This lasagna is made with a tomato sauce from scratch with bell pepper and zucchini, marinated vegan soy granules and homemade vegan mornay sauce. Topped with vegan cheese, Vegan Parmesan Sprinkle and fresh basil.
Wanna make a good impression with omnivores coming over for dinner? Serve them this savoury, ultra cheesy lasagna, they wouldn’t even know that meat or cheese was missing. But this is fully vegan and everything is made from scratch and you definitely taste that.
One thing that might vary in taste is the nutritional yeast. There’s countless of brand of them and they all taste very different. Nutritional yeast is an inactive yeast and it has a very cheesy flavour if you get the right ones. I’ve had flakes that tasted more like paper than anything, and I’ve had others that tasted like real cheese.
Do yourself a favour and try and get a really good cheesy nutritional yeast, since there’s a lot of it in this recipe. Making all of this from scratch with papery flakes would be such a shame.
With that said, this is a recipe that seems long and maybe complicates, but with all these easy step by step instructions and all the right ingredients, anyone can make this delicious Italian lasagna.
Into Italian cuisine in general? Try out these other dishes:
- Vegan Pasta Pesto Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
- Slow Cooked Pasta Marinara - Tomasta
- Vegan Slow Cooked Spaghetti Bolognese
- Raw Vegan Gazpacho Soup
- Vegan Melanzane Mornay Sauce
- Vegan Spinach 'Ricotta' Cannelloni
- Vegan Ratatouille Lasagna
Serves 4
Ingredients
Pasta
- Vegan lasagna pasta sheets, normal or spinach
Sauce
- 1 kg ripe tomatoes (2.2 lbs)
- ½ zucchini
- 2-3 carrots
- 1 yellow bell pepper
- 1 red bell pepper
- 2 red onions
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon freshly grind nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Meat substitute - Soy Granule and marinade
- 360g ready made soy granules (0.80 lbs) (not the dry ones, they weigh less)
- 1.2 dl plant milk (½ cup)
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon balsamico
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoons powdered vegetable stock
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Mornay sauce
- 400 ml of plant cream (1.7 cup)
- 6 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 teaspoon freshly grind nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Toppings (optional)
- Grated vegan cheese
- Vegan Parmesan Sprinkle
- Fresh Basil
What you will need
Tomato sauce
- Cutting board and knife
- 2 big bowls
- 1 big pot
- 1 grater
- 1 vegetable peeler
- 1 small bowl
- 1 spoon to stir
- Spoons to measure
Soy Granule
- 1 pan
- 1 spoon to stir
- 1 cup to measure
Mornay sauce
- 1 small pot
- 1 spoon to stir
Lasagna
- 1 medium sized deep dish for the lasagna
Instructions
- Finely chop the yellow and red bell pepper, along with the 1 zucchini, put in a bowl and put aside.
- Chop the red ripe tomatoes and put in a big bowl and put aside.
- Finely shop the red onions and garlic cloves and put in the bog pot.
- Peel the carrots and grate them and put in the big pot with the olive oil, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Turn the heat on high while stirring occasionally. Let simmer for a few minutes.
- Put in the chopped bell pepper and zucchini and let simmer for another few minutes, while stirring occasionally.
- Add the chopped tomatoes to the pot and bring to a boil. When boiling turn the heat on low and let simmer for about 45 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the soy granule and vegan mornay sauce.
- Take a pan and put in the soy granule, plant milk, olive oil, balsamico, soy sauce, powdered vegetable stock, cumin, salt and pepper. Turn the heat on high while stirring occasionally. If you don’t have powdered vegetable stock you can use liquid vegetable stick and replace it with the plant milk.
- Let the soy granule simmer in the marinade until all the liquid has evaporated. This can take about 5-10 minutes. Stir occasionally. When the water has evaporated turn the heat off and let sit. Meanwhile prepare the Vegan Mornay sauce.
- Put in a small pot the plant cream of choice, I use soy, but use the one you prefer.
- Add in the 6 tablespoons nutritional yeast, 2 chopped garlic cloves, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil while constantly stirring, then turn off the heat and let sit.
- Turn off the heat with the tomato sauce and put in the marinated soy granules. Stir and begin to prepare the layers of the lasagna.
- Take a deep dish about 20x25x10 cm (8 x 10 x 4 inch), don’t worry if you don’t have that size, use the deepest one you have if you like many layers, or use a wider flatter one is you like the lasagna flatter and with more crunch on the top.
- Put one layer tomato sauce covering the bottom. Then a bit of mornay sauce on top and then put a layer of uncooked lasagna sheet. Use normal pasta sheet or spinach ones or mix them.
- Repeat these layers so you have about 3-4 layers of pasta sheet, less or more is also okay, it depends on how deep your dish is.
- (Optional) Grate some vegan cheese on top if you like, I use the classic Wilmersburger vegan cheese.
- Bake in the preheated oven at 200c (390 F) on normal setting for about 30 minutes.
- Let cool for a few minutes, cut out into 4 pieces and plate them. To make this extra cheesy you can sprinkle a bit of Vegan Parmesan on top, some fresh basil and then serve.
Bon Appetit !
