Herbed Tofu Vegan Lasagne

Tonight's dinner - amazing melt in your mouth vegan lasagne. I never thought I'd say it, but I didn't even miss the cheese. The photo isn't exactly stunning but I'm a bit new to this whole concept of cooking food and then taking pictures of it. Clearly my homework is to learn about food photography.

But I digress! The dinner was fantastic - a recipe passed to me by a co-worker with a teenage vegan daughter. She's always trying to cook food that the whole family can eat, (the other two members of the family being a mid-growth spurt always hungry 15 year old and a 40 some guy's guy kind of dad)... and this is one of her success stories.

I was a bit skeptical going into it - I mean, lasagne, without cheese??? I've done pretty good with the no dairy thing so far, but generally that's meant eating dishes that don't require cheese. In my books, vegan or not, lasagne requires cheese. Well, until today when I started cooking this dinner my books got re-written. This meal was so good I'm not sure if I can go back to the greasy, heavy lasagne of old. My only complaint is that in my last minute shopping for ingredients I wasn't able to find rice pasta lasagne, so I had to go with plain old wheat noodles. And wheat doesn't really agree with me so much these days. Next time I'll be prepared. But this time... (and I may regret saying this later) ...any discomfort will be SO worth it.

Herbed Tofu Vegan Lasagne

To start this dish you need to have about 4 cups of marinara sauce on hand. You can use your own recipe - or if you'd like buy some in a jar from the store. I like this basic recipe as the flavors aren't too overwhelming, but it IS delicious enough that the leftovers will be frozen for use in future pasta dishes.

Basic Marinara Sauce

30 ounces stewed tomatoes (this was one large can from the store)
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (or more to taste)
3 clove garlic, minced
3 teaspoon fresh chopped oregano (or one teaspoon dried)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper (or more to taste)
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 small finely diced onion
1/2 cup white wine
sugar to taste.

In a food processor blend canned tomatos, tomato paste, chopped parsley, minced garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper. Blend until smooth. In a large pot over medium heat saute the onion in olive oil for 2 minutes, until just soft. Add the white wine, and then 2 minutes later, the blended tomato sauce. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Adjust salt and pepper to taste. If you find the sauce is too acidic, I find it works well to add a small amount (about half a tablespoon) of soft brown sugar (regular white sugar or raw cane surgar works too).

While the sauce is simmering, it's good to get a head start on the lasagne:

2 14-oz. (350 g) pkg. firm tofu, well drained
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1/3 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
1/3 cup pine nuts
4 cloves garlic, peeled
Juice 2 lemons
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp. sugar
1 Tbs. olive oil
3 cups zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch slices
2 medium portabello mushrooms, cut into 1/2-inch slices
4 cups marinara sauce
16 no-cook lasagna noodles (9 oz.)


Preheat oven to 350F. Coat 13x9-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Gently toast your pine nuts in an ungreased pan on the stove, until golden brown. Set aside.

Gently break each block of tofu into 2 or 3 pieces, and mix in food processor with basil, parsley, pine nuts, garlic, lemon juice, salt, red pepper flakes and sugar. If you are using a small food processor or have an immersian blender style processor like me, you may need to do this in a few batches. I did 2 seperate batches, and then combined it all in a bowl for a final bit of mixing.

Blend until smooth. The result should be a creamy ricotta cheese like texture, and will taste incredible. I debated adding some nutritional yeast at this point, but held off, wanting to stay true to the recipe. You may wish to add some at this point if you like. I definitely will next time.

Put oil, zucchini and mushroom in a pan. Sauté until just tender.

Spread 3 Tbs. marinara sauce over bottom of baking dish. Cover with layer of noodles, overlapping slightly, half of tofu mixture and half of zucchini mixture. Top with another layer of noodles, remaining tofu and zucchini, and 1/2 cup-1 cup of sauce. Finish with another layer of noodles and cover completely with sauce. (Don't feel compelled to use ALL the sauce you have, especially if you followed my marinara recipe above. This is a mistake I made).

Cover with foil, and bake 1 hour. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

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