Best Ever Vegetarian (or Vegan) Lasagne

I'm not going to lie to you - this recipe takes time.  An hour and a half, to be exact. Plus 50 minutes cooking time.... But, the upside is that you get two recipes for the price of one, and one of them is the most nutritious and delicious lasagne you have ever tasted!  Full of vegetables, legumes, and nuts, this is definitely a filling meal, and you will never miss the heavy, greasy meat that is so often indicative of traditional lasagnes.  As a bonus, you can add canned artichokes to the leftover spinach mixture for a hearty vegan spinach and artichoke dip.

I assembled and baked this in the morning and then just re-heated it for supper on Sunday.

Serves 8.

Ingredients:

Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and pepper (it is important to season as you go)

1 large eggplant
2 medium zucchini
1 small onion
4 cloves garlic
1 clamshell of baby spinach
1 pound mixed mushrooms (not button mushrooms), chopped roughly
2 tsp Italian seasoning
700g jar pomodoro sauce (sieved tomatoes found near the pasta or pizza sauce)
1/4 cup water
1/4 fresh basil, finely sliced

1 cup raw cashews (soaked for at least 4 hours)
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
3 tsp cider vinegar (white wine vinegar or lemon juice would work, too)
1 tsp salt
pinch of cayenne pepper
half a 19oz can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

9 oven-ready lasagne noodles
1 cup of shredded mozzarella (use vegan cheese if you want this to be a vegan dish)

Directions:

1. Cut the eggplant lengthwise into 1/4 inch slices.  Season generously with salt, place in a colander in the sink and let drain for 45 minutes.  After, rinse the bitter juices off and pat dry with kitchen towel.

2. Cut the zucchini lengthwise into 1/4 inch slices.  Let sit on the cutting board for at least 30 minutes (I learned this in Italy, and it will benefit any zucchini dish).

3. Meanwhile, sauté 1/2 the onion and 2 cloves of garlic in 2 tsp of oil until softened.  Add the spinach, salt, and pepper and cook until wilted.  Remove from pan and set aside to cool.

4. Sauté the other half of the onion and 2 cloves of garlic, salt, and pepper in 1 Tbsp of oil until softened.  Add the mushrooms and the Italian seasoning and cook until the are browned and half their original size.  Add the pomodoro sauce (rinse out the jar with the 1/4 cup water, and add that, too) and remove from the heat.  Add in the fresh basil.

5. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.

6. Place the zucchini slices on two parchment-lined baking sheets, brush with oil, and season lightly with salt and pepper.  Roast in the oven for about 10 minutes.  Remove and set aside. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees Fahrenheit!

7. Place the eggplant on two baking sheets newly lined with parchment paper.  Brush with oil and season lightly with salt and pepper.  Roast in the oven for about 8 minutes.  Remove and set aside.

8. Drain and rinse the cashews.  In a food processor, puree the cashews, water, nutritional yeast, vinegar, salt, and cayenne pepper.  Add the chickpeas and puree again.  Add the reserved spinach mixture and puree again.  If you have a bullet-type blender, do a half at a time in two batches.

9. Now it's time to assemble the lasagne!

a) Spread 1/3 of the tomato sauce on the bottom of a 9" by 13" lasagne dish.

b) Layer with three lasagne sheets, not overlapping.  There will be space between them, but they will expand as they cook.

c) Layer the zucchini widthwise.

d) Add another 1/3 of the tomato sauce over the zucchini.

e) Lay 3 more noodles lengthwise.

f) Spread 1 1/4 cups of the spinach mixture on top of the noodles.  (Reserve the rest of the spinach mixture for the spinach and artichoke dip recipe that follows).

g) Layer 3 more noodles lengthwise.

h) Cover the noodles with overlapping slices of eggplant.

i) Spread the remaining 1/3 of the tomato sauce on top of the eggplant.

j) Sprinkle the shredded mozzarella on top.

10. Bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Remove from the oven and let sit for 10 minutes.  Phew!  Enjoy!

Vegan Spinach and Artichoke Dip:

Add one drained and rinsed can of artichokes to the food processor with the leftover spinach mix from the lasagne recipe above.  Adjust seasoning, if necessary.  If you want, you can place this in an oven-safe dish, top with shredded mozzarella cheese, and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for twenty to thirty minutes for a hot dip.  Serve with tortillas of pita chips.  Yum!

Grilled Veggie Wraps:

If you have leftover grilled zucchini or eggplant, serve it with the remaining spinach mixture or even hummus, in a wrap with mixed lettuce.  Add roasted red peppers and goat cheese for a great sandwich.

Shopping Tips:

1. See here for more information about nutritional yeast.

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

Usually when I tell people that I like to cook healthy food, the first thing they ask is for ways to cook quinoa (pronounced keen-wa).  Common complaints are that it is soggy or that their husbands won't eat it.  My first suggestion for non-lovers of quinoa is to eat it cold, in salads, instead of hot and as a substitute for rice.  If you want to make your rice dishes healthier, use brown rice or wheat berries.  When quinoa is cold, it has a better texture and is not soggy.  Also, it tends to be a feature of the salad instead of the focus.  The reason that so many people are interested in eating quinoa is because it is the new fad food of the health world, even though it has been eaten by people in South America for thousands of years.  It is called the "mother grain" (even though it is actually a seed) because it provides all the necessary amino acids to make a complete protein.

On another note, I received a request from my sister-in-law to make something that contains Japanese long eggplant.  She is lucky enough to live in Los Angeles and grow fresh produce in her garden year round.  Apparently at the moment, she has a glut of these in her garden and needs inspiration.  Many of us in the northern parts are dealing with a similar predicament with zucchini and yellow summer squash.  Luckily for everyone, this recipe includes both of those vegetables as well as a couple of other gems from your summer garden.

This salad will serve at least three as a main course or six as a side.  It also saves really well, so you will be able to eat it for lunch the next day, too.

 Ingredients:

1/2 cup of quinoa
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 medium zucchini
1 eggplant (Japanese or regular)
1 Tbsp Italian dried mixed herbs
1/2 pint of cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup feta cheese
Half an avocado
5 Kalamata olives, pitted
5 medium leaves of fresh basil

Directions:

1. I do not cook quinoa the way most people do.  Most people cook it like rice, but I find that makes it soggy.  Instead, I cook it kind of like pasta.  Put 1/2 cup of quinoa in a medium-sized pot with a pinch of salt and a bunch of water.  Bring the water to a boil, and then immediately lower it to a gentle simmer.  Simmer the quinoa for about 10 - 15 minutes until the little "tails" start to uncurl.  You will know it when you see it.  Taste the quinoa to make sure that it is not hard.  When it has finished cooking, drain it and transfer it to a large salad bowl.  Mix in 1 Tbsp of the olive oil and a pinch of salt. Spread the quinoa up the sides of the bowl so that it has more surface area to cool down.  This way, the excess moisture will evaporate away.  If you run it under cold water to cool it, it will end up soggy.

2. Cut the zucchini and the eggplant lengthwise into quarters and then slice into crescents.  If you are using regular eggplant, I usually don't use the very seedy part as it can be bitter and it gets soggy (apparently the goal of the day is to avoid sogginess!).  If you are using a Japanese eggplant, you can use the whole thing.  Sauté both in 1 Tbsp of olive oil with the Italian herbs and salt and pepper until they lose their crispiness - about 8 minutes.

3. Remove the zucchini/eggplant from the heat and add 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar to the pan.  Let cool.

4. At this point, you can cut the tomatoes in half, crumble the feta cheese, cut the avocado, dice the olives, and chiffonade (cut) the basil.  To cut the avocado, run your knife around pit lengthwise and then twist both halves to separate them, just like you would a peach.  Save the half that has the pit in it in the fridge for another use (leave the pit in to prevent browning).  Cut the remaining half in half again and then peel the skin away.  If the skin does not peel easily, it is probably not ripe enough, although occassionally you will get one that just has thick brittle skin.

5. Add the cooled zucchini/eggplant to the bowl with the quinoa.

6. Top with the tomatoes and the feta.

7. Add the avocado cubes and the olive pieces.

8. Sprinkle the fresh basil on top.

9. Serve with additional balsamic vinegar, if necessary.  Enjoy!

Options:

1. The first time I made this salad, I did not include avocado.  Then, Scott decided that he wanted to cut dairy out of his diet, so he suggested adding avocado instead of the feta.  Quite honestly, I thought it wouldn't work, but it did.  Then, he decided that he wasn't cutting dairy out of his diet anymore, so we started to include both feta and avocado in the salad.  It's up to you.  Same with any other ingredient - if you don't like olives, leave them out!

2. You can add white beans or cubes of chicken to make this a more substantial meal.

3. You can serve this salad over lettuce greens for even more nutrition (I usually do).

4. You can serve this hot or cold.  If you serve it hot (maybe with chicken), just throw everything together before the quinoa and zucchini/eggplant cool.  You might not want to add the avocado if you are serving it hot.  You can always add the avocado the next day when you eat the leftovers cold.

5. You can make this in advance.  If you are making it in advance, put everything together except the tomatoes and the avocado - add them at the last minute.

Leftovers:

1. With the leftover avocado, you can add it to another salad, or you can make avocado toast: whole wheat toast, mayo, avocado, salt, and pepper - yum.  If you don't eat mayo, leave it out.

Shopping Tips:

1. When selecting an avocado, you want to pick one that is just a bit soft, like a peach.  If they are all hard as a rock, you will have to leave it on the counter for a few days to ripen.  The really hard ones can take 5 days.  Usually, they will ripen in two to three.

2. When picking an eggplant, make sure that it is firm and not soft.  If you are using a regular eggplant, the smaller ones have fewer seeds.  Also, the ones that are longer have fewer seeds.  The ones that are fat have more seeds.  If you get an older eggplant with more seeds, you can just cut them out, or you can get rid of the bitterness by cutting the eggplant in half, liberally salting each cut side, leaving the eggplant at room temperature for 30 minutes, and then rinsing the juice and seeds away.  You will then have to dry it with a paper towel.  Honestly, I have never needed to do this.  I just don't use the seedy part because I usually have more than enough eggplant for this recipe.

3. Quinoa can be white, red, or black.  It doesn't matter which one you use. However, some are pre-washed and some are not.  If you buy in bulk or the package does not say "pre-washed", make sure you rinse the quinoa thoroughly before using.  It is covered with natural saponin (which tastes like soap) so that the plant can protect itself from pests.

Whether you are getting your ingredients from your garden, the farmers market, or the grocery store, this salad is a great way to make the most of your seasonal produce!