Meatless Lasagna
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Ring in the new year with this great lasagna recipe to try with Nafsika’s Garden cheese and a “no meat” meat sauce made from scratch.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp of olive oil Irini or Solon Greek olive oil/li>
- 1 medium-size yellow onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 350-400gr pack of store-bought plant-based ground round (can be substituted with crumbled tempeh or firm tofu)
- 2 pasta sauce jars (about 700ml each)
- 1 tsp tsp of Italian spices salt and pepper
- Ricotta Tofu 16 oz pack extra firm tofu, crumbled
- 1 tbsp of lemon juice
- tbsp of nutritional yeast
- 2 tbsp of olive oil
- 1 tsp of dry basil or oregano leaves
- salt and pepper
- 2 big handfuls of fresh spinach (about 100 grams)
- Lasagna
- 1 one package of Nafsika’s Garden grated mozzarella
- 1 one package of oven-ready lasagna pasta (no cooking needed); you will need between 12 to 20 pasta depending on the size of your dish
- optional: 2 plant-based Italian style sausages, sliced (with a drizzle of oil to pan fry them with)
Method
- Steps Make the no meat sauce: in a deep fry pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat and sauté the onion until translucent and almost golden
- Add the garlic, mix 30 seconds, and then add the plant-based ground round. Cook for about 5 minutes making sure it doesn’t stick too much to the pan (lower the heat if so).
- Add the pasta sauce and the Italian spices to the pan, mix in and bring to a simmer. Let the sauce simmer for about 5 to 10 minutes. Preheat the oven at 350F. While the sauce is simmering, make the tofu ricotta: in a food processor, put all the ingredients of the ricotta, except the spinach, and mix for about 10 seconds.
- Add the spinach and mix 20-30 seconds more, or until the spinach is fully torn apart and incorporated into the ricotta.
Transfer in a bowl and, with a spoon, mix in one cup of grated mozzarella. Set aside. Turn off the heat of the sauce, adjust salt and pepper to taste and set aside. - Optional: In a pan, lightly pan-fried the sliced sausages in a little bit of oil, a minute or so on each side.
Set aside Assemble the lasagna: in an ovenproof dish (large and deep enough for lasagna), spread out about one cup of the sauce (or enough to cover the surface) and then layered 3 to 5 kinds of pasta. - Cover with another cup of sauce and half of the pan-fried sliced sausages and then one more layer of pasta.Spread out evenly the ricotta mixture and then one layer of pasta; another cup of sauce with the other half of pan-fried sliced sausages and one last layer of pasta
- Finish with one last cup of sauce and sprinkle with enough grated mozzarella to your own preference.
- Cover with aluminum foil. Cook the lasagna (covered) 30 minutes, uncover it and cook 10 more minutes.
- Let cool about 10 minutes then serve.