One of the most interesting aspects of or Green and Vegan pop up dinners is that each evening the menu is different. (Have a look at our FB page here).
We do sometimes do things backwards! Decide on an appetising menu first and then make up or test the recipes. Starters and desserts are usually easy as we have loads of tested recipes that can be tweaked into something different. But main courses seem to be more challenging. We had several attempts at this vegan lasagne and finally came up with this recipe, which went down a treat!
It is quite a time-consuming dish as there are three parts to make and cook before assembling the final dish – the cooked lentils, the creamy, cheezy sauce and the aubergine lasagne layer.
The quantities used here make the 4 individual servings as shown in the photos.
1 – For the lentils
I used a version of a vegan shepherd’s pie recipe:
Ingredients:
- 2 C cooked brown lentils (1 x 400 gram tin)
- ½ onion, fine diced
- Salt
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 t dried rosemary
- 2 t dried parsley
- 2 T tomato paste
- 1 t marmite
- 1 t brown sugar
- 1 T white wine vinegar
- Oil
Method:
- Heat a little oil in a pan and saute the onions, with a pinch of salt, till soft and translucent.
- Add in the garlic and cook about a minute.
- Stir in the spices, tomato paste, marmite and sugar and continue cooking.
- Deglaze the pan with the white wine vinegar.
- Add in the cooked lentils and heat through well. (If too dry add in a little water or even some passata).
- Set aside when done.
2 – Aubergine layer
Ingredients:
1 large aubergine, peeled and sliced thinly.
Method:
- First spread out the aubergine slices and salt. Leave for an hour or so to sweat, and then rinse.
- Then either bake them or cook on a griddle pan for a few minutes.
- Set aside when done.
3 – The creamy sauce
For this I used a basic cashew bechamel recipe from the Rouxbe cooking course we did recently.
Ingredients:
- 1 C raw cashew nuts
- ½ C onion, diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- ¾ C vegetable stock
- ¼ C dry white wine
- 2 T nutritional yeast
- ½ T onion powder
- Pinch fresh grated nutmeg
- Pinch white pepper
- Salt
- Olive oil
- Plus extra nutritional yeast for finishing.
Method:
- Soak the cashews in water for several hours, or overnight.
- Heat the oil in a pan, and sweat the onion, with a pinch of salt, for about 6 to 8 minutes. Do this carefully as you do not want to get any colour (browning) on the onions. Add the garlic and sweat for a couple more minutes.
- Transfer the onion and garlic to a high-speed blender. Add the cashews, white wine, nutritional yeast, spices and about ¾ of the stock. You can increase the nutritional yeast to up the ‘cheesiness’
- Blend on high till smooth, adding more of the remaining stock to get the consistency you want.
Assembling the lasagne:
- You can do this in one larger casserole or 4 small ramekins, as done here in the photos.
- Place a layer of the aubergines, a layer of the cooked lentils and a layer of the cashew sauce.
- Repeat a second time.
Before serving, heat the oven to about 200 Deg C. Place the lasagne(s) in the oven and cook for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle some nutritional yeast over the top. Bake for another 15 to 20 minutes until brown and bubbling.
Bon apetit!
