This veggie lasagne with lentils recipe serves four portions and each portion contains 5 of your daily fruit and vegetable portions.
Ingredients:
- 1 medium onion (around 160g)
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 2 medium carrots (around 100g)
- 2 sticks celery (around 100g)
- 1 medium aubergine (around 200g)
- 1 large courgette (around 200g)
- 250g mushrooms
- half head cauliflower (around 300g including stems)
- 1-2 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoon tomato puree
- 1 glass red wine
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- tin tomatoes (400g)
- tin lentils (400g)
- vegetable stock cube
- 12 lasagne sheets
- 130g cheddar cheese
Equipment:
- chopping board
- chopping knife
- large pan
- small pan
- blender or stick blender
- grater
- oven proof dish, roughly 8×8 inches / 21×21 cm
- tin foil
- measuring jug (or 1/3 cup measure)
Method:
To make this veggie lasagne with lentils, follow the three main steps set-out below:
Step 1 – Make the ‘ragu’ sauce
- Prepare the vegetables (i) finely chop onion, garlic, celery, courgette, aubergine, mushrooms (ii) grate carrot (iii) cut the cauliflower head into 2 inch pieces
- Heat the oil in a large pan on a low to medium heat. Add the onions and fry for around 10 minutes until soft. Try not to brown them.
- Add the celery, carrot and garlic. Fry for a further 10 minutes until soft.
- Add the tomato puree, stir and cook for around a couple of minutes
- Add the wine, stir, turn up the heat to medium and cook for a couple of minutes
- Add the soy sauce, stir and cook for a couple of minutes
- Add the aubergines and courgettes. Stir everything in the pan, add the lid, reduce the heat slightly to low-medium and cook for around 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. When everything is soft, remove the lid.
- Add the mushrooms, stir, turn the heat up to medium and cook for around 5 minutes.
- Add the tin tomatoes, fill the empty tin half full with water and add to the pan. Add the tin of lentils. Break up the stock cube and add, as well as the thyme and oregano. Stir and cook for 10 minutes. Then reduce the heat to low and cook for a further 30 minutes. Season to taste.
Step 2 – Make the cauliflower ‘bechamel’ sauce
- While the sauce is cooking, add the chopped cauliflower to a pan of boiling water (ensure the cauliflower is completely covered with water) and boil for around 20-30 minutes until soft.
- While the cauliflower is cooking, grate the cheese.
- When the cauliflower is cooked, drain, but keep the cooking water to one side. Leave the cauliflower to cool slightly, then add to a blender with 1/3 cup (125ml) of the cooking water and blend until smooth. Return the blended cauliflower to the pan, adding around 100g of the grated cheese and stir until the cheese has melted. Keep the remaining 30g of cheese for the top of the lasagne.
Step 3 – Assemble the lasagne
- When the sauce and béchamel are ready, turn on the oven to 180 (fan), and start to assemble.
- Add a thin layer of the béchamel sauce to the bottom of your oven dish. Add 2-3 sheets of lasagne depending on the size of your sheets and dish, overlapping the sheets slightly. Add a third of the ragu sauce. Then another layer of lasagne sheets. Then another third of the ragu sauce. Then another layer of lasagne sheets. Add half of the béchamel sauce. Add the final layer of ragu sauce. Then the final layer of lasagne sheets. Then add the remaining half of the béchamel sauce.
- Cover the lasagne with tin foil and put in the oven for around 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, remove the foil, add the remaining 30g cheese and add back to the oven for around 10 minutes until the cheese has melted and browned.
- Wait for 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving so that it holds together. When cooled, you can store in an air tight container in the fridge for 3 days, or in the freezer for a couple of months.
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