Recently I had to prepare dinner for 8 people, including a vegetarian. I needed something that would be filling, yummy, easy to prepare and meatless - lasagne to the rescue!
After Googling a bit, I found avegetarian lasagne recipe from Foodlovers which I thought would be a good base for my ad-lib style of recipe improvisation.
What you’ll need
- 500g frozen spinach (or 3 whole bunches fresh spinach)
- a fair amount of fresh basil
- 3 courgettes
- 2 cloves garlic
- about 4 cups of chopped up mushrooms
- 200g feta
- 250g cottage cheese
- 1 cup milk
- 2 cups pasta tomato sauce (I made mine using 2 cans of chopped tomato; garlic; onion; red pepper and bay leaves)
- lasagne sheets
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup of grated cheese
- salt, pepper
- dried oregano
How you’ll prepare it
If using frozen spinach, thaw and let the water drain out by leaving it a strainer. Otherwise briefly wilt the fresh spinach and let it drain. Once devoid of liquid chop up the spinach and add in all the fresh basil.
Next you want to gently fry the courgettes and then add them to the spinach mixture.
Now comes the fun part: add the cottage cheese, egg and the milk to a large bowl and mix together well with one of those nifty hand-blender things. While this is happening you’ll want to quickly fry the mushrooms and garlic. Once browned, mix into the cottage cheese mixture.
Spread 1 cup of pasta sauce onto the base of a 22cm x 33cm baking dish. Cover with a layer of lasagne. Spread over spinach and top with another layer of lasagne. Spread the mushroom and cheese mixture over the top and then add a final layer of lasagne. Pour over the rest of the pasta sauce, spreading evenly. Sprinkle cheese on top.
Bake in a 180C oven for about 20 mins and let the cheese brown under the grill for a few minutes.
Serve with a green salad and enjoy.