Mofo Day 2: Lasagna

One of my all-time favorite books is Little woman and when I was 12 the film version starring Winona Ryder, Christian Bale, Kirsten Dunst etc. came out and I was in love! To this day it is one of my favorite movies. I loved everything about it and I vowed that if I were to ever marry I would have the hymn “For the Beauty of the Earth” sung at my wedding.  

In May of this year my partner of nearly 13 years and I did get married and his Aunt who is an exceptional pianist played while my friend’s oldest daughters sang and it was perfect!  One thing we (I) agonized over was the menu, you see our household is vegetarian/vegan but even the vegetarian is 90% vegan and our church is also predominantly vegan however everyone else, all of our family, most of our friends…. Are a bit scared of that word which amazes me since so many of them actually enjoy a great many vegan dishes simply not thinking of them as such.  One thing I’ve made countless times since 2013 when making this change is lasagna and even the most loud and proud meat eaters request that I make this dish, so we had it at our wedding the other main dish we served was Isa’s : Nirvana Enchilada Casserole . Without further Ado here is my lasagna recipe. I hope you enjoy it!!

We didn't take pictures of the food save for our cake at the wedding so this is an at home picture.

This is hands down our favorite lasagna, that includes the many I made before going vegan. I wasn't sure how to go about this recipe at first no meat?! omitting the pounds of cheese?! It couldn't possibly be good right?? Boy was I wrong!! 

All  ingredients are listed separately per component along with method for step:

~Red Sauce

~Noodles

~White Sauce

~Tofu Ricotta 

~Optional Vegetable

~Link to Almond Parmesan recipe

So PLEASE read the whole recipe thoroughly first! :)

For the Red Sauce:

4 Cloves of garlic
1# mushrooms 6 smaller left whole the res quartered and fine diced
2 large carrots peeled and cut into chunks(depending on blender you may need to dice fine OR cook with the onion and mushroom before blending)

1 large Vidalia, or sweet onion fine diced

splash olive oil ( you could also use water or broth to saute if you wish)
14.5oz Muir glen tomato sauce

28 oz can Muir glen ground peeled tomatoes

1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
1 tsp thyme
1-2 pinches crushed red pepper
Any extra kale or spinach from the ricotta
Optional-- 1 cup TVP re-hydrated in veg broth)

Method:

Into the blender(use high powered or alter for what you have in your home)

garlic, whole mushrooms, both carrots and the can tomato sauce blend till smooth(there should be NO chunks.

In a heavy bottomed pot sauté your onion and mushroom in oil( or alternative) until browning and gets a rich full smell. Add garlic and sauté another minute. I remove 1/2-3/4 of the cooked onion mix and add to the blender and blended till smooth this isn't necessary but my kids have issues with chunky pasta sauce and honestly it's still fairly chunky when done. 

Use a spatula and scrap out into onion/mushroom mix add the spices and can of ground tomatoes, tvp and kale. Mix well and reduce heat, cover and simmer 30-40 min stirring every so often, taste and adjust spice.

While the red sauce is cooking make your white sauce and tofu ricotta. Preheat oven to 400F When you are ready to assemble or a few min before.

Noodles: Use any type you want and follow package instructions.

 

For the white sauce :( From Isa does it but also in this video)

1 cup cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours

3/4 cup water

2 teaspoons organic cornstarch(or other starch)

1/2 teaspoon salt( you can omit if you wish, I do.)

Method:

Drain soaking cashews if you have a less powerful blender soak overnight for best results you want a
nice thick heavy cream not chunky nut sadness. put into a small zip lock back in the fridge till you're
about to assemble

Tofu Ricotta :
1 lb. extra firm or firm tofu (not silken)
2 Tbsp good extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c freshly-squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp mellow miso paste
2 Tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped 2 heaping spoonful’s of nutritional yeast(normal cereal spoon)
Spinach or Kale (as much as you like we use 6 uncooked cups finely sliced)

Method:
Crumble the tofu into a blender. Add in the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, garlic, nutritional
yeast and miso. Process it all up until it's pretty smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Now add in the rosemary and pulse a few more times until it's all integrated. Scrape
out into a bowl and set aside. 

Boil a small pot of water drop the ribboned kale or spinach in and cook 2-5 min

if using kale make sure to remove the larger stem. Strain and fold into the ricotta mix.

Optional:

I like to steam some carrot slices, smaller broccoli broccoli pieces and diced zucchini to add to my portion(I add it into the sauce layers I will be adding zucchini to all in the future but the broccoli and carrot was a bit intense for the more picky eaters. Feel free to add any vegetables you like here!

This makes a "half hotel pan" and a bead pan( for my dad) 1. Add a thin layer of tomato sauce in the bottom of your dish.

2. Single layer of lasagna noodles.
3. Take out 1/3ish of the tofu ricotta and crumble/spread it all over the noodles.
4. Layer of noodles
5 Layer of sauce and optional veggies

Continue until you layer the last of the noodles, top with red sauce and get your cashew cream, cut a small corner of the bag and pipe the cashew cream all over.  

Sprinkle the top with Vegan Parmesan Cheeze IF you wish. We make this recipe.

Now, you are almost there! Pop your lasagna into the oven for  30  minutes  covered with foil. Remove foil and bake another 15-30 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit about ten minutes, slice and enjoy. 

MoFo day 2: A childhood meal veganized; Stuffed cabbage rolls , green bean casserole, and sweet and sour cabbage.

Day two! Today we were supposed to recreate a meal from your childhood. I don’t know about the homes you grew up in but I ate a lot of cabbage growing up; coleslaw both mayo and vinegar based, boiled dinner, brierocks, homemade egg rolls, sauerkraut, borscht, minestrone-and a dozen other cabbage heavy soups, sometimes even simply fried with kielbasa. Two of my absolute favorites were cabbage rolls and sweet and sour cabbage!  Originally there was always some type of meat or in many cased multiple animal products in all these dishes but they have all been pretty easy to veganize. I’m not sure if it’s the nature of these recipes or my love of cabbage that  makes them so easily adaptable. Don’t get me wrong the new versions are different but they in their own right are as good if not better than the original. Oh and green bean casserole because that was always a super tasty holiday treat that I looked forward to while growing up!

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls:

Ingredients:

Filling:

1c. Brown Rice

½ c. Lentils

1oz. Dried Porcini Mushrooms

2 Tbsp. Minced Garlic

3c. Mushroom or Vegetable Broth extra for sautéing

2c Diced Yellow Onion

8oz. Button Mushrooms Chopped

½-1tsp. Salt

Sauce:

1- 15oz Can Tomato Sauce

1- 15oz Can No Salt Diced Tomatoes

2Tbsp. Sugar

1Tbsp White Wine Vinegar

Wraps:

1 Large Red Cabbage

Method:

1.Boil 1oz of dried porcini mushrooms in 2 cups of water for 15 minutes.

2.Add cabbage to electric pressure cooker (Instant pot) with ½ cup water and pressure cook for 1 minute let pressure release naturally. Alternately you can blanch the Cabbage in a large pot of boil water.

3.Meanwhile dice mushrooms, onions and mince the garlic. Measure out rice, lentils and spices.  Strain and reserve porcini liquid- use can use this in place of some of the vegetable/mushroom broth if you prefer a stronger porcini flavor, dice the porcinis.

4,Remove cabbage from the instant pot, and set aside until cool enough to handle, pour out the cabbage water. Add a touch of vegetable broth to the pot and turn on sauté mode. Add onions, mushrooms and garlic and sauté until browning and fragrant add broth as needed in small amounts to prevent sticking.  

5. Preheat oven to 350F

6. Add the rice, lentils, spices, and broth and mix well. Set the instant pot to manual setting and pressure cook for 20 min, allow natural release.

7.In a medium sauce pan add all the sauce ingredients and bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover stirring often while you separate the cabbage leaved and make the rolls.

8.Cut around core with a knife and remove leaves if stem is too thick you can shave part off with a knife. Once mixture is cooked, taste and adjust salt and pepper if needed. Put 3-4 tablespoons of the filling mixture on each cabbage leaf. Fold in sides, and then roll leaves to completely cover the filling.

9. Add a about a half cup of the sauce to the bottom of a 9x13 pan/casserole dish and spread to there is a thin layer you may need to use a bit more. The deeper the dish the better, fill with as many cabbage rolls as you can and pour remaining sauce over the top. Cover with Tin foil, however if the dish is on the shallow side cut a piece of parchment paper to fit over the top before covering with aluminum foil to prevent corrosion from the acidity. Bake for 40minutes, uncover, baste with sauce and bake another 10, serve.

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Sweet and Sour Cabbage

Ingredients:

7 c. Sliced Cabbage

2 Tbsp., Vegan Butter, or Vegetable Broth

3 Tbsp. Sugar

5-6 Tbsp.  Balsamic Vinegar

¼ tsp Kosher Salt-optional

1/4tsp. Black Pepper-optional

*You can double the recipe for a whole cabbage but I used the center of a once very large red cabbage to use it up.

Method:

1. Quarter and remove the cabbage core and thinly slice the cabbage.

2. In a large pot heat the butter or broth and add the cabbage, sauté until starting to wilt.

3. Add sugar and Vinegar stir to coat completely. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook 30-40 minutes, 

stirring frequently until cabbage is tender add salt and pepper to taste.

 

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Green Bean Casserole

Ingredients:

8oz Button Mushrooms

16oz Cut Frozen Green Beans

½ tsp. Onion Powder

½ tsp. Garlic Powder

½ tsp. Pepper

¼ tsp salt

1c. Mushroom or Vegetable Broth, plus more to sauté

2 Tbsp.  Flour

Container French fried Onions, you can use as many or as little as you like.

Method:

1.Preheat oven to 350F

2.Put beans into a medium sauce pot and cover with water, bring to a boil and cook per package instructions. Ours took about 10 minutes, drain.

3.Chop mushrooms fairly fine and add to pan. Sauté until fully cooked adding broth to keep mushrooms from sticking and burning as needed, when the mushrooms have cooked down and released a good amount of liquid add the garlic and onion powder.

4. Mix 2Tbsp flour, salt, and black pepper into the 1 cup of broth. Whisk into the pan with mushrooms and stir until thick; see picture 3 in collage. Turn off the heat and stir in green beans and ¼- ½ of the French fried onions, spoon mixture into an 8x8 square baking dish and cover with remaining French fried onions.

5. Bake until golden 10-15 minutes and serve.