Vegetarian Lasagna
Prep + cook time: 
1 hour 50 minutes      
Serves: 
4-5

This recipe is my Italian family's secret weapon which all our guests beg for. Inspired by my Nonna's mouthwatering traditional Lasagna recipe, being a vegetarian (AN ITALIAN BEING A VEGETARIAN?!), I create this ultimate almost comfort food lasagna that you just can't get enough of. Check out the Vegetarian Lasagna Recipe video! and yes, it is normal to end up drooling. Don't be put off by the 1 hour 50 minutes prep and cook time because most of the time is waiting for the sauce/lasagna to cook.

Ingredients
  • 1 Onion
  • 1/2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
  • 600g Vegetables of your choice*, chopped
  • 1 x 700mL Tomato pasta sauce
  • Salt, to taste
  • 60g Butter
  • 2 heaped tbsp Flour
  • 2 garlic cloves, diced
  • 2 C Milk
  • 1 x packet of Lasagna sheets
  • 350g Mozzarella cheese
  • 90g Parmesan cheese
Vegetarian lasagna recipe
Method
  1. Chop up onion. Heat oil in pan and fry the onion.
  2. Once onion is browned, add tomato sauce and cook.
  3. Stir in tomato paste and salt. Bring to the boil on high heat.
  4. Reduce heat and simmer for an hour.
  5. Cook vegetables in pan. If using canned lentils, make sure to rinse under water and drain (to remove excess sodium).
  6. To make bechamel sauce: melt butter and then add flour and mix. Cook the flour and butter mixture for 2 minutes or until mixture is crumbly. Add milk initially very slowly to mixture, continually stirring. As mixture becomes smoother, milk can be added at a faster rate but if done too early, sauce will be chunky (no grazie!). Cook this mixture on high heat for about 10 minutes, stirring every 2-3 minutes. Sauce should be thick but runny enough to spread when poured.
  7. Once tomato sauce has simmered, DO NOT MIX but get a cup and reserve the top liquid for use in lasagna later.
  8. Put some of the tomato sauce on bottom of lasagna dish and spread evenly on base.
  9. Layer the pasta sheets on top. Followed by a layer of sauce, vegetables, white sauce, mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese. Repeat to make 3 full layers.
  10. On the final layer, which will be a 4th pasta sheet layer, spread reserved tomato liquid on top of pasta sheets and sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.
  11. Cover with foil and cook in oven for 35 minutes at 180°C. In final 10 minutes, remove foil and cook to get a crunchy top on the lasagna.
  12. Buon appetito!
Special edition video
NOTES

*I use mushrooms, lentils, kales, carrots, corn.

Extra Comments

If you made this recipe, leave a comment to let us know how you went! Add a picture of your final result or post a picture on instagram and tag me@danibianchi_.