Lasagne

blackbuster

How do you make a good veggie lasagne?

Blub2k4

I make a nice cougette and pesto veggie lasagne. Rough ingredients add or remove as you wish according to your normal habits, you could even use a jar based sauce but why bother home made tastes a lot better.

this is a large recipe and makes about 10 portions so it can easily be halved or quartered depending.

home made or jarred pesto

12 sheets of lasagne

4 courgettes, 2 sliced fine and 2 sliced lengthways
For tomato sauce
1 finely sliced/diced onion
2 cloves garlic
tin of tomatoes ( or roast your own tomatoes down and sieve them to make your own passata, it's so much better.)
2tbsp tom puree
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
bay leaf, whatever herbs you normally add, rosemary, oregano, thyme.... all good.
Whatever veg you want to get rid of is normally good to add
For Cheese sauce
300ml milk
150g cheddar
50g parmesan or whatever cheeses you want to use to make up 200g grated cheese.
50g butter
50g flour, normal flour not self-raising
grate of nutmeg or white pepper

You need a few courgettes, about 4 if you are making a lot, I tend to make a large batch and freeze it in portions for lunches at work. Chop two of them into small pieces and slice two of them into ribbons lengthwise.
Make up a standard tomoto sauce, with tinned or fresh tomatos added to a pan of sweated onions and garlic and whatever veg you want, lots of garlic is essential, also towards the end add the courgette pieces or they will get a bit too mushy, I like them with a bit of bite. Everyone makes up their own tomato sauces so do your usual one just add courgettes.
Make up a cheesey bechamel type sauce with 300ml milk, about 200g cheese, some parmesan is nice about 50g in there too, then make up a roux with 50g butter and 50g flour, cook that out a bit then add the warmed milk to it stirring well with a whisk to stop lumps forming, when it has thickened nicely add the cheese and season with a grate of nutmeg or some white pepper.
Boil up your lasagne slices for a few minutes, until tender, dont cook them properly, even if the packet says it is oven ready dont miss out on boiling it for a bit the results are always better. I use about 12 sheets of lasagne, use according to your tray size.
Blanch the long strips of courgette for a minute or so.
To build the lasagne you line the tray with lasagne then a layer of the courgette ribbons then some tomato sauce then a layer of cheese sauce on this I dollop small bits of pesto, the jars from lidl are fine, dont use too much or it gets too oily on reheating.
then build like this until you get to the top and finish with a layer of courgett no tomato sauce and some cheese sauce and top with a little grated cheese.
Pop it in the oven at about 165-170 for about 45 minutes or until it is browned on top and nice and bubbley.
Enjoy.

Shabadu

Onions, garlic, olive oil, heavy bottomed pan. Cook over medium heat until golden brown. Add mushrooms, turn the heat up, sweat to remove all their moisture. Salt and black pepper. Add quorn (really helps the texture) and sweat a bit more. Throw in a chopped courgette, pepper, grated carrot, tin of tomato purée, veggie stock cube, bay leaf, thyme, some pasata or a tin of tomatoes. Turn down the heat and cover, barely simmering for at least half an hour. The longer you leave it, the better the flavour. Lash in a bit of chili sauce too if you want, maybe some balsamic vinegar, a sprinkle of sugar if the tomatoes need it. Then pop in some oregano, fresh basil if you have it.

Make a mornay sauce. Melt a desrtspoon of butter over a medium heat. Add enough flour for it to just come together. Continue cooking for a minute. Whisk in a few spoons of milk, wait till it starts thickening, add in a dribble more milk, wait again, continue whisking and adding milk until it is a good consistency. Wait for it to bubble again, see how thick it is, add a dash more milk if it's too thick. Stir in some grated cheese.

Make the lasagne by putting a bit of the tomato sauce on the bottom of the oven dish, then cover with lasagne sheets. Add some more sauce, followed by the mornay, then more sheets. Continue till you have used all the sauce/reached the top of the dish. Finish by having a layer of tomato sauce, sheets, and then a final layer of mornay. Sprinkle the top with grated parmesan. Pop it in a fairly hot oven, 180 degrees or so.


EDIT: Beaten to it!

Blub2k4

I think this could be called the warm front before the Storm Shabadu.

Shabadu

Indeed, I noticed that yesterday when reading through OP's previous posts after seeing the AH thread. Still, innocent till Smodded and all that.

blackbuster

Thanks for the ingredients folks. I don't know what you ment with the last 2 replys???

Blub2k4

blackbuster wrote:

Thanks for the ingredients folks. I don't know what you ment with the last 2 replys???

No of course not, you're only here for the good food and the pleasant conversation.

flikflak

I would roast all my veggies before putting them into a lasagne. Then would just layer it all up as with a meat one. Lovely!