Lentil Lasagna with Cashew Parmesan
This is an absolute favorite recipe of ours (I know I say that a lot). We love the Italian flavors cooked into the almost meaty texture of the lentils combined with the red sauce. I'm not a huge lentil fan unless they are really really flavorful. This recipe is flavorful! I've made several variations of this recipe for a few years now, and we always love eating leftovers... cold... out of the fridge. We really like to splurge a little on Saturday nights by making pizza or breadsticks and ice cream or cookie bars, but when we have lasagna for lunch then we end up eating broccoli and lentil lasagna for dinner on a Saturday night? I know it sounds crazy, but we really like this recipe! You can use vegan cheese to top it off or stick with the cashew parmesan recipe listed. It keeps it healthier and more plant-based and we love that cashew parmesan cheese recipe (from minimalistbaker.com)! One thing I've learned in making this recipe so many times is that you HAVE to use enough tomato sauce for this recipe to work... maybe even too much sauce. Let's get saucy! Ciao Bella!!
Don’t forget to also make some Whole Wheat Cheeze Breadsticks!
Lasagna Ingredients
Lentils
- ½ lb lentils, brown
- 2 ¼ c water
- 1 tsp oregano, dried
- 1 tsp basil, dried
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp sage
- 1 tbsp vegetarian chicken flavored seasoning
- 1 tbsp onion powder or flakes
- 1 bay leaf
- ¼ ts salt
Lasagna
- 32 oz tomato sauce (no sugar added)
- 1 pkg 100% whole wheat lasagna noodles
- 3 c broccoli, raw
- ½ c cashew parmesan (recipe below)
Directions
Lentils
- Place lentils, water, and all the spices into a rice cooker and turn on. Cook for 45 minutes or until soft.
- Alternatively in a medium sauce pan you can bring water, lentils, and spices to a rapid simmer over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, uncovered for 20 to 30 minutes until lentils are tender.
Steam Broccoli
- Wash and chop raw broccoli into tiny pieces (about the size of a dime) (you can also chop them by using the large slicing attachment for a food processor-this makes it way faster).
- Place chopped broccoli in a medium kettle or pan with ½ c water and steam broccoli for about 3-6 minutes until soft.
- Check every few minutes, add water if necessary.
- Broccoli is done when a fork slides smoothly through (Don’t overcook as brown mushy broccoli is less appealing to eat).
Assemble
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
- Mix lentils with 16 oz of tomato sauce, set aside.
- Pour about ½ cup of tomato sauce into a 9×13 baking dish and spread to cover the bottom.
- Place 3 uncooked lasagna noodles on top of the sauce (and a fourth noodle at the edge of the pan perpendicular to the row of 3 noodles).
- Spread the lentil sauce over noodles.
- Place 3 uncooked lasagna noodles on top of the sauce (and a fourth noodle at the edge of the pan perpendicular to the row of 3 noodles).
- Spread steamed broccoli over the noodles and 3-4 tbsp cashew parmesan.
- Place the final 3 lasagna noodles on top of the broccoli layer (and a fourth noodle at the edge of the pan perpendicular to the row of 3 noodles).
- Spread the rest of the plain red sauce over the top and sprinkle the top with another ¼ -1/2 c cashew parmesan crumbles.
- Cover with tin foil and bake for 50-55 minutes (remove tinfoil for the last 10 minutes of cooking).
- Remove from oven and let rest uncovered for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Cashew Parmesan
This is fast becoming the sole cheese source in my house. We put it on noodles, pizza, lasagna, steamed veggies, and more! It is much healthier then a lot of the other cheese alternatives out there because it is made out of real food instead of a bunch of weird ingredients and stabilizers. Thank-yoooouuu Dana from minimalistbaker.com!!!
Recipe adopted from: minimalistbaker.com
Ingredients
- ¾ c cashews
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- ¾ tsp sea salt
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
Directions
- Place all ingredients into food processor or high-powered blender and pulse until fine crumbles form (reminiscent to parmesan cheese).
- Do not over blend or it can turn into garlic-cashew butter.
Such a delicious combination of flavors!
Thanks Dejan! 🙂
Thank you very much