Trick Italians with this Hearty Protein Packed Veggie Lasagna

As my high school world history teacher would say ” Take Chances, Make Mistakes, Get Messy”, we  kept that advice handy as we went after this  vegetable lasagna,  highlighted by: Homemade Tomato Sauce, Green Lentil Noodles, Almond Ricotta, Cashew Mutz and Veggies throughout. Didn’t know how it was gonna play out for a large Italian Christmas dinner but it was a hit. Shout out to Shannon at “Yep-its Vegan” for the Cashew and Almond recipes(links below). This recipe fits all eaters – vegan and vegetarians!

Homemade Tomato Sauce

Drizzle 2 tbs of olive oil into a large sauce pan and bring to medium heat. Dice up 1 small onion, 2 cloves of garlic and add to pan. Stir until slightly burnt.  Take your 5lb’s of tomato’s, cut into large chunks (removing their cores) and place them in a large blender. Blend until their in salsa size chunks.  Once garlic and onions are ready add the tomatoes to the sauce pan. Bring to low heat, add a half cup of basil and press down into the sauce(sauce will become a deep red as it cooks). Cook for about an hour, feel free to add pepper, salt and other seasoning as desired.

Keep stove-top until ready to build Lasagna

Saute’ Vegetables

Dice up the Squash, Carrot, Peppers, Zucchini, Onion,  Mushrooms and one clove or Garlic

Add 2 tbs of olive oil to pan and bring to medium heat. Add onions and garlic – stir & let simmer for 5 minutes. Next, add Carrots and the Peppers – cook for another 3 minutes (stir frequently). Finish off by adding the squash, zucchini and mushroom – cook for another 5 minutes. It’s okay if they don’t seem fully cooked, they’ll finish up when in the oven with the lasagna.

Once done cover and place to the side until ready to build the Lasagna.

 Almond Riccota

Follow the recipe from Shannon at “Yep its Vegan” . I advise not using the non-dairy yogurt and making the yogurt-free version(see notes on the bottom of the links recipe page). Once finished following the recipe, add 2 tbs of quinoa flour and blend (you can add more water for a smoother texture). For a little more flavor & color add 1 cup of fresh basil and 1 cup of spinach and blend once more, you should have a smooth ricotta ready too go. You can skip the last step if you want to keep the standard white ricotta.  Both the regular and green ricotta are pictured below.

Cashew Mutz

Follow the recipe from Shannon . I doubled it for a little extra, I advise using lemon juice and miso as a substitute for the non-dairy yogurt. Stir frequently as it thickens stove-top over low heat. Try and time this to coincide with the build of your lasagna.

The Build

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Get a 9×13 inch pan, place a base layer of sauce on the bottom and cover with three noodles (the lentil noodles do not need to be pre-cooked, they will expand in the oven)

Place a few scoops of riccota and sauce on the noodles and spread evenly. Add two large scoops of sauteed vegetables and an additional scoop of sauce. Again spread evenly. I added some Cashew Mutz between each layer….. because you can never have enough MUTZZZ!

Repeat this step until you reach the top of the pan. For the top layer of noodles add sauce and the Cashew Mutz (don’t use it all, save some for when you remove the cover). I added some veggies across the top as well.

Cover and get it to the oven to cook for 40 minutes. Once time’s up: take out, remove the lid, add 2 scoops of sauce on top and the rest of the cashew mutz. Increase the temperature to 400 degrees and place back in the oven for 20 more minutes of cooking. Once complete, put the lid back on and let sit for 20-30 minute before eating.

Get Ready cause….Its Dope…..Enjoy!

Ingredients List  (go with organic where you can):