I’ve always thought of lasagna as the meal of choice for the time-strapped and weary: filling, adaptable, and delicious comfort food that freezes beautifully – it was the obvious choice for my freezer meal. Off the bat, there’s something you need to know about this lasagna: it contains a tofu (!) ricotta that’s so delicious, you might cry tears of joy. If there’s a better vegan ricotta out there, I haven’t met it. Big claims, I know, but once you make this, you’ll see what I’m talking about.
If you don’t have an entire Sunday afternoon to devote to making this lasagna, you can roast the vegetables and make the tofu ricotta a day or two in advance. That way, once you’re ready to cook, all the work that’s left to do is a little assembly and pre-heating the oven. I’m all about keeping things as painless as possible here.
The assembly takes all of ten minutes, max. It’s really just a matter of creating alternate layers of lasagna noodles, tofu ricotta, roasted eggplant/zucchini, and marinara sauce. Once it’s done, cover it up tightly with foil and pop it in the oven. Since it takes about 40 minutes to cook, you’ll have plenty of time to make a crisp green salad and some garlic bread to go with.
Once it’s out of the oven, this lasagna will amaze you with its deliciousness, a feat I previously thought impossible without the use of fresh mozzarella and “real” ricotta. Hopefully it’ll make a believer out of you, too – let me know what you think!
Recipe: Zucchini & Eggplant Lasagna
Ingredients
1 large eggplant
1 large zucchini
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon white miso
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup flat leaf parsley leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1 14 oz. container firm tofu
1 package no-boil lasagna noodles
4 cups marinara sauce
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
¼ cup fresh basil, thinly sliced into chiffonade
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
To make the tofu ricotta: place the garlic, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, two teaspoons of olive oil, white miso, parsley, and salt into a food processor and pulse until the parsley and garlic are finely minced and all ingredients are combined. Add the tofu and pulse until the mixture is smooth but with some texture. Put ricotta mixture in a small bowl and set aside.
To make the grilled vegetables: lightly brush each side of the eggplant and zucchini slices with the extra virgin olive oil and place on separate baking dishes lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Season with pepper salt and place in preheated oven. After ten minutes, flip slices of eggplant and zucchini and rotate pans to ensure even cooking. After twenty minutes total, remove zucchini and set aside to cool. Let eggplant continue cooking for an additional 5-10 minutes, and then remove from oven and set aside to cool (eggplant will cook for a total of 25-30 minutes). Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.
In a 9×13 rectangular baking dish, spread ¾ cup of marinara sauce to coat the bottom. Put 3 lasagna noodles on top. Spread ⅓ of the ricotta mixture evenly over the noodles, and then cover with ½ of the roasted eggplant slices. Spread ¾ cup of marinara sauce over the eggplant.
Repeat layering with 3 noodles, ⅓ of ricotta mixture, roasted zucchini slices, ¾ cup of marinara sauce.
Repeat layering with 3 noodles, the final ⅓ of ricotta mixture, the remaining eggplant slices, ¾ cup of marinara sauce.
Complete the lasagna assembly with the last 3 noodles and the remaining marinara sauce. Cover tightly with foil and place in the 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 10 minutes.
Remove lasagna from oven and garnish with basil chiffonade. Serve hot.