Vegan Lasagne

Personally, while I absolutely love lasagne, it’s not the kind of thing I would ever make during the week, or even the weekend, or actually ever at all. And I love lasagne. I cannot emphasis that strongly enough. I personally think cooking peaked when the lasagne was invented, some time in the Middle Ages. But having said that, for me it’s the kind of thing you buy ready-made as a treat or you order with chips when you go out to eat.

Then lockdown 3.0 hit, and I realised two things: firstly, that I may never be allowed to go out to eat ever again; and secondly, that this lockdown sucks even more than the first and second ones did, and I sense this is a feeling shared by everybody. Back in April, I was still a student and I had plenty of stuff to occupy me, and then in summer there was lovely sunshine every day giving a school-holidays-esque feeling to social distancing in the back garden with some white wine. It was still rubbish, obviously, but it was much better than it is now, in freezing-cold January in the post-Christmas, post-Brexit, post-freedom void of nothingness.

This time around, I resolved to master something I’ve always wanted to learn how to make: not just a lasagne, but a vegan version. When I learned how to make a plant-based macaroni cheese, I was beside myself. Cheesy pasta with no cheese? It was as if I’d learned witchcraft. Next stop, veggie chilli con carne. Lentils and mushrooms, how could they possibly replace minced beef? But they could and they did, and my sister’s boyfriend didn’t realise he’d eaten a vegan meal until he’d polished off the whole plate.

But can these two forms of trickery marry together and recreate the mighty lasagne? To the nay-sayers, I tell you they can, and here’s the recipe and pictures to prove it. Enjoy, fellow lentil-munchers!

 

I served mine with garlic bread and
a red onion and feta cheese salad

For the Bechamel Sauce

500 ml plant milk (any unsweetened kind)

2.5 tbsp plant butter

2.5 tbsp plain flour

1 large pinch nutmeg

1 bay leaf (2 in total)

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

 

For the Ragu

1 tbsp olive oil

1 large carrot

2 sticks celery

2 onions

1 red pepper

1 can lentils, drained

300g fresh mushrooms

1 small handful dried mushrooms (any kind)

1 jar sun-dried tomatoes, drained and chopped

1 tin tomatoes

5 cloves garlic

1 sprig rosemary

1 bay leaf

1 dash vegan friendly red wine

1 vegetable stock cube

1 dash soy sauce

1 pinch black pepper

Salt to taste

 

For the Lasagne

12 egg-free lasagne sheets (or enough to cover a large baking dish three times)

200g vegan cheese, grated

 

Method

First, preheat the oven to 200°C.

Begin by making the ragu. Heat up 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and soak the dried mushrooms in a small bowl of boiling water. Now, finely dice the onions, celery, carrots, garlic, mushrooms and pepper.

When the oil has heated, add a bay leaf and the rosemary, and allow them to fry for about 2 minutes or else until they become fragrant. This will flavour the oil.

Next, start adding the vegetables to the pan in stages. First the onions, then the celery, then the carrot. Ideally, you need to give the carrots about five minutes to soften, but you don’t want the celery or onions to burn; they only need to be translucent. Next, add the garlic and let it fry for a couple of minutes or until fragrant.

Next, add the fresh mushrooms. As mushrooms cook, they release water. You need to give them enough time to cook until they have stopped releasing water and all the liquid has evaporated. Now, add the diced pepper and allow the mixture to fry for a couple of minutes.

Now, add the canned lentils, the sun-dried tomatoes, the rehydrated mushrooms and the water they soaked in, a vegetable stock cube and the tinned tomatoes. Stir together and add a dash of red wine, a few drops of soy sauce and enough boiling water to cover the mixture, but be careful not to make the sauce too watery.

Let the ragu come to the boil, then turn the heat down and leave it to simmer.

Now it’s time to make the bechamel sauce. Melt the vegan butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Once it has melted, add the flour a little at a time, stirring quickly to ensure it combines. Give it a minute to allow the taste of the raw flour to cook out, and then start adding the plant milk, again a little at a time and stirring frequently. Once you have done this, add a bay leaf, the nutmeg, the nutritional yeast and a good seasoning of salt and pepper.

Bring the sauce to a gentle simmer for about 5 minutes, or else until the mixture is thick and creamy.

Now, it’s time to assemble the lasagne.

Spread one third of the ragu over the bottom of a large baking tray. Next, cover with a layer of lasagne sheets and then one third of the white sauce. Repeat the process three times until all the sauce has been added.

Let the lasagne bake for about 30 minutes, and then take it out and cover it with a thick layer of grated vegan cheese

Put it back into the oven for a further ten minutes, or else until the cheese is bubbling.

And that’s it!