Difficulty: 2/5
You don’t always feel like eating meat; sometimes you want something lighter, or just different. Now I bring you a recipe that not because it lacks meat is less yummy. As a matter of fact, this recipe was a big surprise because I wanted to do a veggie lasagna but I didn’t know what to put in it. So I went to the supermarket and walked around the veggies looking around. Finally I grabbed an aubergine (to me it’s actually a mix between a protein and a vegetable because of its richness), mushrooms, artichoke bottoms (love them!), and a white onion and garlic just for an extra kick of flavour. The end result was AMAZING! I took the pictures while I made it just in case it was yummy, but I was surprised that it was so good and so here it goes 😉
Portions: 4
Ingredients:
For he vegetable filling:
– 20ml olive oil
– 1 large aubergine
– 5 artichoke bottoms
– 1 lemon
– 70g white button mushrooms
– 100g green onion
– 2 garlic cloves
– salt and pepper to taste
– 1 bayleaf
For the bechamel sauce:
– 200g unsalted butter
– 50g all purpose flour
– 500ml milk
– salt y pepper to taste
– Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
For the assembly:
– 8 lasagna pasta sheets
– 200g mozzarella cheese
Procedure:
1. Cutting, cutting: onions very small, aubergine in 1cm cubes, mushrooms in thin slices and the garlic grated really thin. The aubergine we “degorge” by adding a good tbsp of salt to them and letting them release water and bitterness for 20min, then rinse with plenty water. Just remember that it has a bit of salt later when you season. 
2. Sweat the onion in olive oil until it turns translucent. Then add the garlic and cook as well. Use med heat so it doesn’t burn as the garlic is packed with sugar.
3. Then add the aubergine & bayleaf. The aubergine is by far the one that needs the longest to cook. Use medium heat again and cook until it turns nice and soft, including the skin.
4. Finally add the mushrooms (they just need 2-3 min), and the artichoke bottoms (cooked previously in water and lemon until fully cooked, then cut in strips) season generously and that’s it for the filling!
5. Now for the bechamel sauce. Melt the butter gently, add the flour and let it boil.
6. Then add the milk off the heat (for me it works when you add cold milk to the hot butter and flour to prevent lumps) little by little until completely blended together. Then put to boil and you will get a thick paste. Season and put a thin layer of this at the base of your oven-safe mould. This is so the pasta has something too cook in instead of sticking to the base and staying hard.
7. Then add a layer of pasta, but make sure you leave at least 5mm from the edge of the pot because it expands when it cooks. My pasta’s instructions told me to soak it in boiling water 30secs before assembling, but make sure you check the instructions in yours, some may even ask you to cook them before assembling. On top of this, half the veggie filling and more pasta.
8. Then bechamel sauce and grated mozzarella cheese
9. Then pasta, the other half of the veggies, pasta and finish with a last layer of bechamel sauce and PLENTY mozzarella!
10. It goes in the oven at 200C for at least 25min. You can put a knife through to make sure the pasta is fully cooked, and make sure the mozzarella is nice and golden. If the pasta is cooked and the cheese not golden, swap to broil on full heat (beware of burning it!). And if it’s already turning gold but the pasta needs more time, turn down the heat to about 170C until cooked just right 🙂
I loveeeeed this recipe! I hope you try it at home and love it too. Also, tell me in the comments below if you would use other vegetables, or which type of lasagna is your favourite. Enjoy!
