Vegetarian Lasagna - Puts The Whammy On Ya’
If you are considering going on a vegetarian diet or you are already
on one but miss having traditional lasagna, have no fear. There are
plenty of ways around this and still maintain a meatless vegetarian
diet.
First off, you can adapt any lasagna recipe to be meatless by using
soy products found in your grocery store: meatless/mock ground beef and
sausage. These are actually very tasty alternatives.
Other choices would be to use crumble tofu to replace the meat in
traditional lasagna. Tofu tends to take on the flavor of the foods in
which it is cooked, so it will add texture and be flavorful, too. Tofu
is best used in this situation frozen then thawed. Place on paper towels
to drain and gently squeeze out the moisture and crumble it.
If you want to go a completely different direction and avoid the
‘fake meat’ thing, you have a lot of other options, too.
Here’s one that has no ‘fake meat’:
- a large package of Mozzarella cheese shredded
- a large container of Ricotta cheese (24 oz – can use cottage
cheese but not as good)
- 3 good sized zucchini slicked (medium/medium large)
- a 16 ounce package of frozen chopped spinach thawed
- a medium white onion chopped
- ˝ pound to 1 pound of fresh mushrooms sliced (can use Shitake
mushrooms)
- a large can of Italian style tomato sauce
- a large green pepper chopped
- a clove garlic peeled and crushed
- olive oil
- 1 egg, beaten
- tablespoon or two of milk or heavy cream
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 package of whole wheat lasagna noodles
Empty the tomato sauce into a pan and heat on low heat. Sauté the
onion, crushed garlic, green pepper, and mushrooms in a little olive oil
and add to the sauce. Simmer. Boil the zucchini then sauté lightly and
place aside.
Mix the Ricotta cheese, the spinach, the beaten egg and the milk in
bowl.
Prepare the lasagna noodles in boiling water as stated on the package.
Drizzle in 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the water to keep the noodles
from sticking together and add a few pinches of salt.
You’re going to need a baking pan, like a 9X13 inch aluminum baking pan.
Lightly oil it with olive oil (a paper towel or napkin helps with this).
Poor some of the sauce in the pan, then start alternating layers of
noodles, zucchini, Ricotta cheese mixture, Mozzarella, noodles, sauce,
etc., ending up with the cheeses on top. Salt each layer according to
taste. You should probably end up with at least 2, and probably 3
layers.
Bake this loosely covered with foil at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about
45 minutes, then remove the foil for the last 15 or 20 minutes. Keep
your eye on it so as to not burn the cheese. It should be lightly brown,
but not burned. Let it stand and set for awhile before serving.
If you use your imagination, there are a lot of variations to this you
could make. You could opt for the meatless soy ground beef (which tastes
good), or you could substitute cabbage strips for the noodles or the
zucchini. You could also try yellow squash, bell pepper strips, or
whatever comes to mind. You could even substitute whole wheat spaghetti
noodles for the lasagna noodles for a spaghetti bake. Bone appétit! |
