{Guest Post} How to Make A Veggie-Packed Lasagna

I have a guest post today! I am on vacation so even though I am not great about planning timed posts or posts ahead of time, it was great when Tali volunteered to be a guest poster on Opera Singer in the Kitchen.

This post was written by Tali Wee who currently lives in Seattle and blogs about life in the northwest. She owns Wee Picket Fences where she writes about being a new homeowner, bargain hunter, foodie and DIY enthusiast. Tali works at Zillow where she handles the community outreach for Charlotte, NC. She enjoys family, food, travel, writing and spending time on projects around the house.

Check out her bio to learn about she and her husband's lives. While she eat dairy-free her husband does not but she is familiar with gluten-free and vegan restrictions. I love her recipe and will have to try the lasagna when I get back home.

Thanks Tami for posting!

How to Make A Veggie-Packed Lasagna

When one person in a family has dietary restrictions, meals generally revolve around their needs. If you are that one person, it’s wonderful to be able to eat with the group and not feel like the odd man out. You know how tough it is to be the one person who can’t enjoy the mouthwatering pizza with everyone else. However, spouses or other family members who are constantly eating a restricted diet on behalf of the one person with limitations end up sacrificing constantly. They may even be giving up their favorite dishes.

I’m allergic to dairy and have been on both side of the scenario. I have gluten-free and vegan friends who I cater to at times. Though, my husband who loves cheese has accepted a dairy-free lifestyle for me. Of course he can snack on cheese or have a glass of milk whenever he wants, but our meals never include dairy. Last week, I decided to prepare two lasagnas, one dairy-free and one full blown dairy just for him.

We had enough lasagna for a week, but it catered to us both and was delicious.

We are omnivores with a healthy craving for vegetables, so this lasagna recipe includes a lot more veggies than usual. I’ve separated the ingredients to cater to the common diet restrictions: vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free. The recipe is for two 7” x 11” glass casserole dishes. If you are planning to make only one lasagna, use a larger casserole dish. Eliminate half of the meat and some of the breadcrumbs. Choose either the faux or real sour cream and double it.

Ingredients:

14 oz. can tomato sauce
28 oz. jar prepared marinara sauce
14 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 white onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced (I prefer red or orange)
8 oz. button mushrooms, diced
5 medium sized zucchinis, thinly sliced lengthwise
3 cups fresh spinach
1 tomato, sliced thinly
4 cloves garlic, crushed
½ cup fresh Italian parsley, minced
1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt

Animal-Based Ingredients:
2 lbs. ground beef or turkey
½ lb. Italian sausage
2 eggs

Dairy Ingredients:
½ cup sour cream
1 cup grated parmesan and mozzarella cheese mixture

Gluten Ingredients:
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 box oven-ready, no boil lasagna noodles
1 cup red wine (Some red wines are made with a wheat-based clarifying agent.)
½ cup Tofutti brand Sour Supreme (This is dairy-free sour cream. It does not contain gluten but is manufactured around gluten and can cause a reaction for those who are highly sensitive.)

Instructions:

Begin by browning the meat. I like to add a little olive oil and a dash of salt to get it going. While it’s browning, chop up the onion, bell pepper, mushrooms and garlic. Drain the fat off of the meat and return to pan. Add the veggies and cook until soft
Add wine and simmer. Pour in the tomato sauce. Drain the diced tomatoes and add to pan. Mix in Italian seasoning, oregano and salt. Turn heat to low.
Slice zucchini very thinly and lengthwise. Use a mandolin slicer if you have one. Zucchini can be used instead of noodles for gluten-free lasagna, but I prefer to use both zucchini and noodles. Now is a good time to preheat the oven to 375⁰.
In each casserole dish, add a layer of the meat and vegetable mixture. Cover the meat with zucchini slices. Spread a little of the premade marinara sauce over the zucchini. Lay a couple handfuls of fresh spinach on top of the marinara and cover with hard lasagna noodles.
For the dairy-free lasagna, mix one egg with faux sour cream. Pour this mixture over the noodle layer. For the dairy lasagna, mix one egg with real sour cream and pour over the noodles. Then, sprinkle with cheese.
Start the layers again with the meat and veggie mixture, then zucchini, marinara, spinach and noodles. I stopped after two layers per lasagna. Instead of adding another sour cream layer, I split the remaining meat and veggie mixture between the two lasagnas.
Thinly slice the fresh tomato and lay the slices as the final layer on the dairy-free lasagna. Cover with some bread crumbs and sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley. For the dairy lasagna, sprinkle with breadcrumbs and cheese, and top with fresh parsley.
Cover both with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and let the brown for 5-10 minutes.

Substitutions:

For those who are making only traditional, restriction-free, veggie-packed lasagna, omit the fresh tomato and faux sour cream. Double the real sour cream.

To make only dairy-free lasagna, exclude the cheese and real sour cream. Double the faux sour cream.

Vegan eaters can use faux meat; I prefer Yves’ brand meatless ground original. The creamy layer can be omitted which includes sour cream, cheese and egg. Eliminating the creamy layer will not affect the overall flavor. Be sure to use a wheat or rice-based noodle as many are egg-based.

For gluten-free lasagna, omit the breadcrumbs and fresh tomatoes; top with cheese instead. DeBoles brand rice noodles are oven ready/no boil. Make sure to get regular sour cream instead of light because it can include gluten. Tofutti brand dairy-free sour cream does not contain gluten but it is manufactured in a facility with other products containing gluten – not ideal for the highly sensitive. Read the labels when selecting red wine as some include a wheat ingredient.

Again, this recipe is enough to make side-by-side 7” x 11” lasagnas – one dairy-free and one with dairy. Note that the recipe can make one large lasagna, and can be adapted for vegan and gluten-free diets as well. It’s packed with veggies to be a well-rounded meal for the family, all wrapped into one square. It reheats easily and tastes delicious with a glass of red wine.

Labels: dairy-free, food, guest post, Italian, lasagna, pasta, vegan, vegetarian, Wee Picket Fences