Cheesy Lasagna
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 ounces carrots, sliced and steamed
1/4 cup canned low-sodium vegetable broth
16 ounces herbed tofu
8 ounces vegan cream cheese
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup nutritional yeast, optional
12 lasagna noodles, cooked
2 to 3 (15 ounce) cans tomato sauce
1 (16 ounce) bag spinach leaves
2 to 3 (14 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Add olive oil to a large skillet, place over medium-high heat until hot. Add parsley and garlic, saute for 1 minute. Add carrots and veggie broth; simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.
2. Add herbed tofu, vegan cream cheese, and lemon juice; stir well. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until the vegan cream cheese starts to melt. Stir in nutmeg. Add nutritional yeast if you'd like it a little bit more cheesy! Remove from heat; keep warm.
3. Place 3 lasagna noodles in bottom of an 11" x 7" baking dish. Spread tofu mixture over top, place 3 noodles on top of that, and spread tomato sauce and spinach on top of those. Repeat process until all noodles are used up. Top with spaghetti sauce.
4. Cover and bake for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 20 to 30 minutes until it is thoroughly heated. Usually a lasagna takes about 45 minutes to cook thoroughly.
This is the best lasagna I have ever made or had, or non-vegan... it is superb... your non-vegan friends will be wowed!
SO HOW'D IT GO?
Can I make this without the tofu? My son has severe food allergies and can't do soy(can only have rice, potatoes, fruits and veggies...pretty much allergic to everything else!)...Trying to figure out some good recipes for him.
I really want to make this, but where can I buy herbed tofu? I haven't seen it at Fresh&Easy, Trader Joe's, or any of the big grocery stores. Is it necessary or is plain extra firm tofu good?
Thanks!
I didn't have lasagna noodles but I had everything else, so I just mixed everything together with bowtie pasta and baked it in a casserole. I've made this several times and it's DELICIOUS!!! Sometimes I save some of the filling and eat it by itself with a spoon because it is SO GOOD. I find I don't need as much tomato sauce as the recipe calls for (even when I make it with lasagna noodles), and I have never found "herbed tofu" so I just mix up regular tofu with italian spices. This recipe is wonderful. Even my non-vegan friends and family LOVE it!
Just wanted to update my review. :) I made it again last night and it turned out even better because of further adjustments. I mentioned in my previous review that the proportions are all wrong, and most of you will find that all of the ingredients will NOT fit into your baking dish. Here are the things I changed and it turned out PERFECT:
1/2 large onion, sauteed in broth until translucent (instead of carrots)
crumble tofu and mix in herbs by hand (instead of premade herbed tofu)
1 to 1 1/2 large jar of marinara sauce (that's it, and no tomato sauce)
cook down bag of spinach in cheesy mixture (instead of layering it in)
set aside a little cheesy mixture to spread on top
Please make these changes! I promise it will save you the headache and taste so much better.
I just put it in the oven for the first fifteen minutes and I'm SOOOOO EXCITTEEDDDD!!!!!! I used two packages of tofu (for a grand total of 28 oz), and increased a few of the other ingredients to balance it out, like the parsley, garlic, and lemon juice. The cream cheese seemed to do fine even with the overwhelming amount of tofu, and thickened just enough I thought. Shredded vegan mozz in the mix and on top. I did have some left after filling the large dish, so I made a second smaller one. Worked out perfect cause I had some extra sauce and spinach and noodles! I hope my vegetarian mum and omni sis like it. Thanks for the recipe! :)
My partner and I made this together... he took care of the lasagna and I made homemade pasta sauce. It was really good, the "cheese" mixture reminded me a lot of Ricotta cheese, which is what I would have normally used in a lasagna. We used ready-to-bake noodles, which ended up being easier except the corners that weren't covered with sauce remained crunchy.
Wow wow wow. One of my most problematic cravings as a vegan has always been lasagna. Boy, was this ever satisfying!
Honestly, something is very off about the proportions, though. It doesn't really specific the size of jars of spaghetti sauce or tomato sauce. To make matters worse, I found I had way way too much spinach and sauce to even fit in the dish that is specified.
Really, what makes this recipe shine in the cheesy mixture. It is spot on. It even fooled a grumpy hardline meat eater at the table. You could incorporate this cheesy mixture into your favorite lasagna recipe and it'd do the trick.
This was great! I changed a few things: no spinach, added extra spices (oregano, basil, sage, paprika, salt, pepper), and regular tofu instead of herbed tofu, and zucchini, mushrooms, olives, corn and beets (turned the cheese mixture a bright pink!). I only used about the half the amount of Nutritional Yeast, next time I'll use the full amount. I made this for my lactose-intolerant boyfriend and he LOVED it. He took the first bite when I was out of the room and all I heard was "oh my GOD. This is GOOD. Oh, oh my GOD." Definitely good. Next time I'll just make them with: carrots, onions, bell pepper, olives, peas and broccoli, I think, along with all the spices I added last time, with some red pepper flakes for more heat. Will DEFINITELY make this again.
Delicious recipe! Although I didn't read all the pages of member suggestions (which I usually do) which would have helped. When I cut the lasagne, the individual servings didn't hold together well, which I think might have been due to too much moisture -- I used fresh spinach rather than cooking it first and squeezing out the water. I added onions, bell peppers and mushrooms to the carrot mixture, and next time I'd like to try some type of squash. I only stirred the tofu mixture and next time would either put it in the food processor or blender to try and get it creamier. Overall an excellent tasting dish.
my oven only broils at the moment. does anyone know if this recipe will still work with a broiling setting and if so, what are the details of that?
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