The ultimate veggie lasagna

Chronic Button

Hope this didn't fill you with hope! I am looking for, not offering, the recipe. After yet another underwhelming attempt at veggie lasagna, I am appealing to you vegetarian foodies for your help.

What is your ultimate vegetarian lasagna recipe?

Wurly

I absolutely adore the lasagna from Operation Transformation. It's so good for you but doesnt taste low fat. You can jazz up the sauce or add more cheese but it really doesn't need it. http://www.rte.ie/ot/recipes/recipe1.html

Chronic Button

Interesting. So the spinach forms the bulk of the veggie content. I did make a spinach lasagna before, with ricotta cheese, but I found it dry and clawing. The one you've posted looks a lot better. Thanks! Any other suggestions going?

Immaculata

Of all the veggie lasagnes we've tried, KJ Adlam's Chestnut and Mushroom Lasagne is the favourite, and highly recommended.

Ingredients:
175g wholewheat lasagne sheets

For the chestnut and mushroom sauce:
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
425g tin of tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp honey
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
350g mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp red wine
100g chestnuts. Health food stores stock them, vacuum packed in pouches, or you can always roast some over an open fire.
salt and black pepper to taste

For the white sauce:
300ml milk
225g greek yoghurt
40g flour
40g butter

For the topping:
225g grated cheese
75g all-bran cereal

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5.

Cook the lasagne sheets until al dente in boiling water.

While that's cooking, saute the onion and garlic in the oil until soft. Then add the mushrooms, honey, herbs, tomatoes, tomato puree, salt, pepper, and wine, and simmer the mixture for ten minutes. Stir in the chestnuts.

Make the white sauce by melting the butter, adding the flour and cooking it for a minute or two, and then stirring in the milk and yoghurt, until the sauce is thick and smooth. Season generously.

Oil a lasagne ovenproof dish, and layer the lasagne and then the chestnut-mushroom mixture in it, repeating this until both are used up. Pour the white sauce over. Mix together the cheese and the cereal and sprinkle over the top.

Bake the dish for 40 minutes.

Shenshen

I have to admit, when it comes to Lasagna, I usually make a Bolognese-style sauce with Quorn, so mine wouldn't be a contender for flagship veggie Lasagna.

However, I do do mean, and I mean seriously, Canneloni.
You could probably tweak it and make a Lasagna in a similar way:

Canneloni Filling:

1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloved of garlic, chopped
1 courgette, sliced
1 punnet of mushrooms, roughly chopped
Half a jar of black olives
1 tbsp of tomato puree
3-4 tbsp of Ayvar or red pepper puree (these are South-Eastern European, from the Balkans. Turkish shops usually carry them)
Salt
Grated Pecorino or Parmesan-like cheese, about 50g

For the topping:
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
150g grated Edam or Mozzarella


For the filling, fry the onions and garlic until soft, then add the mushrooms and courgette. Fry them until soft, and if possible starting to brown a little.
Add the Ayvar and tomato puree, as well as the olives and grated Pecorino.
Use a hand-held blender or food processor to turn the mixture into a smooth paste (for the lasagna, you could probably skip this and leave it chunky). Taste it and add salt and pepper to taste.

Fill the mixture into the canneloni, and place them closely together into a casserolle dish.
Cover with the chopped tomatoes (no seasoning required there, trust me), then cover the dishwith a lid if you have a fitting one, otherwise just cover with tinfoil (make sure that the timfoil doesn't touch any of the food when it goes in the oven, as it will stick.

Place in a pre-heated oven (200 degrees) for about 30 minutes.
Take it out, remove the tinfoil and check if the pasta is cooked through.
Sprinkle with the grated Mozzarella, and return to the oven for another few minutes until the cheese is melted and golden.


Bit of work, but definitely worth it!

tatli_lokma

I really like your recipe Shenshen - gonna try that.

If you can't get ayvar, an alternative is a jar of the roasted red peppers from Lidl, well washed to remove the vinegar, some roasted aubergine or aubergine paste, then blitz together and add some tomato puree (proportions would be half the amount of aubergine to the amount of pepper and about a tablespoon of pureee). It is not totally authentic, as by rights you need to add some pepper salt (not sure what it is properly called in English, its tozbibber in Turkish and is basically dried chilli and sweet peppers ground up really fine. It adds great depth and flavour to anything with tomato as a base - try turkish or middle eastern shops for it). But if you can't get hold of the pepper salt, it won't taste too bad without it, maybe just add a pinch of chilli flakes to taste.

You can find ajvar in most all eastern european shops too.
It is great mixed with a dollop of sour cream on a fried egg sambo.

loveisdivine

I got Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls veg book for christmas and this week we will be trying his recipe for Kale and Mushroom lasagne. Although kale is out of season so we will use some other cabbage.
In the recipe it doesnt have a tomato sauce, just a bechamel.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Pumpkinseeds

I'm going to try these recipes. I've got a hankering for a veggie lasagne and I've become to reliant on quorn. Its one of my resolutions this year to get some healthier veggie recipes together and increase my actual intake of vegetables. The chestnut one would be great for my husband as he loves them and it would be nice to get him eating a few less meat based meals.

I just cook veggie food for myself and I'm not very fussy about food so I tend to be lazy and just replace meat/chicken with quorn.

leahyl

I'm not a vegetarian but I spotted this thread and just had to respond! I absolutely adore this lasagne - soooo tasty

http://italianfoodies.ie/2011/02/27/roast-vegetable-lasagne/

Shenshen

leahyl wrote: »

I'm not a vegetarian but I spotted this thread and just had to respond! I absolutely adore this lasagne - soooo tasty

http://italianfoodies.ie/2011/02/27/roast-vegetable-lasagne/

That does sound delicious indeed.
But as my husband sadly eschews bot aubergines and courgettes (tragic, I know!), it's given me an idea for a roasted root vegetable lasagne...

I'll give it a try on the weekend, and report back with a recipe if it's a success

A_Sober_Paddy

Wurly wrote: »

I absolutely adore the lasagna from Operation Transformation. It's so good for you but doesnt taste low fat. You can jazz up the sauce or add more cheese but it really doesn't need it. http://www.rte.ie/ot/recipes/recipe1.html

Is there not a nutrional breakdown of the lasagna? Which is quiet weird concidering its on the operation transformation side

fillefatale

A friend bought me this for my birthday and I'm itching to try the spinach and mushroom lasagne!

Wurly

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

Is there not a nutrional breakdown of the lasagna? Which is quiet weird concidering its on the operation transformation side

I know... They at least quoted calories here and there last year. But this year - nada. It is pretty ridiculous..:(

loveisdivine

We are having the kale and mushroom lasgane from Hugh's book tonight. I will post a pic later and let you know how it goes.

fillefatale

loveisdivine wrote: »

We are having the kale and mushroom lasgane from Hugh's book tonight. I will post a pic later and let you know how it goes.

How was it?

Just had a stodgy, tasteless veggie lasagne at the IFI cafe, bleurgh!

loveisdivine

fillefatale wrote: »

How was it?

Just had a stodgy, tasteless veggie lasagne at the IFI cafe, bleurgh!

Forgot to take a photo!

It was ok. It wasn't as saucy as I would have liked. There's was only a bechamel, no tomato sauce, which I missed.

However the book has a lot of other good recipes.

We also had the tomato and black bean soup, which we served with the cheesy twice baked jacket potatoes, and they were both really delicious! Definitely be doing both again.

I'd probably give the lasagne a miss next time.

My two favorite lasagnas....

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=68728598

I make a one with this recipe.
I use 2 aubergines, and 3-4 balls of mozzarella, 1l of tomato sauce, 100gs of parmezan style cheese.
I coat the aubergine in olive oil, and grill on both sides, instead of deep frying.
I cook the lasagna sheets, one by one, in salted walter. For a couple minutes before putting it all together. Makes a notable difference.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056201269

Feathers

The vegetarian lasagna that we make at home is a variation on a Jamie Oliver meat lasagna, with a few tweaks. I (meat-eater) and my girlfriend (veggie) really enjoy it.

To change the recipe above, we take out the pancetta, but when frying the diced onion/carrot, also add in a celery stick for bulk & flavour. Before adding the tomatoes/wine, I normally add some veg that can go well in the bolognese sauce, so diced pepper, courgette, small florets of brocolli, slightly larger chunks of tomato, petit pois sometimes (though can be sweet) — normally do the sauce on the hob & can be brough to a fast boil to thicken quickly depending on time, though obviously the longer you can leave it the better! (Make the day beforehand, my Italian friends tell me )

Rather than using butternut squash, we normally use small chunks of roast potato (still done in powdered coriander/chilli flakes though). We make a proper bechemel rather than creme fraiche one.

Then layer up with pasta, red sauce, layer of fresh spinach, white sauce, hard cheese, repeat.

Takes a little while, but well worth it