Vegan By Mercedes Aspland / March 10, 2014 function printContent(id){ str=document.getElementById(id).innerHTML newwin=window.open(”,’printwin’,’left=100,top=100,width=822,height=600′) newwin.document.write(‘nn’) newwin.document.write(‘Print Pagen’) newwin.document.write(‘n’) newwin.document.write(‘n’) newwin.document.write(‘function chkstate(){n’) newwin.document.write(‘if(document.readyState==”complete”){n’) newwin.document.write(‘window.close()n’) newwin.document.write(‘}n’) newwin.document.write(‘else{n’) newwin.document.write(‘setTimeout(“chkstate()”,2000)n’) newwin.document.write(‘}n’) newwin.document.write(‘}n’) newwin.document.write(‘function print_win(){n’) newwin.document.write(‘window.print();n’) newwin.document.write(‘chkstate();n’) newwin.document.write(‘}n’) newwin.document.write(‘$(document).ready(function(){ $(“iframe”).remove();}) n’) newwin.document.write(‘$(document).ready(function(){ $(“#contactInfo”).remove();}) n’) newwin.document.write(‘n’) newwin.document.write(‘n’) newwin.document.write(‘n’) newwin.document.write(str) newwin.document.write(‘n’) newwin.document.write(‘n’) newwin.document.close() } I love converting meat recipes into vegan recipes and finding out just how yummy they are without meat. Well when I am getting ready in the gym they always have the TV on and on a Saturday that means cooking shows. Very recently I saw Gennaro Contaldo making a classic lasagne and it looked so lovely I thought that I just had to make it. When making lasagne you do need to take a bit of time and get all the elements made but it is worth the extra effort to allow all the flavours to infuse. When I served up this lasagne it went down very well and brought back memories of the traditional Maltese Macaroni that we used to have when I was a child (we had already made it vegetarian). I did make a few changes to the original recipe, for example there we no herb or garlic in Gennaro Contaldo’s recipe and although that may be traditional it just did not feel right for me and so I added those bits into it. I also added a little bit of mustard into the white sauce just to lift everything a bit. There are a lot of steps to this, including making vegan parmesan but just work through it step by step and you will have a wonderful vegan lasagne Vegan “Classic” Lasagne Serves 4-6 Prep Time: 30mins to 1hr Cook Time: Over 2 hrs Total Time: 3hrs or more Ingredients For the Ragu Sauce 1 tbs Olive Oil (mild or medium) 390g pack of Vegan Mince (I used Fry’s but just go for your favourite) 250ml Vegetable Stock 1 tbs Cider Vinegar 1 onion, finely chopped 150g/5oz Butternut Squash, finely chopped 1 Stick of Celery, finely chopped 2 Garlic Cloves, Crushed 1 tsp Dried Oregeno 1x400g/14oz tin chopped plum tomatoes salt and pepper to taste For the Parmesan 100g/1 cup Cashew nuts 4 tbs Nutritional Yeast 1/4 tsp Salt For the White Sauce 500ml/2 cups Nut Milk (use the one you prefer) 2 tsp Cornflour 1/2 tsp Dijon Mustard Salt & Pepper to taste To Make Up 12 Sheets Spelt Lasagne 100g/3oz Vegan Mozzarella 2 handfuls of Vegan Pizza Cheese Instructions 1. For the Ragu Sauce, heat the oil in a large pan and then add the onions, celery and squash and cook for about 5 minutes then add the oregano and garlic. 2. Continue cooking until everything starts to brown and then add the stock and vinegar to deglaze the pan and continue cooking until most of the liquid has evaporated. 3. No add the mince, tomatoes, salt and pepper. Fill the tomato tin with water and pour this into the pan as well, cover and simmer sauce for about 2 hours. 4. While the sauce is cooking make the parmesan by putting all of the ingredients into a food processor and blending until you have a fine powder. Keep an eye on it as if you go too far you will end up with flavoured cashew butter. 5. When your ragu sauce is about 20 minutes from being ready preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. 6. For the white sauce, dissolve the cornflour in 1-2 tbs of water or milk and then put all of the milk into a pan and heat, as it reaches the boil stir in the dissolved cornflour. Keep stirring until the sauce begins to thicken so there are no lumps, then reduce the heat. Mix in the mustard, 20g of the Vegan Parmesan, slat and pepper. 7. Pour a spoonful of ragu sauce into a dish that is 20x23cm/8×9.5in so that the bottom is just covered then place 3 lasagne sheets on top followed by some ragu sauce, a few dots of mozzarella and white sauce and then a sprinkling of parmesan. 8. Continue to layer your lasagne as described above ending with a topping of white sauce, a few drops of ragu sauce and the remaining parmesan and pizza cheese. 9. Cover with Foil and bake for 35-40 mins or until golden brown. Remove the foil for the last 5 minutes of cooking. Allow to stand for a couple of minutes before serving.
