Vegan Lasagna

Vegan options are a nice change of pace. I feel like there are often two extremes when it comes to food, as with most things. Some people are full-blown preachy vegans, selling the idea to anyone who will listen. Others are adamantly bacon-obsessed meat-eaters. I stand in the middle of the road.

I love a good burger (I'd qualify myself as a hamburger connoisseur), but after some visits to Portland and Austin in recent years, I got to try some legitimately amazing vegan food, including the absolute best sausage I've ever had in my life which was composed of beets and lentils. I know that sounds utterly insane, but I swear to you, I was not high when I enjoyed this little piece of heaven. For anyone interested in conquering this amazing dish as well, it was at the 24 diner in Austin. BEST Eggs Benedict I've ever had.

I'd enjoyed some vegan foods before, but those locations, with all their hipster greatness, showed me new ways to season and use vegan options and made me appreciate it even more. This particular recipe is one my sister told me about a few years ago when she was experimenting with more vegan food. She had mentioned a lasagna with hummus and I was intrigued but never got around to making it. At long last, it was time. I mean, hummus in a lasagna? I didn't know what to think. But boy do I love hummus.

Some of the pro-meat folks tend to ask, "Why tofu?" or, "If I can just use meat, why would I eat this?" Other than being experimental in my food interests, I actually like tofu because it's dang easy to work with. It keeps in the fridge longer than meat does in an uncooked form, so for busy weeks, I can just grab it for cooking. In addition, I like meat and the health benefits it provides for me, but I do not feel the need to eat it every day. It's a small opportunity to cut back on my meat consumption, which for an animal advocate, is a good thing. Oh, and it's way cheaper than meat (especially if you are getting higher quality, grass fed meat). $2.50 for the protein in my dish isn't bad.

As with every lasagna, you need a cheese filling. My typical go-to is ricotta, but I've had lasagna with cream cheese and sour cream involved, too. In this case, I pressed tofu under a bag of flour between some towel layers to squeeze the liquid out. I then crumbled it kind of like feta cheese and mixed in hummus and nutritional yeast (alternatively, you could use grated Parmesan if not vegan, as I've read the flavor is similar). I also mixed in some fresh herbs and a little crushed red pepper.

A little note about pressing: I don't always do it, but the more time goes on the more I've gotten into it. Sometimes I cook the tofu longer to dry it out, but I've found that it holds up better after pressing. And frankly, it's really easy to do. I usually get a plate, put a few paper towels under the tofu block, then top that with some more paper towels, a regular towel, and a mildly heavy object for 15-30 minutes, depending on what kind of a hurry I'm in. Makes it dense and easy to cut or crumble.

You can use any veggies in the lasagna, and I went with carrots, mushrooms, some chopped green pepper and onion, sauteed for a few minutes to soften them slightly.

I used oven-ready pasta, so I spread some sauce in the bottom of large pan and laid down a layer of lasagna noodles. I spread filling over it, then topped it with sauce and repeated it for a total of 3 layers. The top was a layer of noodles, some more sauce, and a sprinkling of a little more nutritional yeast. 

I let it bake for about 45 minutes and would you look at this little dairy and meat free piece of goodness?

One of the interesting things I learned while making this is that a lot of store-bought, dried noodles are egg-free, making it easy to make vegan dishes if you choose that route. As someone who likes to eat tofu and try vegan food for reasons other than a strict diet, I can be more lenient, however in some cases I like to try a recipe completely legitimately as intended or in one style - in this case, fully vegan.

This lasagna turned out really good. I was impressed at how ricotta-like the filling appeared! I also used a really good sauce - for half the sauce, I just used a large can of pureed tomatoes (I had put seasoning in the filling already), but for the other half used a premium brand I recently stumbled upon and fight delightful. Fresh out of the oven, I found it to be pretty good, but not quite as good as my regular lasagna. Then I tried it again reheated the next day.

You know it is with noodles. Let 'em sit overnight in some sauce and bam! They soak up all that flavor. That's what happened here. Day two vegan lasagna = 5 stars. Fantastic Delicious. I loved it! There was just so much flavor and tofu is hearty enough to make this a filling dish. Even if you don't think you like vegan food or tofu, I'd say this is a great one to try. If not brave enough to make an entire 9x13 dish, scale it down! Make a little one! But worthy of a shot for sure.

Vegan Lasagna Recipe

Ingredients:

2 packages tofu

1 cup hummus

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon powdered garlic

2 tablespoons fresh basil

1 tablespoon fresh parsley

2 teaspoons crushed red pepper

12-16 lasagna noodles

3-4 cups tomato sauce (about 2 jars)

1/2 cup chopped carrots

1 cup fresh sliced mushrooms

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped green pepper

2 teaspoons minced garlic

Instructions:

Press tofu for 15-20 minutes to remove water. If using standard noodles, boil noodles according to package directions. Saute vegetables in a skillet for about 5 minutes in 1-2 tablespoons of cooking oil.Crumble tofu in a bowl, then mix in hummus nutritional yeast, powdered garlic, herbs, and crushed red pepper. to make the filling. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F. To make the lasagna, spread some marinara sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan. start with a layer of noodles across the area, then top with the filling. Depending on how many layers you would like, spread either 1/2 or 1/3 of the mixture, then top with sauce. Repeat noodles, filling, and sauce and finish with a top layer of noodles and sauce. Sprinkle 1 additional tablespoon of nutritional yeast over the top if desired. For regular noodles, cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. For oven ready noodles, add 1/2 cup water to the lasagna pan, cover with foil, and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Remove foil for the last 5 minutes of baking to brown top slightly.

adapted from the best vegan lasagna