Veganuary Recipe - Delicious Roasted Aubergine Lasagna.
We are excited to share Anna's favourite Veganuary recipe with you: Roasted Aubergine Lasagna. This tastes even better the next day and is perfect as leftovers for lunch or dinner.
INGREDIENTS:
3 large aubergines
2 large jars of Passata or 3 cartons
Gluten free or normal lasagna sheets
Basil
2 cups Cashew nuts
3 tablespoons Nutritional yeast
1 cup Oat or nut milk
1 tsp Nutmeg
Juice of half a lemon
1 bag of Spinach
1 onion and/or chopped celery
Garlic
Salt and pepper
METHOD:
Preheat the oven to 400F or Gas Mark 6/7
Slice the aubergines into 1cm thick slices lengthways. Place in a baking tray and sprinkle with salt and olive oil. You can put the salt on first and wait 15 minutes to draw any water out, then pat them dry. However, if you are pressed for time, you can missed this step out to save time.
Place the aubergines in the oven for 30 minutes until soft and lightly roasted. Keep an eye on them because they can quickly burn.
While the aubergines are roasting, fry the onion and/or celery and garlic in a frying pan with some olive oil until soft. Add the whole bag of spinach and allow it to wilt. Set aside.
Next, put the cashew nuts, nutritional yeast, 1 cup of milk, salt, pepper, 1 tsp nutmeg and lemon juice in a blender. Blitz. It should be a thick yet pourable sauce (think cheese sauce) - if it’s too thick add another 1/2 cup of milk until you can pour the sauce. If it’s too thin, add a few more cashews in. I do this by look/texture and taste. You want a savoury, slightly salty tart flavour.
Once the aubergine's are soft and lightly roasted, it's time to layer up the lasagna.
Cover the bottom Of your large lasagna dish with 1/3rd of the passata.
Place the first layer of lasagna sheets on top to cover.
Layer half the aubergines on top and then lace half the cashew nut sauce on top of the aubergines and spread evenly.
Add all the spinach mixture on top of the cashew nut sauce.
Place your second layer of lasagna sheets, then another 1/3rd passata.
Add your second layer of aubergine, then the remaining passata and then the rest of the cashew nut sauce.
Bake for 40 minutes covered with foil. Around Gas mark 6/7. Remove the foil after 40 minutes and bake for another 10-15 minutes - you might need to tweak the cooking time so check the link above.
Enjoy!
( Illustrations by @ps.live.inspired )