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.

Mushroom Tortellini and Soup

I really like the taste of homemade pasta, but the time and effort involved in making it usually makes it prohibitive.  This recipe is for cheater's tortellini, which cuts out the step of making the pasta by using fresh Chinese wonton wrappers, and just leaves you with the step of making the filling.  I really appreciate knowing exactly what has gone into my filling as well as the ability to be creative and make whatever combinations I want.

This week's recipe is really two recipes in one because you can serve the tortellini as pasta or in the soup, and you can also make the soup with store-bought pasta, if you prefer.  Making it with store-bought pasta is a really fast way to whip up a simple soup for a weeknight supper.  From this recipe you will get about 40 tortellini, and the soup will serve about 6 people.

Cheater's Tortellini Ingredients:

1 package fresh Chinese wonton wrappers
3/4 pound mixed mushrooms, not button mushrooms
2 shallots, finely chopped
5 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves stripped from the stem
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt, pepper
1 egg
flour

Directions:

1.  Cut the mushrooms into small pieces.  Saute the mushrooms and the shallots in the ollive oil in a large frying pan over medium high heat.  Do not add more oil, as the mushrooms will release some of their moisture and will not stick. If they do stick, add a few drops of water.  Also, do not add salt at this point because you want the mushrooms to brown, not steam.  If you add salt, it will draw the water out of the mushrooms.  Once the mushrooms have enough colour (about 15-20 minutes), then add salt, pepper, and thyme leaves.

2. Cool the mushroom mixture and then either chop it finely in a food processor or cut it more finely with a knife.  You don't want a paste, just very fine pieces.

3. Add the ricotta to the mushroom mixture.  Add more salt and pepper as necessary.  You will probably have to add quite a bit of salt as the ricotta does not have much.

3. In a small bowl, make an egg wash by whisking the egg with 1 Tbsp water.

4. On each wonton wrapper, use you finger to put a line of egg wash on two joining sides.  Then, put 1 tsp of mushroom mixture in the middle of the wrapper.  Fold over the wrapper to make a triangle.  Put more egg wash on one corner of the wrapper and fold the opposite corner over top to make a tortellini shape.

5. Put the tortellini on a baking sheet dusted with flour to keep the tortellini from sticking to the sheet.  You can freeze them on the sheet and then transfer to a plastic storage bag if you are not going to use them all at once.

Tortellini Soup Ingredients:

1 package tortellini, or 24 tortellini from the above recipe
2 litres chicken stock
1 Tbsp light miso
1 - 2 large leeks
1 bag of baby spinach, chopped
1/2 cup of fresh basil, chopped
grated parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt, pepper

Directions:

1. In a large soup pot, saute the leek in olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

2. Add the chicken stock, miso, and tortellini, and cook for about 5 minutes or according to package directions.  Add the spinach and basil and the end and stir until it wilts.

3. Taste for seasoning and serve the soup topped with freshly grated parmesan cheese.  Enjoy!

Shopping Tips:

1. If you are lucky enough to have a farmers market where you can buy fresh mixed mushrooms like I do, that is the best place to get a good mix that will taste delicious.  If not, you can buy a mix from the grocery store, or just use cremini mushrooms.  Do not use button mushrooms because they do not have as much flavour, and they hold a lot of water, so it is difficult to brown them nicely.

2. If you can't find shallots, you can use finely chopped white onion.

3. You can use either regular or light ricotta cheese.  You could even use goat's cheese, if you want.

4. Miso is a fermented soy bean product, is high in protein, and has many health benefits.  I buy shiro miso and use it in many soup dishes.  It is a subtle flavour, but it really rounds out the flavours in soup and gives it added depth.

Options:

1. There are a wide variety of options for the cheater's tortellini.  Instead of mushroom, you can use roasted butternut squash, sauteed kale, or even roasted red peppers.  You could also make the "pasta" into other shapes such as ravioli.

2. You could also add white beans to the soup to make it a more substantial meal.

3. Kale can always be substituted for the spinach.

When I first made this recipe, I actually didn't have a lot of time, so I cooked the mushrooms while I was making another meal, and then froze them.  Another day, I made the mushroom/ricotta mixture and stuffed the tortellini, and then froze them.  Finally, after an afternoon of raking leaves, I quickly threw together the soup together on the third day.