Vegetarian Lasagna

Lasagna has always been one of my favorite food groups.  But, with the Italian Sausage, three kinds of cheese, eggs, and noodles, it's never been one of the better choices for me!

I began making vegetarian lasagna a few years ago when I found myself inundated with summer produce.  How could I use all of this produce, and keep it good for later?

Enter vegetarian lasagna.  I tweaked a few things to make it healthier, and even better, this is a recipe that freezes well.  When I make a batch, I make two pans.  One for us to enjoy now, and one for us to enjoy later.  I will wrap the second one well, and stick it in the freezer so that on one of those nights when I know I am going to be pressed for time, and need something easy to make for dinner, I can just pop this into the oven and have dinner hot and ready an hour later!

What follows is my recipe for Veggie Lasagna:

Sauce:
Saute in a pan over med-low heat-
1 onion, diced
1 mushroom (I prefer portabella, but any kind will do), diced
1 or 2 bell peppers, depending upon their size.  Color doesn't matter
2 cups of spinach, sliced into thin ribbons and then cross cut once or twice to make the pieces smaller
1 zucchini, diced

If I have any of these on hand, I will add them to my sauce:
Swiss Chard
Kale
Yellow Squash

Add the spinach last to the saute pan, wait until the onions are almost translucent.  Once the spinach has wilted, add a large (32 ounce jar) or spaghetti sauce, and keep an extra jar on standby, in case if you run out of sauce. I use our own homemade sauce, but have been known to use a store bought sauce if we are out of ours.

The Cheese Layer:
In a large bowl, mix:
2 large bags of shredded low-fat mozzarella cheese
6 eggs

1 box of lasagna noodles, uncooked.
I don't cook my noodles.  Somewhere around 2000, when the kids were little, I didn't have time to cook the noodles, so I put them into the pan and hoped for the best.  Since I use so many veggies in my sauce, there is a lot of extra water.  The noodles do a great job of soaking up the water and helping the lasagna to set faster.

Begin assembly:
Spray the bottoms of two 9 x 13 inch pans with non-stick cooking spray. 

Place 1/2 cup of sauce in the bottom of each pan, spread it out evenly with a spoon.  If you need more sauce to give the bottom of the pan a nice "red" color, go ahead.

Layer noodles on top of the sauce.  My pans require 3 noodles lengthwise, and 1 across at the end. I try to alternate which side gets the cross wise noodle.

Spread 1 to 1 1/2 cups of cheese sauce evenly across the noodles.  It might not spread completely evenly, but that's okay.  The cheese will melt and spread.

Layer 1 to 1/2 cups of the sauce across the cheese.  I like my lasagna saucy, so I use a heavier hand with the sauce and make certain that it is evenly spread across the cheese and noodles.

Layer Noodles over sauce.

Cheese.  (This is my last cheese layer, so I try to make certain all of the cheese is used up in this layer.)

Sauce.

Noodles.

On top of this layer of noodles, I add another layer of sauce, with no cheese.  I know people who add extra cheese on this layer, or nothing at all.  Honestly, at this point, it is up to you and your preferences. I try not to add cheese to the top at this point because I've found it sticks to the foil.  If I wanted cheese on the top, I'd add it after I remove the foil for the last 15 minutes of baking.

Once this is done, I cover both trays with foil.  The one going into the freezer is labeled and put away.
The other lasagna is either cooked immediately, or put into the fridge so that I can bake it closer to dinner time.

To bake:
Oven 350*.
With foil on, bake lasagna in a 350* oven for 45 minutes.
Remove foil, bake an additional 15 minutes.
Remove from oven, let sit for an additional 10-15 minutes before serving.

If frozen- try to remember to take the lasagna out of the freezer the night before and thaw in your refrigerator overnight.  At the very least, try to remember to put it in your fridge before you go to work in the morning!  Then cook, following the directions listed above.