Cheezy Nut Roast Lasagne

Lasagne is one of those things I haven't been happy with in either the vegetarian nor vegan varieties that I have tried. No recipe has been anywhere near as good as the one I used to make back in my carnivorous days which comprised a rich meaty tomato based sauce along with a cheesy creamy bechamel. Apart from the recipe trialled from Appetite for Reduction a few weeks ago, lasagne is something I have shied away from making for quite some time as it hasn't seemed worth the effort.

Whilst in the process of veganising a nut roast recipe for Johanna's nut roast round-up, I was faced with left over nut roasts a number of times that were quite handy to stuff into sandwiches for a quick lunch. After the final nut roast was made to a satisfactory standard, I stashed away the remnants in the freezer so they could be incorporated into a different meal at a later date. Johanna has provided so many uses for nut roast left-overs on her blog from stuffed peppers to chow mein which inspired me to put the remainder of the last nut roast to a more interesting use.

After pondering different ideas, I settled upon making a nut roast lasagne. Thoughts about what to put in the tomato-nut roast sauce were already formulating in my mind and rather pairing this with a bechamel sauce, I decided to go with something a little different - a variation of the Easy Cheezy Breezy sauce from Appetite for Reduction. I loved this sauce the moment I tried it and have incorporated it (and made a few small tweaks depending on the use) into a few other meals in the last few weeks.

Lasagne sheets are incredibly easy to make with a pasta machine and taste so much better than the store-bought kind so I threw together a quick pasta dough including some wholemeal flour.

My gut feeling was that this lasagne was going to work and taste great, however I wasn't prepared for the reactions of the rest of the house. They totally LOVED it and it was given 10/10!!! The nut roast gave the lasagne an incredibly hearty (dare I say it, almost meaty) flavour and was without a doubt the best vegie lasagne we have tried. I think there is still a bit of room for improvement, the dried oregano wasn't really necessary and the quantity of the cheezy sauce could have been increased a little.

Ahh nut roast. You have been the bearer of some lovely roast meals but who would have thought you could restore my faith in vegie lasagne...

Nut Roast Lasagne

Pasta dough

1 cup unbleached plain flour

1/2 cup wholemeal plain flour

1/2 cup water

Tomato-nut roast sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
1 large tomato, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
400ml tomato passata
100ml water (to rinse out passata jar)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 teaspoons vegan basil pesto
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 quantity Mrs Myrtleberry's nut roast
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste

Cheezy sauce

2/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/3 cup unbleached plain flour
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon Massel vegetable stock powder
2 cups water
1 teaspoon dijon mustard

Remaining ingredients

75g baby spinach leaves, shredded
cornflake crumbs, for topping

Preheat oven to 200C.

Mix the plain flour and wholemeal flour together in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the water. Work in the flour from the sides until a dough is formed. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes until a soft pliable dough is formed. Place into a lightly oiled bowl and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Fry the onion for about 5 minutes until softened then stir through the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the diced tomato and cook for a couple of minutes until it begins to break down. Add the carrots, tomato passata, water, tomato paste, pesto and oregano, bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer, covered for about 10 minutes until the carrots begin to soften. Stir through the crumbled nut roast and cook for 5 more minutes then add the parsley and season with salt and pepper.

Place nutritional yeast, flour, onion powder, garlic powder and vegetable stock powder in a saucepan and mix to combine. Add the water 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well to ensure that no lumps form. Heat the sauce over medium, stirring constantly until it comes to the boil and has thickened. Remove from the heat. Stir through dijon mustard.

Divide the pasta dough into 4 equal pieces. Roll out the dough into sheets with a pasta machine or with a rolling pin.

In a large rectangular baking dish, spread about 1/4 of the cheezy sauce on the bottom then place a layer of lasagne sheets on top. Spread 1/3 of the tomato-nut roast sauce on the lasagne sheets, then 1/4 of the cheezy sauce. Repeat this layering with the shredded spinach added before the next addition of tomato-nut roast sauce. For the top layer, spread the final third of the tomato-nut roast sauce and the last quarter of the cheezy sauce then sprinkle cornflake crumbs or fresh bread crumbs for the topping.

Cover with foil and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 15-20 minutes until browned slightly.