Vegetable Lasagna

Everytime we traveled as kids, my parents would make their lists of sights to see and culture to experience. And I would make my list of things to taste. Yes, I was a little glutton. But I blame it all on reading. Have you noticed how kids’ stories almost, always mention their respective ethnic food? And really, I think you can only get the feel of a place till you experience what the locals eat.

In America, it was Lasagna and sundaes (I was easily satisfied at 10 ). I got to taste sundaes v.early on in the trip but the lasagna proved elusive. At the very end of our trip, we visited random family friends in Texas and that’s where I tasted my first lasagna – so deliciously cheesy and chock full of veggies and meat!

I haven’t been able to recreate that first taste till I came across Zonya Foco’s Lickety-Split Meals cookbook. She has a very easy-to-follow way of writing and, except for a couple of minor of changes (to account for my spice loving palate), I have tried to stick to her recipe for LaZonya . This is a vegetarian recipe but the book does say you can substitute tofu for turkey, if you wish And any left overs can be frozen for later.

What We Used:

Chopped Green Bell Pepper – 1/2

Chopped Red Bell Pepper – 1/2

Chopped Carrots – 2

Chopped Small Onions – 2

Sliced Zucchini – 1 cup

Minced Garlic – 1 tsp

Chopped Fresh Parsley – 1/4 cup

Firm Tofu crumbled – 12 oz

Haberno Pepper – 1 small

Frozen Spinach – 1 packet (10 oz)

Spaghetti Sauce – 1 jar (26 oz each) *

Canned tomato – 1

Low-fat Cottage Cheese – 1 tub

Dried Fried Onions – 1/2 tsp (the original recipe calls for dried onion flakes. I didn’t have any in the house and used dry fried, onions instead, the kind you get from the Indian Store)

Grated Parmesan Cheese – 1 cup

Reduced-fat Shredded Mozarella & Asiago – 1 bag (The original asks just for Mozzarella, but I like the taste of Asiago cheese also, so used a bag of mixed Mozzarella Asiago cheese)

Olive Oil

Whole-Wheat Lasagna – 2 boxes

Sriracha Sauce (Red Rooster Sauce) – according to taste

Italian Seasoning – according to taste

Pot – 1

Bowl – 1

Disposable Lasagna Pan – 1

* Store bought sauces usually have really high levels of sodium. Zonya recommends looking for a sauce that has 800 mg or less of sodium per cup and less fat = 5 grams.

How We Did It:

The Sauce

• Clean and chop the vegetables (I used the food processor). I like having big chunks of vegetables in my lasagna but if you don’t, chop & slice according to taste.
  
• Heat oil over medium heat in your pot. Add the garlic and all the vegetables.
• Add part of the chopped parsley and stir.
• Add tofu into the pot . Add the haberno peppers, stir, for five minutes.
• Add sauce, the spinach, canned tomato, a couple of squeezes of the Sriracha sauce, salt (use cautiously because the cheese also have a lot of salt in it) and pepper . Simmer over medium heat, and taste to see if the flavors are to your liking.

The Cheese Mixture

• In a bowl, mix the cottage cheese, the dried onions, the rest of the fresh parsley, and I tbs of Parmesan Cheese.
• Divide into three equal parts for use during the assembly process.

The Assembly Process

• Place the sauce, the uncooked lasagna noodles, the bowl of cheese mixture, the opened bag of Asiago/Mozzarella cheese, grated Parmesan cheese, and Italian seasoning in an assembly line.
• Use a cooking spray to coat the lasagna pan.
• Laddle some sauce on to the pan, so that the bottom is covered evenly.
• The layers consist of: Lasagna Noodles topping the laddled out sauce (enough to cover entire sauce), one part of the cheese mixture over the noodles, even sprinklings of Asiago/Mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers: (sauce, noodles, cheese). You will have enough for 3 layers.

• After third Parmesan cheese sprinkle, make the fourth and final layer with Lasagna noodles, 1 1/2 cup of the sauce spread evenly, 1/4 cup of Asiago/Mozzarella cheese, 3 tbsp of Parmesan Cheese and Italian seasoning sprinkled on top.
• Pour 1/4 cup of water all around the edges of the dish – this gives enough steam to cook noodles.
• Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes.
• Uncover and bake for another 5-7 minutes.
• Take out from the oven, let cool (about 10 minutes) before serving. This is such a complete meal in itself but the Mostafa used a lettuce salad with tomatoes and a light vinaigrette sauce that did go nicely with this. Enjoy!!!

This goes to Sahaja for her Single Serving Recipes at SpicyRasam. I used to make this a lot when I was living on my own, so here’s hoping