The Wood Between The Worlds: The Italian Cravings

So having happily tried my fingers at Indian food I moved on to give in to some serious Italian food cravings. First stop, after reading a chapter about lasagna from Duncan's The Brothers K, I decided I needed to try my hand at vegan lasagna again. I had tried this awhile ago with a recipe from my mom but had grown tired of it after several potlucks. I searched the web and ended up creating my own recipe based on the experiences of several other chefs. I present it to you here:

Monique's Vegan Lasagna

9x9 pan (deeper is better)

Box of noodles (I used non-boil ones)

1.5 jars of tomato sauce of choice

1 onion

1 zucchini

1 yellow squash

1 bell pepper (I used yellow)

1 bunch of spinach

1 package tofu

1-2 garlic cloves pressed or finely minced

Optional: Small amount of vegan pesto mixed in with tofu, see pizza recipe link below

1. Dice onion and fry in skillet with olive oil. After starting to turn clear add diced zucchini, squash, and pepper, then garlic and fry until soft. Remove from skillet and place in separate bowl.

2. Crumble tofu into the same skillet and fry it a bit to soak up the flavors from the vegetables and dry out a bit. Add any spices you want for flavor.

3. Remove tofu and then lightly saute spinach very briefly (30-60 seconds?) in same skillet. If you want the spinach more fresh, skip this step.

4. Follow directions on back of lasagna noodle box for layering, or place 1 cup sauce in bottom of pan, then layer of noodles, then 1/3 of vegetable mix, tofu, spinach, and repeat two more times. Top off with noodle layer, remaining sauce and sprinkled layer of (fake) cheese if desired.

5. Cover pan with tinfoil and bake at 375 F for 50 minutes. Remove tinfoil and bake another 5-10 minutes. Let sit 10-15 minutes before cutting.

I produced this magnificent lasagna that I consumed throughout the week and then promptly made another with the pesto leftover from the pizza venture (described below) the following weekend.

It held together surprisingly well and the layer of rice cheese on top was the perfect touch. According to my dairy-friendly roommates, you couldn't really tell this didn't have ricotta because of the tofu texture and the flavors from the vegetables.

A couple of nights after my first attempt I decided to give a vegan pizza recipe a try that combined a cashew cheese with vegan pesto. It turned out amazing, but was much better fresh and not so great the days following. I used my regular pizza crust recipe but it's a basic recipe so I'm sure the one on this blog would work fine.