Lazy Lasagne

This is my first recipe post in 7 months! I have graduated and so have my recipes. As a student I found cooking to be a labour of love and therefore my recipes would be budget friendly but labour intensive. Now I have joined the 9-5 monday-friday crowd, my cooking is more focussed on saving time and energy as opposed to money. Traditional lasagne requires a lot more time on the stove, a separate pan to cook the beschamel and a dish for it to be combined in. The result is a delicious dish but also heaps of washing up and requiring a lot of time. The aim of my lazy lasagne is to be as quick as possible and produce as little mess as possible. As it is only cooked on the stove for a short time it is important that the veg is chopped finely. I prefer to add garlic after the onion is fully cooked as this allows for the flavour to come through more.The assembly process is a tad unorthodox but you’d never be able to tell the difference. Enjoy.

20mins prep, 20mins in the oven. Requires 1 ovenproof pan/pot.

Ingredients

For the mince:

• White onion
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• ½ tsp salt
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped/ crushed
• 1 finely chopped carrot
• 1 finely chopped courgette
• 1 tsp mixed herbs
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 200g vegan mince
• 1 tin of green lentils (drained)
• 1 vegan beef oxo cube
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 tbsp dark soya sauce
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 150ml red wine

For the white sauce:

• 250ml vegan cream (oatly or elmlea)
• 150ml oat milk
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground black pepper

• 6-8 quick cook lasagne sheets (if you can only find regular lasagne sheets add an additional 20mins to cooking time).
• 50g grated vegan applewood cheese.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Chop and fry the onion with vegetable oil and salt in your oven proof pan.
3. Fry the onion until translucent and add your chopped carrot, courgette and garlic, stir in the herbs and smoked paprika. Cook for 2-3 mins and then stir in the vegan mince and lentils. Crumble in the stock cube and then add the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, soya sauce, balsamic vinegar and red wine. Cook for 5 mins.
4. Now make the ‘cheat’ white sauce- combine all ingredients in a jug and whisk but hand for a couple of minutes until there are no lumps.
5. Assemble the lasagne. We are going to layer the lasagne sheets within the same pan. Take the pan off the heat. Push the mince to one side of the pan leaving a thin layer of mince on the other side, cover that half with lasagne sheets (break them up to fit) and a drizzle of white sauce. Push the mince over that side and repeat the process on the other side. Smooth the mince over the lasagne sheet to form one level layer and top with lasagne sheets and cover with all the remaining white sauce.  Sprinkle the applewood cheese over the top.
6. Cook in the oven for 20-25 mins.