Before40 - Vegetarian Lasagne

No. 17 - Make A vegetarian Lasagne

Like cooking & have cooked most veggie dishes, except for a lasagne. So for this task, i wanted to make one from scratch
Criteria has to be that the whole dish is 100% Organic.

Status: - DONE

It is interesting to note that when typing in 'Vegetarian Lasagne' on the MSN search engine, the Before40 'Make a Vegetarian Lasagne' Task is now at top of the listings!
With that in mind, my write up of this task will now become more in depth, as i feel i am now offering a 'service' to those Millions of people wanting to know "how to make a vegetarian lasagne" & are searching for a brilliant recipe on the net.!!!!!!!

WHAT IS A LASGANE?
Wikipedia describe lasagne as follows:-
"Lasagne, (also lasagna), is both a form of pasta in sheets (often rippled in North America and other countries, though seldom so in Italy) and also a dish, sometimes named Lasagne al forno (meaning "Lasagne in the oven") made with alternate layers of pasta, cheese, and sometimes ragù (a meat sauce)".
- A Full description can be found here:- Wikipedia.

THE BEFORE40 ORGANIC, VEGETARIAN, WHEAT FREE, GLUTEN FREE LASGANE!
When i decided to go for it & make the lasagne, i looked through a couple of cook books to see which one was the ideal one to make, but in the end I didn't have the ingredients to match, and i couldn't be bothered to go & buy any other ingredients. So having brought the 'Organic, Wheat free' pasta sheets, the rest of the dish was going to be made up of what i could find in the fridge, cupboard etc., and a culmination of recipes from the cook books.
In other words i just had to make it up as i went along.
This is what Happened :-

Recipe for the Before40 Vegetarian Lasagne in 4 'easy?' steps

(Download & Print Recipe HERE!)

STEP 1 - Make a Becamel Sauce
Ingredients For the Bechamel Sauce (Organic Where Possible):-
1/2 Pint of Milk
1 Small Onion (Or Shallot), Skinned & Sliced
Small Piece Of Carrot, Peeled
1/2 Stick Of Celery
1/2 Bayleaf
3 Peppercorns
25 g Margarine
45 ml Flour (I use 'Doves Farm' Gluten Free Plain Flour)
Salt & Pepper to taste
100g of your favourite cheese. (Save a bit for the end though)

How To Cook Bechamel Sauce
Put The milk, vegetables and flavourings in a saucepan and bring slowly to the boil. Remove from the heat, cover and leave to 'infuse' for about 15 mins. Strain the liquid and this will become the 'Milk' for the next part of the sauce. (Dispose of vegetables accordingly).
Next, melt the margarine on a low heat and slowly add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Cook over a gentle heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring until the mixture (called a roux) begins to bubble. Remove from the heat and add the 'Milk' gradually, stirring after each addition to prevent lumps forming. Bring the sauce to the boil, stirring continuously, and when it has thickened, cook for a further 1-2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Stir in cheese of choice to taste (I use Goats cheese, but would recommend not too use to much of your preferred choice).
Leave some cheese for topping at the end of preparation.
There you have it, Bechamel sauce.

STEP 2 - Prepare Pasta Sheets
Easy this one, use Organic wheat free pasta sheets wherever possible (Can be bought in Sainsbury's or any Health Food type shop), and don't use pre-cooked ones. Then all you do is add the sheets (go on, use them all!) to a pan of boiling water, cook until soft (About 2-3 mins), drain away hot water & rinse with cold water. Leave the sheets soaking in the cold water until ready to use.

STEP 3 - Tomato (Ragu) Sauce
Ingredients for the Ragu Sauce (All Organic where possible!)
3 small Garlic Cloves Finely Chopped
1/2 Courgette Chopped & Diced
5 Oyster Mushrooms (Can use normal ones) Sliced
1 Leek (Or medium Onion), Copped
75g of Soya Mince (Or you can use Quorn Mince)
500g Jar of 'Seeds of Change' Bolognese Sauce (or can use 1 can of chopped tomatoes + 2 tablespoons of Tomato Puree).

How To Cook Ragu Sauce.
Simply fry the leek & Garlic in frying pan until soft & lightly browned, add courgette & mushroom, fry for a further 4 mins, stirring often, then add soya mince, & stirring, frying for a further 3 minutes.
Add the tomato sauce, stir & cook for 2 mins. Then leave to stand for 5 mins with lid, or 15 minutes without.

STEP 4 - Put it all together
Put oven on now, about 190 degrees centigrade (If using gas oven about No. 7?)
Get a nice big dish. Preferably a proper lasagne dish. Then first add a layer of the ragu sauce, about 1 cm deep.
After this add layer of Bechamel sauce, approx 5mm thick.
Then add layer of pasta.
Repeat layers until either:-
a. - You run out of pasta
b. - you run out of sauce.
c. - you get bored & try your own layer ideas instead 'Freestyle Lasagne'!
- You must have layer of pasta at top of dish as final layer.
Finally, sprinkle a layer of grated cheese on top. (Men like cheese sprinkled on every dish possible, and this lasagne is no exception).

Cook in oven at 190 degrees centigrade for about 15-20 mins, but do not over-do it or the pasta sheets may get crunchy.

Whilst cooking, open a bottle of White Wine (Organic) & wash up/clear up mess left behind.

When cooked, leave to cool for 5 mins. before serving

Lasagne is great with oven chips & salad!

Serves 4 'Large' People
Cost approx £4.00 to make
Calories = 550(ish!) per serving

Enjoy!

BACK TO LIST

navigate

Home

About

40 Things To Do