New Lasagna Variations

Had some lasagna noodles to cook and made some interesting vegan variations, and have one more recipe to try later this week once my vegan tofutti ricotta comes. Recipe #1: I veganized Rachel Ray's all-American lasagna.

I was a little lazy and used the no-boil lasagna sheets. For the tomato sauce: in a large pot heat from olive oil and then add in crumbled vegan beef crumbles. Cook until browned, and then add 1 can of 28 oz crushed tomatoes, 1/2 cup ketchup, and 1.5 cups water. Mix together and simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes. I also boiled one frozen bag each of peas and broccoli while I was working on the tomato sauce. For the cheese sauce: melt 4TBsp maragarine in a large saucepan, then mix in one bushel of chopped scallions. After the scallions are wilted mix in 1/4 cup flour quickly, and then start pouring in 2 cup soy milk slowly, whisking it in. Once the sauce seems like it wants to thicken pour in one bag of Daiya mozzarella cheese and stir, taking off heat as the fake cheese melts in. To arrange the pasta: grease a casserole dish. First pour some of the tomato sauce, then a layer of noodles, then a layer of tomato sauce again, then cheese sauce. Next do noodles, then tomato sauce, then the veggies, then the cheese sauce, then more noodles. Lastly I topped the noodles with some daiya mozzarella. I baked this at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. This was a really creamy and delicious, hefty meal. Recipe #2: I normally am not a fan of squash, but am glad I tried this lasagna dish, though it took a lot of work.

I ended up using whole wheat noodles; cook these as per the instructions while working on the other ingredients since there is no baking involved, just assembly at the end. The layers? 1. wilted spinach- easy enough. 2. Acorn squash, roasted at 400 for one hour with some olive oil, salt, and balsamic vinegar on top (this is the most time consuming part). Once roasted this was cut in to cubes without the shell. 3. Sauteed mushrooms: I used a mixture of white mushrooms and shitake. I first heated them up in a little olive oil until browning, and then added 1/4 cup red wine vinegar and a dash of liquid smoke. 4. The sauce- this was the toughest part. First I pureed about 2 cup fresh basil, 1/4 cup basil, 2 TBsp garlic, and 1/4 cup oilve oil. This was a little chunkier than I wanted, so I then added 1 cup soy yogurt. Lastly I made some tofu ricotta- this involved crumbling a block of tofu and mixing it with 2 TBsp tahini, 2 TBsp garlic, 3 TBsp yeast, 1 TBsp lemon juice, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and 2 TBsp dried parsley. Of course this would not all fit in the blender with the stuff I had already pureed, so I mixed about 3/4 of it in, and ended up with a creamy cheese like sauce. For the lasagna assembly, first line the plate with the sauce, then spread the noodle on top using about 1/3 of it; on top of the noodle, place another layer of sauce and some chunks of squash, then fold it on itself in a 1/3 again; next apply more sauce and some mushrooms, and lastly on top apply the sauce and top with the wilted spinach. It took quite a while to assemble but smells and tastes wonderful, just like fall.