On the Menu: Lasagna

I've noticed, since we started this garden garden blog thing, that I feel guilty when I make a meal that isn't entirely composed of our vegetables.

Or when, heaven forbid, I don't have time to freeze some vegetables (let alone cook them) and they go to waste.

Tonight though, I put away those guilty feelings and made a lasagna that contained only 2 of our garden ingredients: tomatoes and thyme.

Like most things, I didn't really have a recipe for lasagna that has fake meat, some vegetables and no ricotta cheese (more on that later) so I took a few recipes and cobbled them together.

I found a recipe for bechamel sauce and, since we never have cow's milk or real butter in our fridge, turned it vegan. Here goes:

Vegan Bechamel Sauce
2 1/2 Tbs vegan margarine or butter
2 to 2.5 Tbs flour
2 cups soy milk
ground nutmeg
salt and pepper

Melt the butter over medium heat and add the flour. Stir until it is a golden color. In another pan, bring the soy milk to a boil. Pour the milk into the butter/flour mixture and stir continuously until smooth. Bring to a boil and let it cook for about 10 minutes. STIR CONTINUOUSLY until the sauce thickens. Season with salt, pepper and ground nutmeg to taste. Set aside.

Vegetarian Lasagna
1 jar of tomato sauce
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
20 olives, chopped
1 box of no-boil lasagna noodles
1 cup bechamel sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella
1 package fake ground beef
fresh cherry tomatoes
dried thyme

First, I cut the cherry tomatoes in half. I put them in a dry frying pan and cooked them over low heat for just a bit to loosen the skins.


Then I briefly sauteed the onions and bell peppers. I didn't want them too soft because I figured they'd cook some more in the lasagna.

Then, I browned the fake ground beef (which Adam says looks like worms) and added the olives.

Now its time to start assembling the lasagna. First spray the bottom and sides of the pan with non-stick spray. Then, start with a layer of sauce...just enough to cover the bottom of the pan.

Next, add a layer of the noodles. The box told me to make sure the noodles overlap so that, when all the goodies are piled on top, they don't fall through the noodle layer.


Now, add half of the bechamel sauce on top of the noodles. I sprinkled some of the dried thyme on top of this layer.

Then add half of the meat/bell pepper/onion/olive mixture. Put 1 cup of the cheese on top of that.

Add half of the tomato sauce and half of the cherry tomatoes.

Repeat all of the above steps but make sure to end with a whole pile of cheese on top.


Cook the lasagna for about 30 minutes at 375 degrees. I should have covered the lasagna but we ran out of aluminum foil so I cooked it uncovered. But, luckily, the cheese did not burn!

Side note: I made a bechamel sauce in lieu of using ricotta cheese. Apparently, in Italy, ricotta cheese is never used in a lasagna. I don't know if this is true or not and it wasn't really the reason for my substitution. The real reason is that ricotta cheese makes me want to vomit. So I avoid it, whenever possible.