A little Twist on Lasagna....

The greatest thing about lasagna, besides that it's comfort food, is that it can so easily be made to fit the tastes and style of the cook making it.  As I said before, I found a whole stack of lasagna recipes in my cabinet that were all unique in their combinations of ingredients.  One focuses on roasted veggies, another added in goat cheese, and another made it spicy with black beans.  All lasagna is composed of is sauce, noodles, and cheese, so it is easy to see how those simple ingredients have huge potential for modification, or pure innovation.  For me, the major change for lasagna had to be a different way to get the same great flavor without the dairy components.  What I learned quickly was that this is very hard to do.  I thought if I changed  the taste completely (such as using salsa and black beans), that I could make a different, but no less satisfying dish.  However, I found that I didn't like the texture of beans and noodles without the smooth fat from cheese.  For years, I just stopped making lasagna and I was immersed in so many different foods in school, that it didn't matter that lasagna was missing from our lives.  However, in the past year or so, I discovered vegan cheese, which is not exactly like cheese in texture, but tastes enough like cheese to be an OK substitute.  I also have a lot of practice in building sauces.  This, I have found, is the essential ingredient in every good lasagna.  Cheese is, of course, delicious in itself, but without a great sauce, a lasagna can fall flat.  And I especially require great sauce since my "fake cheese" is not quite as satisfying.  I have also learned that making a great sauce is so very, very easy, though the art of making a good sauce does require some practice!  Before culinary school, I would throw things together without much knowledge of taste/texture/balance/salt content, etc, and while my dishes were edible, most were far from perfect.  I have now learned to not over-complicate things.  Sometimes the most delicious food is the most simple.  I make lasagna a lot now, and although it never turns out quite the same as the last batch, it is usually a satisfactory meal.
Besides a good sauce, I also have come to use oven-ready lasagna noodles.  They are easier and quicker than noodles that you have to boil...and they don't fall apart on you.  The only set back with these noodles is they need to be completely covered with sauce in order to soften.  Otherwise, there will be many crunchy bits in the lasagna.  What usually helps this is covering the lasagna with aluminum foil in the beginning to let the noodles soak up all the liquid.

One Version of the Experimental Alchemist's Dairy Free Lasagna:

2 TB olive oil
1/2 to 1 pound ground beef
1 cup yellow onion, small dice
1 cup mushrooms, med dice
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups fresh spinach, washed well
1 28 oz can tomatoes, pureed
salt and pepper to taste
1 package oven-ready brown rice noodles
2-3 cups zucchini ribbons (about 3 small zucchini) or diced zucchini....(See below for ribbon making!)
1 package vegan cheese, frozen and shredded or shredded mozzarella

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet or soup pot on medium heat.  Add beef and a sprinkle of salt and saute until browned.  Take out beef and set aside, leaving fat in the pan.  Add in onions and mushrooms with a sprinkle of salt.  Saute, stirring occasionally, until soft (about 8 minutes).  Add in garlic and cook 1 minute or until fragrant.  Add in all of spinach, stirring occasionally until wilted.  

Add in beef and tomatoes.  Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer.  Simmer for about 20 minutes (it will continue to reduce in the oven).
2. Preheat oven to 400F. In a large casserole dish, add in 1 cup of sauce or enough to coat the bottom of the dish.  Add 1 layer of noodles on top of the sauce.  Then, add a layer of zucchini ribbons (or diced is OK, too).  On top of that, sprinkle cheese.  Repeat layering steps until casserole dish is full.  
3.  Cover dish with aluminum foil and bake 25-30 minutes.  Remove from oven, take off foil, and bake another 15 minutes.  Let cool a few minutes, then enjoy!

NOTE: If you are going to use vegan cheese, it is good to harden it by freezing.  This makes it easier to shred without it just falling apart.

This is a great addition to my food processor.  It shreds cheese or carrots in a matter of seconds.  Though, a handheld cheese grater is good too!

NOTE #2: Washing greens: Immerse greens in a large bowl filled with very cold water.  Swish greens to get off any sand or dirt.  Then, gently lift greens out of the bowl and transfer to another container to drain.  This leaves all the silt in the bottom of the bowl!  DO NOT pour the dirty water back over the greens...this will re-contaminate them.  This technique might need to be repeated to clean greens completely.

Zucchini Ribbons:

I use my mandolin to make long "ribbons" of zucchini.  This makes a great layer in lasagna, or they can be  noodle substitutes!  And as always, SAFETY FIRST!! That is my safety glove so I don't cut off my fingers! :)

  

What you could change:

1. You can use any lasagna noodles you like.  I just went with an easy option.
2.  Actually, speaking of noodles, you could use the zucchini "ribbons" as noodles and make a completely gluten free lasagna!
3.  Add different/more veggies or cheese.

Now is the time to be creative!  I would love to hear any of your successful lasagna recipes!