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Vegetable and lentil lasagne

Lasagne takes a little work to prepare but once made you just bake it in the oven so it's a great prepare ahead or have an extra one in the freezer sort of meal. I use this 'cheese' sauce for cauliflower cheese and other dishes that need a tasty, thick, cheesy sauce. Easier than standing over a pot of sauce waiting for it to thicken in my view. Thank you Rachel for this recipe

Dinner
Intermediate
Time 90 mins
Skill Level Intermediate

Ingredients List

Serves 1
  • 200 g mushrooms sliced
  • 1 capsicums deseeded and sliced
  • 1 broccoli cut into small pieces
  • 150 g sweetcorn
  • 250 g brown lentils cooked or canned, drained and rinsed
  • 840 g pasta sauce oil-free sauce or homemade
  • 300 g lasagna pasta sheets
  • 1 onion unpeeled
  • 2 sweet potato
  • also known as kumara, unpeeled
  • 3 garlic cloves unpeeled
  • 50 g cashew nuts soaked in 1/2 cup of hot water
  • 1 tbsp white miso paste
  • 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 1 tbsp dijon mustard
Metric - US Imperial

Instructions

  1. Steam the onion, sweet potato and garlic in a pressure cooker at high pressure for ten minutes. If you don’t have a pressure cooker then you can steam the veg in a steamer over hot water for around 30 minutes.
  2. Leave in the steamer basket to cool
  3. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C / 350 degrees F. 
  4. While the vegetables are steaming, in a large non-stick pan sauté the mushrooms in a couple of tablespoons of water over a medium heat.
  5. Stir regularly and add a little more water if they start to stick.
  6. After five minutes once the mushrooms are starting to brown add the bell pepper / capsicum and sauté for another five minutes or so until the pepper softens.
  7. Add the broccoli, sweetcorn and lentils and continue to cook for another five minutes until the broccoli is tender.
  8. Divide the sheets of lasagne into three piles.
  9. Layer one third of the lasagne in the bottom of the dish. I use 12 sheets of lasagne in two dishes so start with two sheets in each.
  10. Spread half the cooked mushroom, vegetable and lentil mixture on top of the lasagne.
  11. Spread half the pasta sauce (one can) over the vegetables.
  12. Repeat the layering with another layer of lasagne, vegetable mixture and the remaining pasta sauce.
  13. Finish with the last third of the lasagne sheets.
  14. Once the steamed kumara/sweet potato, onion and garlic are cool enough to handle, cut off the bottom of the onion and garlic cloves and slip off their skins and discard.
  15. Slip off the skin of the kumara/sweet potato and discard.
  16. Put the kumara/sweet potato flesh, peeled onion and garlic, cashews including their soaking water, miso, nutritional yeast and mustard in a liquidiser or high speed blender and process until smooth.
  17. Scrape down the sides and add more hot water if necessary to get a thick ‘cheese’ sauce.
  18. Taste and adjust seasoning.
  19. Pour the ‘cheese’ sauce over the lasagne sheets in an even layer. You may not need all the sauce but it keeps well in the fridge for other things.
  20. Bake for 45 minutes.

If you want a crunchy topping add a layer of fresh breadcrumbs in the last 10 minutes of cooking.

I divide this lasagne into two ceramic dishes – 20x20cm and 18x23cm so I can freeze one for later. You could make a big one in a large lasagne pan.