Meatless Lasagna

Ring in the new year with this great lasagna recipe to try with Nafsika's Garden cheese and a "no meat" meat sauce made from scratch.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp of olive oil Irini or Solon Greek olive oil

• 1 medium-size yellow onion, diced

• 2 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 350-400gr pack of store-bought plant-based ground round (can be substituted with crumbled tempeh or firm tofu)

• 2 pasta sauce jars (about 700ml each)

• 1 tsp tsp of Italian spices salt and pepper

• Ricotta Tofu 16 oz pack extra firm tofu, crumbled

• 1 tbsp of lemon juice

• 1 tbsp of nutritional yeast

• 2 tbsp of olive oil

• 1 tsp of dry basil or oregano leaves

• salt and pepper

• 2 big handfuls of fresh spinach (about 100 grams)

• Lasagna

• 1 one package of Nafsika’s Garden grated mozzarella

• 1 one package of oven-ready lasagna pasta (no cooking needed); you will need between 12 to 20 pasta depending on the size of your dish

• optional: 2 plant-based Italian style sausages, sliced (with a drizzle of oil to pan fry them with)

Method

1. Steps Make the no meat sauce: in a deep fry pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat and sauté the onion until translucent and almost golden

2. Add the garlic, mix 30 seconds, and then add the plant-based ground round. Cook for about 5 minutes making sure it doesn’t stick too much to the pan (lower the heat if so).

3. Add the pasta sauce and the Italian spices to the pan, mix in and bring to a simmer. Let the sauce simmer for about 5 to 10 minutes. Preheat the oven at 350F. While the sauce is simmering, make the tofu ricotta: in a food processor, put all the ingredients of the ricotta, except the spinach, and mix for about 10 seconds.

4. Add the spinach and mix 20-30 seconds more, or until the spinach is fully torn apart and incorporated into the ricotta. Transfer in a bowl and, with a spoon, mix in one cup of grated mozzarella. Set aside. Turn off the heat of the sauce, adjust salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

5. Optional: In a pan, lightly pan-fried the sliced sausages in a little bit of oil, a minute or so on each side. Set aside Assemble the lasagna: in an ovenproof dish (large and deep enough for lasagna), spread out about one cup of the sauce (or enough to cover the surface) and then layered 3 to 5 kinds of pasta.

6. Cover with another cup of sauce and half of the pan-fried sliced sausages and then one more layer of pasta. Spread out evenly the ricotta mixture and then one layer of pasta; another cup of sauce with the other half of pan-fried sliced sausages and one last layer of pasta

7. Finish with one last cup of sauce and sprinkle with enough grated mozzarella to your own preference.

8. Cover with aluminum foil. Cook the lasagna (covered) 30 minutes, uncover it and cook 10 more minutes.

9. Let cool about 10 minutes then serve.