Meat Free Lasagne

Meat free lasagne recipe

I remember, back in the day, in the 70s and 80s when lasagne was considered very avant garde. It was up there with steak and chips and prawn cocktail, and seen as the height of sophistication! It is probably one of the first meals I ever made "off piste", and tried to replicate what I'd eaten in restaurants without recipes being available at the click of a button....yes, pre internet!

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Looking back, it was probably pretty grim, made with the statutory "meat gravel" as one of my friends refers to mince, and some dodgey back of the shelf seasoning from Schwartz. I would like to think that my today's version of lasagne has evolved, is fresher tasting, healthier and of course, 100% plant based.

As with all of my dried soya mince recipes, I cook the mince from dry in the sauce so it picks up the flavours better. I get mine from Holland & Barrett, but you can get it in Morrisons in The World Food section.

Don't fear the marmite! I know it is a controversial addition, but you really cant pick it out as a flavour, it just adds to the overall depth of the finished sauce. If you have real marmite issues, you could maybe switch it for the addition of some mushroom ketchup.

I use soy milk, just as my personal preference, but any plant based milk would be fine. The miso paste doesn't seem to be stocked routinely at most mainstream supermarkets, but our Tesco Extra has it so I stock up whenever I shop there.

I serve this with homemade garlic doughballs and a fresh salad, serves 3-4 people

Ingredients

1 large onion chopped

5 fat garlic cloves, crushed

1 tablespoon olive oil

Generous black pepper

Salt to taste

1 tsp marmite

2 tbsp tomato puree

450ml vegetable stock

1 tsp dried oregano

100g dried soya mince, unsoaked

1 500g carton passata

Around 10 lasagne sheets, check the ingredients, not all are egg free

425ml plant based milk

Salt and pepper to taste

2tbsp nutritional yeast

2 tbsps cornflour

1 tsp white miso paste

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp onion granules

Thinly sliced tomato and fresh basil or olives to garnish, optional

Method

Put the onion and garlic into a large pan and fry gently for around 5 minutes until they start to soften

Add the passata, salt and pepper, marmite, oregano, tomato puree, and stock to the pan and bring to a gentle simmer. Add the dried mince and stir well in. Cover and cook on a low heat, stirring occaisionally for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat, keep covered and put to one side

Preheat the oven to 190c

Add the milk, cornflour, more salt and pepper, nutritional yeast, and mustard into a pan and mix well before introducing any heat. Turn on the heat on the hob and put the pan on, stirring constantly, bringing the sauce up to a gentle bubble

In an ovenproof dish, place a layer of the tomato based sauce at the bottom, enough to cover it completely. Next place some no pre cook lasagne sheets on top, then more sauce, then more lasagne until it is all used up, I made 3 layers of pasta in a 27cm square dish. Pour the milk based sauce over the top making sure it goes to the edges and cover the last layer of pasta. Put thinly sliced tomatoes on the top at this point if you are using them

Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes - the top should be starting to golden and the lasagne should be gently bubbling

Add the fresh basil at the last moment and serve

Debbie