This is not a vegan/vegetarian lasagne since our main interest is in replacing the dairy content of meals whilst retaining as much as possible of the original dishes. However, if you replace the meat sauce part with a lentil or Quorn based tomato sauce, the end result will be as good as your sauce is and the nutritional content will still be good.
Lasagne recipes all seem to have their own variations and everyone has their own perfect ragu. This is ours!
Note that this recipe uses our cheese sauce: don’t forget to grab the details for it!
Recipe: Lasagne
Summary: Dairy-free cheesy lasagne
Ingredients
- Packet of lasagne sheets – use the sort which do not need pre-cooking for ease.
- 2 tbsps olive oil
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, crushed or finely chopped
- 1 lb/450g steak mince (MUCH better tasting than regular mince) or lean regular mince
- ½ lb/225g mushrooms, chopped fairly small
- 2 sticks celery, finely chopped
- 2 x 14 oz (400g) tins tomatoes (if not chopped, break up in casserole)
- salt and pepper to season
- 2 generous tsps ‘herbes de Provence’ or mixed herbs
- 2 pinches of sugar (necessary if using tinned tomatoes, not if using fresh, very ripe ones)
- 1 pint of chicken or vegetable stock or 1 good quality chicken/vegetable stock cube (Kallo Organic is very good) dissolved in 1 pint/500ml hot water
- 1 quantity of Dairy-free cheese sauce
Instructions
- The ragu needs to be prepared first.
- Peel and finely chop the onions. Put a large flameproof casserole (Le Creuset ware is superb for this: expensive but worth it) on a medium heat until hot, add the oil, add the onions, turn down the heat and fry gently for about 10 minutes.
- Add the garlic and herbs. Cook for a further 10 minutes on a low heat until the onions are soft and golden.
- Add the steak mince, stirring it through the onion mix in the casserole. Turn the heat up to medium and cook until none of the mince is pink (about 5-6 minutes). You will need to stir fairly frequently to prevent burning. The big advantage of steak mince, apart from the flavour, is that usually very little fat comes off it, so you don’t have to drain it. Should you use ordinary mince you’ll need to drain off the excess fat: it can be easier in that case to cook the mince separately and drain it before adding to the onion mixture.
- Add the tomatoes and break them up if necessary. Stir through evenly.
- Add the mushrooms and celery. Stir again.
- Add the sugar.
- Pour in the stock and stir, then return to the boil.
- Turn the heat down and simmer the sauce for about half an hour to allow the flavour to develop. Stir at regular intervals to prevent it from burning on the bottom. Before assembling the lasagne, taste and season the ragu.
When the ragu has been simmering for about twenty minutes, turn the oven on to Gas Mark 4 / 180°C / 350°F. Now prepare the cheese sauce according to our recipe. Now that you have your component parts it is time to assemble the finished dish. You will need a deep ovenproof dish: either pyrex or ceramic will do. It is much easier to put together if you have a rectangular dish, but it is possible to fiddle around and get it into an oval one without too much hassle.
- Put a layer of ragu into the bottom of the dish.
- Cover with a layer of lasagne sheets. You will probably need to snap some of the sheets to fit the dish.
- Place a layer of cheese sauce on top.
- Repeat the layers until you have filled the dish, ending with a cheese sauce layer.
- Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes then turn the oven up to Gas Mark 6 / 200°C / 400°F for 10 minutes to brown the top.
Quick Notes
This lasagne is really good served with a mixed green salad, dressed with olive oil and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
Preparation time (duration): about 45 mins
Cooking time (duration): 2 hours
Diet type: dairy-free
Number of servings (yield): 6
Meal type: dinner
Culinary tradition: Italian
Microformatting by hRecipe.
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