Meatless lasagne

Making a vegetarian lasagne it really easy. There are loads of ingredients yet there are just three main parts: the vegetable mix with everything thrown in together, the white sauce, and the grated cheese with breadcrumb topping. This is quite a big dish and can easily serve six people with sides of steamed veggies.

I enjoy a really crispy topping to my lasagne and my cheats breadcrumbs should do the job, but you could use panko breadcrumbs if you desire. For extras, you could scatter over some seeds. Sunflower and pumpkin seeds work well (shelled of course).

I use frozen petit pois, broad beans and sweetcorn in this recipe. There are a couple of things I do as preparation. Grate the chees, slice the courgette and make breadcrumbs

Building the lasagne is fun. I have given instructions on how I do my layers, but you can do it any way you like. Just avoid having a layer of lasagne sheets first.

About half way through I like to add some of the grated cheese.

Making the white sauce can be tricky, but here is my fool proof version. Melt the butter and stir in the flour and cook it a little before adding the liquid.

The trick is to add very small amount of liquid and stir through quickly on a medium heat. Keep adding a little liquid and stir through.

About half of the rest of the liquid and keep stirring until the sauce thickens a bit. Try not to boil the sauce and do not stop stirring until it's completed.

I use a large glass baking dish and this can serve 4-6 people and serve green vegetable as a healthier side dish.

Serves: 4-6 people

Takes: 90 minutes

Ingredients

For the vegetable mixture

1 tin chopped tomatoes

800ml of water

50g green lentils

2 tablespoon tomato purée

100g sweetcorn

100g petit pois

100g broad beans

2 larger carrots (grated)

1/8 teaspoon chilli powder

1/4 ground black pepper

2 pinches of dried basil

2 teaspoon nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon coriander (powdered)

2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 garlic powder

For the baking dish

12 lasagne sheets

1 courgette (thinly sliced)

For the sauce

20g butter

400ml milk (no diary milk works well)

3 teaspoon plain flour

1 pinch salt

For the topping

40g breadcrumbs

200g mature cheddar (grated)

50g pumpkin seeds (optional)

Side dish

200g green beans (washed and trimmed)

1/2 broccoli (washed and cut in to florets)

Method

1. To make the vegetable mixture, add all the ingredients and herbs to a large pot then bring to boil. Once boiled reduce the heat to very low, add to the lid and simmer for 25 minutes and bring back to the boil for another 5 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, make the breadcrumbs by toasting a slice of bread, leaving it to cool for a couple of minutes before chopping into crumbs in a food processer. Set aside.

3. Grate the cheese and return to the refrigerator.

4. Slice the courgette into thin disks and set aside.

5. Make the sauce. Melt the butter in the pan then add the flour and stir through on a medium heat. Once the mixture has lightened a little add in the liquid a little by little stirring well to combine. At first the mixture will thicken into a ball but a more liquid is added it will form a paste and then into a sauce. Once all the liquid has been added keep stirring to the sauce heats up and slightly thickens. At this stage take off the heat. Stir occasionally until needed.

6. Pre-heat the oven 180 degree once the vegetable mixture is cooked.

7. Now add a layer of vegetable mix to the bottom of the baking dish, lay a row of lasagne sheets (do not over lap), press then down a little, then a layer of courgette slices, pour on a quarter of the white sauce. Now add another layers of lasagne, vegetable mix, courgettes and another quarter of the white sauce. Repeat the layers again. Finishing a layer of lasagne sheets and cover with the white sauce.

8. Mix together the grated cheese and breadcrumbs. Sprinkle over the top of the lasagne and then scatter the seeds if using.

9. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes at 180 degrees.

10. Five minutes before the end of the baking time steam some broccoli and green beans to serve as a side dish.

Feel free to tweak the recipe to your liking, change up the spices and vegetables. Sometimes I swap-out the petit pois and use garden peas or carrot for red peppers.

Top tip: if your white sauce start the get lumps, just sieve it to remove the lumps.