Listen to me foodies! You know how I always say that I read cookbooks like novels but I never follow recipes? Well today, it paid off in a big way and I encourage all you cooks out there to experiment as much as you can in the kitchen. Ive been making veggie lasagna for 20 plus years and yes I make it well and its perfectly delicious but today I hit the jackpot in the veggie lasagna lottery and came out a big winner. Its easy to make a heavy buttery, creamy, vegetable lasagna with lots of cheese and noodles but this lasagna was actually completely sinless without being watery or fattening or heavy in any way! Now I will tell you right now that its a complete and total pain in the butt to make and it has a lot of moving parts but you can break up your tasks and do them over the course of a few days and you probably wont be making the size pan that I make. So heres what I did differently and dont ask me for this recipe because you kind of need to see me do it rather than read it. Just take the following elements and make it your own or play around with variations: I used steamed and grilled zucchini and eggplant slices in place of the noodles. I brushed the eggplant slices with a tiny amount of olive oil before grilling them to get them brown and golden without added calories. I added a layer of roasted pepper which adds so much unctuous, rich texture I made a fantastic roasted tomato sauce and put in a kick of chili flakes I made a layer of onions, garlic, carrots, spinach, kale and mushrooms I made a layer of grated firm tofu mixed with a cup of feta cheese, parsley and cracked black pepper and in place of ricotta! I sprinkled every layer of the lasagna with a mixture of fresh and dried Italian herbs. And this was the kicker - Instead of doing a super fattening cheesy top, I made a sauce from GET THIS - a puree (I used the food processor) of soaked raw cashews, pumpkin, lemon juice, mustard, chick peas and nutritional yeast! When it was all smooth and luscious, I watered this sauce down with some veggie stock and put it on the top of the lasagna and then spread only 1 cup (in this huge pan you see below) of low fat mozzarella cheese, just to let the top brown a bit. Im telling you, I know people thought the thing was totally fattening but it was as healthy and as you can get. There was almost every veggies you could get in there! I baked it for about 30 minutes just to let the top brown and then let it sit for a good 2 hours so that it could settle before I cut it. It was a bit shorter than my normal lasagnas because it didnt have noodles but honestly you couldnt tell. It seems like a little thing but I was truly proud of this lasagna. I know people must have noticed how huge the portions I gave them were and more importantly that they didnt feel the least bit weighed down after eating it. Yes, its a lot of work but everyone that ate it today can attest to the fact that its worth every minute.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 14:05:44 +0000
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