauce
Noodles

"Ricotta" filling

Spinach

Sauce
Noodles

"Ricotta" filling

Zucchini & Squash

Sauce

Noodles

Sauce

If you like nutritional yeast, sprinkle that over the top. Personally, I hate the stuff. 

Once it is all assembled, cover with foil, and you can cook it right away, put it in the refrigerator until later, or do what I did and leave it sitting out on the counter while you go pick up the kids from school. Yay for vegan! No food-borne illness!

When you are ready, pop it in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes. You can remove the foil for the last 10 minutes or so. The sauce should look bubbly. Yummy!!!

And here's what was left of ours:

Um, yeah. I seem to have a problem remembering to photograph the food before we eat it. Glad there was some left! As with most lasagna, it was even better as leftovers.