Vegetarian Lasagna

Hello everyone, hope you’re all doing well. Last night I decided to go ahead and make lasagna since it’s one of my favorite dishes but I had yet to give it a try. Although my boyfriend and I are meat eaters (don’t kill us) we love using soy crumbles because it’s low in calories and fat. We use it whenever we’re able to substitute it for meat in a dish. If you see the recipe for the Spaghetti Bolognese you might think it’s similar but this lasagna tasted way different (and if I may toot my own horn..better!) Enjoy.

Serves 6

Ingredients

1/2 yellow bell pepper
1/2 orange bell pepper
1/2 big red onion (or 1 small one)

1 small can sliced mushrooms
1 teaspoon of sugar or sugar substitute (I used Splenda)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1.5 teaspoon of crushed red chili flakes (adjust to taste)
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 small basil leaves (or 1 tsp of dried basil leaves)
1 medium sized can of diced tomatoes without the liquid (refer to pictures)

1 cup of your favorite pasta sauce, we used Bertoli Organic Traditional Tomato and Basil

1/4 cup of Ricotta cheese

1 cup of Italian blend cheese

1/2 box of whole wheat lasagna noodles

1 bag (12 oz) of soy crumbles (we always use Morningstar Farms)

Procedure

Cook onions with some water in a skillet set on medium/high heat. (I use water since it allows them to cook through without any added fat). Add peppers, mushrooms, and garlic. Once the vegetables are cooked, add the diced tomatoes (and 2 tablespoons of the liquid).

Set water to boil and cook pasta noodles – these take around 8 – 10 minutes.

Add soy crumble, basil, chili flakes and salt/pepper to the skillet and let the crumble warm through (I thaw it out for about half an hour before and it warms through in about 6 – 7 minutes on medium heat). Add 1 cup of sauce and mix well, add sugar (the sugar takes away some of the acid that the tomato sauce contains but doesn’t take away from it’s flavor).

Once heated through, remember that it’s a lasagna so you don’t want the soy crumble to be too saucey. Add additional spoonfuls of sauce if you think it’s necessary but remember that it needs to be spreadable yet with a thick consistency or the lasagna will come out watery.

Once noodles have been drained it’s time to build. Add 1/4 up the pasta sauce to the bottom of the pan and add layers of pasta, meat and divide the Ricotta cheese into three parts which you will distribute evenly among every layer, top with 1/4 of shredded cheese, repeat once and the final layer will consist of noodles, meat, ricotta cheese and remaining 1/2 cup of cheese (or maybe a bit more). Set the oven to broil and since everything is cooked and warm you want to keep an eye on it just until the cheese starts to turn golden brown. Once done remove from oven and allow it to rest for five minutes.

Dig in! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.