Lasagna

[allenb]

Okay..I know we have a few vegetarians around here . . .

Anyone have any good recipes for vegetable lasagna? Please note - I don't like the kind that has walnuts in it.

Thanks.
Allen B.

[Terminal]

Ew, walnuts? I've never had a vegetarian lasagna with walnuts! Eww.

Recipes, recipes. Well, I usually get my vegetarian lasagna pre-made from the grocery store.. but I searched online and found a few recipes that seemingly have the same ingredients.

http://busycooks.about.com/library/r...veglasagna.htm - The alfredo sauce bit sounds rather disgusting, though. And it gives you an option between ricotta, cottage, or tofu.. I'd use the ricotta for maximum flavor IMO, although I made the transition from Vegetarian to Vegan a few years ago and no longer use ricotta. But trust me, if you're not accustomed to a lot of vegetarian foods, you'd probably much prefer ricotta over crumbled tofu, which is rather urrrgh and gelatinous in lasagnas.

This one sounds good. http://www.recipegoldmine.com/meatless/meatless50.html I'd leave out the tomato paste though, and instead add more sauce.

This one looks exceptionally good: http://www.recipecottage.com/vegetarian/lasagna02.html Only IMO one should always substitute real tomato sauce instead of purees or pastes. Yuck.


Hope that helps. I'm going to make my own vegetarian lasagna one day and write down the recipe. I've already made my own vegetarian soup, stir-fry, fried rice, salads, couscous dishes, etc. Vegetarian foods are not only delicious but also very healthy and constitute A) a healthy lifestyle and B) better health for ultimate length-of-life!

And that's my shameless "everyone should be vegetarians" plug of the day.

[PaulMc]

As soon as I get home I'll chase up my wife's recipe for veggie lasagna - it's so good, it fooled our CAT!!!
She always cleaned the bowl, and we all know that cats are not vegetarian by choice

[PaulMc]

Sorry about the delay!

Recipe for vegetarian lasagne, guaranteed to fool Feline carnivores!

Serves 4

375g frozen chopped spinach
2 onions
2/3 pieces of fresh garlic
2 carrots
1 (dessert)spoon oil
400g chopped tomatoes (tin)
3/4 tsp oregano
salt, pepper to taste
cheese sauce (packet, or use the recipe below if you
want to make your own)
250g keso
8+ lasagne plates
margarine or butter
1dl grated cheese (parmesan/other as preferred)


Thaw the spinach. Peel & chop onions & garlic. Peel & grate the carrots.
Heat oil in a pan and 'flash-fry' the onions & carrots but don't let them change colour.
Toss in the tomatoes and let the sauce cook a few minutes. Season to taste.
Make up the cheese sauce. Mix the keso into it.Add more liquid ( = milk) to the sauce if it starts to get too thick.
Grease the oven tray you want to use, pour a small amount of sauce into the base.Start with a lasagne plate, alternate with cheese sauce, vegetable mix, spinach, lasagne plates. Top off with cheese sauce and a layer of grated cheese on the surface.
Bake in the centre of the oven @ 200ºC for c. 30 minutes.
Best enjoyed with home-made bread and a mixed salad (nothing wrong with a good red wine either!)


Cheese sauce: (serves 4)

2 msk (dessertspoons) marg or butter
1½ msk plain flour
4 dl milk
2 dl grated cheese (emmenthaler is good!)
½ tsk celery salt
1-2 egg yolk(s)
2 msk single cream
fresh ground black pepper & ground paprika

Melt the butter/marg gently in a pan. Add flour slowly, let it thicken. Stir constantly.
Add milk, stir like crazy to avoid lumps!
Let the sauce cook for c. 5 mins (low heat)
Add the cheese, let it melt.Season to taste, take the pan off the heat NOW!!!
Fold in the egg yolks. Whisk like crazy, do NOT let it cook any further after adding the egg yolks!!!

I guarantee you can serve this to any carnivore and they will NOT know it's a veggie dish! Enjoy!!!!

[Mamie]

okay Paul but what is keso?

[PaulMc]

Hi, Mamie! Keso is also known as Quark (sp??) and is some sort of 'protein substitute' (I think!) which vegetarians apparently use in recipes instead of a meat-type ingredient
However, my o/h has assured me that she has never used it in her veggie lasagne, but uses pulses (lentils & similar) instead - I copied the recipe from ICA-Förlagets Stora Kokbok but I wasn't aware of the fact that she had "adapted" the recipe to avoid the keso ingredient!!

Something like Quorn?

[DruidSmith]

I take it here we are not talking Vegan lasagne... that seems it would be difficult to accomplish.

Alfredo sauce might be a tad heavy and overfilling- I have had vegetarian lasagnas with bechamel (white sauce) that was pretty good, though. I actually prefer it to marinara in vegetable lasagnas. My favorite is still meat lasagna with marinara-style sauce, with italian sausage and other goodies.

I have made the aforementioned white vegetarian lasagnas with spinach (can use frozen, but be sure to squeeze most of the water out), chopped broccoli, julienned carrot, et cetera mixed with cheese filling. For the cheese filling I usually use a blend of primarily ricotta, with some shredded mozzarella and romano... Add a splash of milk or cream if it gets too thick. I also put in a little freshly cracked black pepper, basil and just a tiny pinch of nutmeg. (NUTMEG?!? yes, nutmeg.)

I am tempted to try a hybrid someday, perhaps a lasagna using vodka sauce

I have also had some good success with no-boil on the noodles, although I usually cook it a bit longer, wrapped in foil, and remove the foil toward the end. Also, a definite KEY, you must compensate on liquid. No boil option needs more juice to properly cook up in. I like my sauce thick, so sometimes I set some aside to add last, and thin the rest out a tad with a splash or two of cream if bechamel, wine if marinara. This is the stuff that goes INTO the lasagna, the reserved thicker sauce goes on top.

[DruidSmith]

Hey, not sure if we are talking about the same thing here... I haven't seen quark here in the US, but as I recall from my days in Germany, quark was sort of like a fresh cheese. Sort of like cottage cheese, but not in that curd stage- definitely different, creamy texture and different taste. Would be an interesting substitute for ricotta, indeed. Is this the same quark everyone else is talking about?