Heather's Vegetable Lasagne

Once upon a time I was vegetarian, which caused all sorts of angst for the people around me as I suspect I was the first of my kind to grace their presence (it was a while ago now). To cut a long story short, I had a very nice meal at my Aunty Heather's place when she served the following dish ~ she was really surprised though when I later asked her for the recipe as she'd thought I'd only said I liked it because I was being polite (me - polite!).

Yes, I know this isn't a cookbook review, but it's my blog so deal with it. I've made a few minor variations to the recipe and I'm not aware of it having been published in any cookbook, so there's no reason not to give you the recipe straight. It's a great recipe to cater to a crowd of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian guests as the vegetable sauce and the spinach layers add real substance to the dish and the cottage cheese gives a very meaty and textural mouth feel. Plus it tastes fabulous ~ I still prefer this to any other lasagne I've tried. I'm not usually one for using dried herbs over fresh, however on this occasion I'd go with the dried basil, though you could easily substitute fresh oregano in the cheese mixture.

Heather's vegetable lasagne:

1/2 packet lasagne noodles
2 cups chopped spinach leaves (I use silverbeet)
250g mozzarella cheese, grated

Vegetable sauce:

125g mushrooms, sliced
1 small eggplant, thinly sliced
1/2 an onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 green capsicum, finely chopped
1 tbs olive oil
pinch salt
1/2 tsp dried basil
400g can tomatoes
1/2 cup tomato paste

To make the vegetable sauce you sauté the mushrooms, eggplant, onion, garlic and capsicum in the olive oil until your onions are translucent. Add the salt, basil, tinned tomatoes and the tomato paste, stir well and simmer for 15 minutes. Make sure to stir occasionally to prevent it burning.

Cheese mixture:

1 egg, beaten
300ml sour cream
250g cottage cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese (grated)
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tbs parsley, chopped
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

For the cheese mixture you simply combine all the ingredients and give the mixture a good stir.

To assemble the lasagne start by placing half the vegetable sauce on the base of a greased 3 litre casserole dish. On top of this layer half the noodles, then half the cheese mixture, half the spinach and half the mozzarella. Repeat the layers one more time (vegetable sauce; noodles; cheese mixture; spinach; mozzarella) and into the oven it goes at 190˚C for half an hour, and then stand it for ten minutes before you serve.

Like any lasagne you can make it a little in advance and stick it in the fridge (or freezer) until you're ready to cook it, making it ideal for dinner guests (don't put a cold ceramic casserole dish into a hot oven though unless you're after trouble). Enjoy!

- Kath