Cheesy Vegan Lasagna

Cheesy Vegan Lasagna

Cheesy Vegan Lasagna! Who doesn’t love lasagna?

Looking for a cheesy vegan lasagna recipe? Look no further. The following is a delicious rendition of traditional lasagna veganized! The way things are changing in the vegan world, we can veganized any recipe with a little imagination and the right ingredients.

I love lasagna and I won’t fool you, making lasagna is a lot of work. The key is to make lots! If you are going to the trouble, make a couple extra pans for the freezer or to share with your family and friends. My recipe has a number of layers and I prep them all before I start to create the lasagna.

Wanna hear more? Come on I’ll show you how…..

The Layers

In the version of lasagna I’m going to share with you, there are a number of layers:

• Tomato Sauce (home-made or your favourite store bought sauce)

  

• Noodles (oven ready or the type you cook before you put them in the lasagna)
• Cheese
  • Cashew Cream Sauce with Basil (from Oh She Glows) http://ohsheglows.com/
  • Vegan Cheese (Daiya or other vegan cheese you make or like)
  • Crumbled Tofu with Spices
  • Vegan Parmesan (I make my own….recipe in this blog)
• Fresh spinach, eggplant or zucchini (any, all or none, your choice)
• Fresh Tomatoes (for the top)

How to make your vegan lasagna

Let’s start with the tomato sauce…

As I mentioned above, if you are strapped for time or just don’t feel like making sauce from scratch, you can use the store-bought kind, your choice of brands. You will need one to two jars for a large baking pan.

One thing you want to be sure of is you have more than you think you will need. The noodles will soak up a bit of the moisture and you want your lasagna to be moist.

For my home-made sauce I used the following and this made enough sauce for 1 large pan (8 x 12) and 3 small ones (8 x 8). Depending on the size of pans you use, make a little more, make a little less. If you have too much, you can always freeze the extra and have it with pasta someday.

What you’ll need for your home made lasagna

• Tomatoes – 4 cups of frozen cherry tomatoes from my garden (you can use all fresh)

  

• And I  used about 10 fresh Roma tomatoes
• 2 – 3 T olive oil
• Onion – One large, diced
• Garlic – 4 large cloves, minced
• Mushrooms – 6 large, sliced
• Canned tomatoes – 2 large cans of diced tomatoes
• Red Pepper – 1 diced
• Oregano – 1 – 2 t
• Bay leaf – 4 leaves
• 3-4 T Basil
• 1/2 – 1 T Red pepper flakes – we like it hot and spicy, cut back or eliminate if you do not
• Hot sauce – a few shakes and then a bit more, optional

How to make your sauce:

1. If you are making a big batch like I did above, use a large pot. I used my wok.
2. Pour olive oil in the pot and heat till hot

   

3. Add in the onions and garlic and sauté till the onions are transparent
4. Add in the mushrooms and sauté for a few minutes more
5. Add in the tomatoes, spices, red pepper and simmer for at least one hour. This will blend the flavours and cook off some of the liquid to thicken the sauce.
6. Set aside when done

   

Preparing the lasagna noodles

You can either choose the oven ready lasagna noodle or the ones that require cooking. I cooked enough to put 3 layers of noodles on each pan. I also choose to use the type you cook and went with the regular noodle and the spinach flavoured to add a little colour.

Cook your noodles according the instructions on the package. Do not overcook as they will cook a bit more in the oven. You can either put two or three layers of noodles on your lasagna, so cook as many as you will need. The more noodles, the more pasta sauce you will need or it will be dry.

When the noodles are cooked, rinse with cold water, add a tiny bit of oil to keep them from sticking and set aside.

Prepping your veggies

Here is where you really personalize your lasagna with your favourite veggies and of course if you don’t want to add any extra veggies, that is fine too!

I use some or all of the following

• Spinach
• Mushrooms -sliced into thin slices
• Eggplant- sliced thin, I leave the skin on

  

• Zucchini – sliced thin, I leave the skin on…this will add a lot of moisture to your lasagna
• Fresh tomatoes – sliced

Getting lots of vegan cheese ready

One of the best parts of lasagna in the cheese! I like lots of gooey cheese, cheese flavour and well more cheese. You can use any or all of the following types of cheese in your lasagna. You choose. I used:

1. Cashew Cream Sauce with Basil
2. Vegan Cheese from the store (I used Daiya)
3. Cheesy Crumbled Tofu
4. Vegan Parmesan (I make my own, recipe on my blog)

Ok, let’s go through them one at a time

Cashew Cream Sauce with Basil (from Oh She Glows)

This cheese comes from the famous vegan cookbook author Angela Liddon. It is absolutely delicious and can be used on anything that you want to add some creamy goodness. I doubled the recipe for four pans, I could have used more. Next time I will triple or fourple the recipe. Is fourple even a word? I think not! You get my drift. Recipe to follow, all the glory to Angela, check out her website and buy at least one of her cookbooks too! http://ohsheglows.com/

What you will need for the Cashew Cream Sauce with Basil

• 1 c raw cashews, soaked and then rinsed

  

• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/4 c fresh lemon juice
• 1 T Dijon mustard
• 1/4 c vegetable broth or water (or more as needed) I make mine with Better Than Bouillon 
• 1.5 c fresh basil leaves (lightly packed)
• 1/2 c nutritional yeast (gives the cheese flavour)

  

• 3/4-1 tsp sea salt to taste
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1/2 t onion powder (optional)

How to make your Cashew Cream Sauce with Basil

1. Soak your cashews in water for a few hours, even overnight. If short of time soak them in hot water for a couple hours.
2. Drain and rinse soaked cashews.
3. Add everything into your food processor and blend till nice and smooth. I made mine in my high speed blender to get that super creamy texture. (your choice).

   

4. When its ready, put it aside.
   

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Vegan Cheese (Daiya or other vegan cheese you make or like)

• I used two packages, you can use more or less depending on how much cheese you like

  

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Cheesy Crumbled Tofu

What you’ll need for your Cheesy Crumbled Tofu

• Two blocks (350 grams each) of medium firm organic tofu
• 3/4 c of Nutritional Yeast Flakes
• 1-2 T oregano
• Salt and Pepper to taste

How to make your Cheesy Crumbled Tofu

1. Crumble the tofu up into small pieces and place in a bowl
2. Add in the nutritional yeast and oregano and mix thoroughly
3. Add salt and pepper to taste

   

4. Set aside
   

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Vegan Parmesan (I make my own….recipe in this blog with two other cheese recipes)

What you’ll need:

• 1 c raw almonds – I used the almonds with skins on, either is ok
• 2 -3 T nutritional yeast
• 1 t garlic powder
• 1/2 t sea salt (taste to be sure its enough for you)

How to make it:

1. 

   

   Really there is only one step. Put all your ingredients into your food processor and blend until the consistency of parmesan. So easy. Bam you are done!

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Putting the whole thing together

Now you have all the components for your lasagna, now the fun part comes, putting it all together.

1. Get your pans all lined up
2. Get your components all lined up…sauce, noodles, veggies, the cheeses
3. Start with a layer of sauce on the bottom of the pan
4. Next one layer of noodles

   

5. Next the tofu cheese

   

6. Next some veggies
7. Next another layer of noodles
8. Cashew cream cheese

   

9. More sauce
10. Last layer of noodles
11. More sauce
12. Sprinkle Daiya cheese over the top

    

13. Place tomato slices on the top
14. Extra pans of lasagna can be wrapped up air tight and placed in the freezer to bake another day
15. Pre heat oven to 400º
16. When oven is up to temperature, put the lasagna in the oven. Bake for about a half hour, till the top starts to bubble up.

    

    

Serve with vegan garlic bread and a side salad. Delicious!