“Don’t you miss cheese?” “Oh my god, I couldn’t live without cheese?” “My life is cheese”.. these are just some of the utterances you get when you tell someone you don’t eat dairy anymore.  Much better are the astonished faces you see when you confirm that no, you don’t miss it.  Don’t get me wrong, cheese is a delicious substance filled with many intricate flavours, however now it’s gone I’m really not altogether fussed on it’s absence.  I’ve moved on to far greener pastures.

What I do miss however, is a good béchamel sauce layered with pasta and bolognese sauce in a delicious English disruption of an Italian classic.  There’s something so comforting about a well cooked lasagne, at least for me.  It reminds me of childhood and general happiness as it’s always been a familiar face on my Mum’s kitchen table.  Now thanks to the trusty help of the ever faithful cashew nut, and the forever ever trusty Oh She Glows, magic has happened.  Lasagne has returned to my life in an, only slightly less than, mystical way which i’m very happy to share with you as I think pretty much everyone should eat this.  All the time.  If I had the time and the energy I would eat this every other day, however as I have neither this has gone into rotation as a solid Sunday dinner and is a great replacement for my Mum’s béchamel laden cheese/meat fest.

This recipe actually came together fairly easily, once we’d worked out the flavours and textures we wanted included it was simply a case of plotting the most structurally sound order in which to layer! As a side note, in doing my research for this I finally discovered the difference between lasagna and lasagne - for anyone interested lasagna is the singular sheet and lasagne is obviously the plural.

If you’re wondering whether you really need to soak the cashew nuts, trust me, unless you want a crunchy completely unsatisfactory experience - soak them.  I speak from experience.  In terms of the other ingredients, lots of other things would work in this - I would consider trying leeks, chard or even aubergine (though that’s a tad overdone isn’t it?)  You can also use your own tomato sauce, or store bought if you’re really not bothered, this is just a nice way to incorporate lots of fresh ingredients directly.

Give it a go, you won’t look back.

Recipe

Cheeze Sauce

Borrowed from here, minus the Basil.

1. Drain and rinse soaked cashews. With the food processor turned on, drop in your garlic cloves and process until chopped. Add in the rest of the ingredients and process until smooth, scraping down the bowl as needed.

Lasagne

1-2 Large Sweet Potatoes

1.5 Cups Red or Dead Pasta Sauce (I like to make mine at the same time the potatoes are baking)i

1 large, or 6 baby, Courgette sliced lengthways

250g Chestnut Mushrooms, Sliced

1-2 Handfulls of Baby Spinach

1 Pack Wholewheat/Spelt Lasagna sheets

Extra Nutritional Yeast

1. Pre-heat oven to 200°c

2. With a knife pierce or cross the Sweet Potatoes and place on baking tray in oven for 40-50 minutes

3. Once potatoes are soft to the touch, remove from oven and let cool

4. In a large baking dish, place a bottom layer of courgette slices, ensuring that it is relatively even and flat, add enough red sauce to mostly cover.  Place layer of 3 lasagna sheets and spread cheeze sauce on top until covered.

5. Place layer of sliced mushrooms in the same way as the courgette slices, again ensuring relatively even and flat . Repeat sauce, sheets, and cheeze.

6. Remove sweet potatoes from skin and with a cutlery knife or spoon, spread evenly across surface of the lasagne and place spinach on top.  Cover entirely in lasagna sheets ensuring no gaps.

7. Use the rest of the cheeze sauce to cover the lasagne, sprinkling additional nutritional yeast on top to ensure crispness.

8. Bake in oven for 35-45 minutes depending on crispy top preference.

9. ENJOY