I'm not a vegetarian but I love vegetarian food! I'm a bit of a lasagne lover (mostly because of the cheese!) and after becoming bored with the usual meat sauce, I thought, why not give it a veggie spin?! I decided to have a try at making my very own veggie lasagne. :) Aside from the cheese/white sauce, this recipe is completely my own creation, so it might not be perfect - but I thought it was yummy :) Add, remove, and experiment with ingredients to your hearts content; I hope you enjoy making this as much as I did!Ingredients
- 1 pack of no cook lasagne (depending on the size/shape of tray you use, this varies; I used about 15)
- a splash of olive oil
- 1 large onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 courgettes
- 2 large aubergines
- a generous handful of mushrooms (or about 100g)
- a pinch oregano
- 1 bay leaf
- a pinch of basil
- 400g chopped tomatoes
- t tbsp tomato puree
- 1/2 glass of red wine
- 150g - 200g of spinnach
- Salt & pepper
For the white sauce;
- 50g butter
- 50g flour
- 1 pint milk
- 150g cheese, grated
- sprinkle of parmesan
Serves 4-6
Prepare the veg; peel and chop the aubergine into slices, chop the courgette, mushrooms and onion. Crush the garlic or chop finely.
In a pan, heat the olive oil and gently cook the garlic and onion until soft. Add the tinned tomatoes, the tomato puree, the wine, the mushrooms, and the courgettes. Add the oregano, the bay leaf, and the basil. Simmer for 10-20 minutes until the veg begins to soften. In a separate bowl, soak the sliced aubergine in a bowl of warm water and salt.
In a new pot, make the white roux sauce. melt the butter, and add the flour, stirring all of the time until a 'dough' ball is formed. Add the milk a little at a time, until a think sauce is formed. You can add more or less milk if you want a thicker or thinner sauce. Add about 3/4 of the cheddar cheese.
heat the oven to 180 Celsius, and add the spinach to the tomato sauce. (NOTE: if you are using frozen spinach, add this at the beginning).
Layer the aubergine into the tray. Pour over some of the tomato sauce(remember to remove the bay leaf!). Layer on sheets of lasagne until it fully covers the sauce. Pour on some of the white sauce, and then repeat, adding aubergine, tomato sauce, lasagne sheets and white sauce. Repeat until all of the mix is used up; this usually takes 2 layers of tomato sauce for me. Finish the final layer with the cheese sauce, the remaining cheese and some parmesan.
Cover the tray with tinfoil and pop into the oven for 30-40 minutes. Once the sheets have softened (test with a knife!) remove the tinfoil and let the top go lovely and crispy, for about 10-20 mins.
And you're done! Hope you enjoy :)
