weekend.laze.on.ya // lasagna

It’s great when Ric’s (big-little) brother comes to stay for the weekend because it forces me to cook decent food for everyone, which I then get to blog about. This weekend I tried making vegan lasagna for the first time, basing it on a recipe from the Vegan Swedes. I used spinach lasagna sheets made out of semolina and stuck with my trusted “cheese” sauce recipe which seems to make most meals, even the most mediocre of the lot, amazing.

Ingredients:

• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 medium onion
• 500g mix of grated (or diced) carrots, leeks, mushrooms, peppers and any other desired vegetables (I used turnips and celery)
• 2 tins chopped tomatoes
• 1-2 tbs tomato paste
• 1 tsp Thyme
• 1 tsp Oregano
• 1 packet Fry’s vegetarian mince
• 2 tbs vegetable stock
• Vegan parmesan cheese (available from most Pick ‘n Pay or Spar outlets)
• Salt
• Pepper
• 50g vegan margarine
• 3-4 tbsn flour
• 250ml vegan cooking cream/milk

“Mince” Mixture

Heat some olive oil in a pan and fry the garlic for 1 minute. Add the onion and fry until browned. Add the grated/diced vegetable mix and fry for about 10 minutes until soft.

Add the Fry’s vegan mix, 2 tins of chopped tomatoes and the tomato paste. Season with thyme, oregano, salt and pepper. A tip, which I got from the Vegan Swedes, is to add a teaspoon or two of sugar to the mix in order to counteract the slight bitterness of the canned tomatoes. Simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.

"Cheese" Sauce

Melt the margarine, add the flour and stir until it forms a paste. Add the vegan cooking cream/milk and the vegetable stock and stir continuously whilst the sauce simmers. In the event that the mix starts getting too thick, add water to thin the sauce down. Add as much of the vegan parmesan cheese as you like (I tend to put a lot of it in to give it a “matured” cheese taste). Add pepper to taste.

Start layering the mince mix in an oven-proof dish and drizzle the cheese sauce over the mince mix. Cover the mixture with a layer of the lasagna sheets. Repeat the layering until the dish is full and the mixture is finished.  Pour a final layer of cheese sauce of the lasagna sheets.

Place in the oven (200-225C) and bake for 40-45 minutes (be sure to keep an eye on the dish).