Monday, June 27, 2011

Vegetarian Lasagna

Hello :) Well today I did some more cooking with A and my friend T. Hehe I must say it's quite fun calling them by their first initials ;) I decided we were going to make lasagna since I haven't made it in ages and it's quite possibly one of my favourite foods. And also because A didn't think lasagna was worth making without meat and I wanted to prove him wrong!

I basically made a lasagna as you would with meat but substituted the meat for red lentils. I have tried other vegetarian recipes where you use eggplants, sweet potatoes etc but it's just so time consuming! We didn't use a recipe as such, but here's a basic step-by-step guide on how we made ours...

(Easy) Vegetarian Lasagna

1. Chop one brown onion and sautee in a large pot with some olive oil (a tablespoon or so). Cook for a few minutes then add a few cloves of crushed garlic.
2. Add in 1/2 cup red lentils and cook for another minute before adding 2x400g tinned tomatoes. Bring to the boil and simmer until the lentils are cooked. Add a splash of red wine vinegar if you fancy. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Meanwhile, wash, chop and lightly steam spinach. Pat dry with a paper towel to remove excess liquid.
4. Make a white sauce using butter, flour and milk. We kind of made up the measurements...
5. Assemble the lasagna! I put a layer of lasagna sheets followed by some lentil bolognese sauce. Then another layer of lasagna sheets and the spinach as well as lots of fresh ricotta. Finally another layer of lasagna sheets followed by the rest of the lentil bolognese, some more ricotta, white sauce and parmesan cheese.
6. Cook in a preheated oven for about 40-50 minutes.


The only criticism with this lasagna was the bottom layer of pasta was a little undercooked and "crunchy", if I dare say so myself. Maybe we should have pre cooked the lasagna sheets? Hmmm. 

But apart from that it was delicious and comforting :) There's seriously nothing better than a good lasagna in my opinion! And A even liked it ;) Woo! 

Luckily there's plenty of leftovers for dinner and possibly tomorrow....well maybe! 

Hannah x

6 comments:

  1. i really love spinach so your vegie lasagna looks delish!

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  2. Lentils and spinach in a lasagne are a must. It looks gorgeous and you had leftovers!!

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  3. Suze- It wouldn't be the same without spinach!! :)

    sassy- Thanks :) They are a must! I've been adding lentils to everything recently (soups, curries), they're great!

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  4. This looks delicious! And super easy too. I'll have to try it one day, I agree with you in that the chopping and cooking all the veggies is the most time-consuming part of making lasagne.

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  5. Jennifer- thanks :) You should totally try it, it still is a little time consuming but worthy it!!

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  6. I LOVE vegetarian lasagne. I love meat lasagne too though :) All round obsessed with the stuff! I tend to not make it v often though (the meat version) as it's a little labour intensive..
    Heidi xo

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