Best homemade vegetarian lasagne

Lasagne has always been one of my favourite dishes to make; it’s easy, most people like it so it’s a dinner party favourite and it is really versatile according to dietary preferences. For example, if you want to make it healthier, you can hide lots of vegetables in the tomato sauce to bulk it out and use half-fat cheese for the top. I have even seen a variation of a lasagne with no cheese sauce and just cheese on the top layer of the pasta, which tastes great and browns really nicely in the oven. This is my first main meal that I have covered for the blog, so please let me know what you think of this recipe.

Ingredients

For the tomato sauce:

• One large red onion
• A red pepper (or any other pepper of your choice)
• A fresh tomato
• Garlic (if you like it, or leave it out if you’re not keen)
• A pack of Quorn mince or Tesco do a really nice vegan bolognese mix with extra vegetables in it
• Half a tin of tomatoes
• Half of a lasagne pasta sauce (if you want to keep it healthy, use the whole tin of tomatoes and leave this out)
• Spoonful of tomato puree
• Pack of lasagne sheets

For the cheese sauce:

• 600ml/1 pint of milk
• 25g/1oz butter
• 25g/1oz plain flour (self-raising does work as well if you don’t have plain)
• 80g/3oz cheese (I find mature cheddar works best)

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius/Gas mark 7
2. Chop the onions, peppers and tomato (and the garlic if you’re using it) and fry in a pan on a medium heat until soft and slightly brown (you can add the garlic

1. Add the Quorn mince and fry for a little longer
2. When the Quorn begins to stick on the bottom, add the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and pasta sauce.
3. Simmer until everything is completely soft and cooked through.
4. Add seasoning if you wish to taste.
5. Get another saucepan and put in the milk, butter and flour and put on a low to medium heat.
6. The trick with this it to KEEP STIRRING even when the flour looks lumpy and you are distracted by other things (for example, the washing up – there always seems like loads to do with lasagne).
7. Once the sauce has thickened (and it will if you keep stirring), take off the heat.

 

1. Quickly grate the cheese and add to the sauce. Stir in until melted.
2. Pour some of the tomato sauce into an oven-proof dish and complete one layer of lasagne sheets over the top, making sure the lasagne isn’t too close to the edge and is completely covered by the sauce (or it will go very hard in the oven!)
3. Alternate the layers until the final one where you use cheese sauce instead of tomato and end with cheese sauce on the very top.

1. Sprinkle some more grated cheese to finish and put in the oven for about 25 minutes, until the a skewer an easily go through the middle.
2. Voila! Serve with salad.