Cheesy Lasagna
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 ounces carrots, sliced and steamed
1/4 cup canned low-sodium vegetable broth
16 ounces herbed tofu
8 ounces vegan cream cheese
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup nutritional yeast, optional
12 lasagna noodles, cooked
2 to 3 (15 ounce) cans tomato sauce
1 (16 ounce) bag spinach leaves
2 to 3 (14 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Add olive oil to a large skillet, place over medium-high heat until hot. Add parsley and garlic, saute for 1 minute. Add carrots and veggie broth; simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.
2. Add herbed tofu, vegan cream cheese, and lemon juice; stir well. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until the vegan cream cheese starts to melt. Stir in nutmeg. Add nutritional yeast if you'd like it a little bit more cheesy! Remove from heat; keep warm.
3. Place 3 lasagna noodles in bottom of an 11" x 7" baking dish. Spread tofu mixture over top, place 3 noodles on top of that, and spread tomato sauce and spinach on top of those. Repeat process until all noodles are used up. Top with spaghetti sauce.
4. Cover and bake for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 20 to 30 minutes until it is thoroughly heated. Usually a lasagna takes about 45 minutes to cook thoroughly.
This is the best lasagna I have ever made or had, or non-vegan... it is superb... your non-vegan friends will be wowed!
SO HOW'D IT GO?
Awesome picture Kylissa!! It makes me want to eat the screen. :P
This lasagna was the best I've eaten and I come from an Italian family! The cream cheese/tofu/nut yeast mixture was SUPERB.
I made some additions to the recipe, a small amount of chopped Tofurky italian sausage (added it along with the tofu), and a bit of grated FYH mont jack cheese on top. If you have these lying around all the time like I do I hightly recommend those additions. Like above posters suggested I froze/thawed the tofu and the texture was almost -too- much like ricotta, perfect! I halved the recipe, used only about 1/2 of a bottle of spag sauce (I <3 Bertolli's burgundy wine marinara) and no regular tomato sauce. Anyway, it tastes even better than it looks and it's beautiful, I converted two tofu haters with this.
Tip- make sure to put sauce on the bottom layer of pasta if you're leaving it uncooked, it needs the extra moisture.
Thanks SO much for this recipe.
This is my first review - this recipe is THAT good! :) I have made it twice - the first time, pretty much exactly as the recipe stated except I used one 28-oz can of tomato sauce and one 14-oz can of Italian diced tomatoes (drained) - no spaghetti sauce. I found that the lasagna tasted absolutely delicious, but the spinach released a ton of water after it cooked, and the dish was swimming in water. The second time I made it, I used a 10-oz bag of frozen spinach (defrosted and squeezed well). I also added 2 small roasted zucchinis (sliced into 1/4 in rounds) and 1 medium roasted eggplant (sliced into rounds). I made the second one for Christmas Eve dinner with my omni family and everyone loved it and never suspected it was vegan. If they knew they were eating tofu, they wouldn't have touched it!! ::)
WOW! I was skeptical because the last vegan lasagna recipe I got was awful, but this was REALLY GOOD! This is one of the best lasagna's I've ever had, even before I went vegan!
What I did differently was puree the spinach with one ripe tomato in a food processor, and I did add the nutritional yeast that is called for as optional on the recipe. I also chopped the carrots really well in the food processor and boiled instead of steamed.
I also didn't have herbed tofu so I used regular soft and added basil and italian seasonings.
This recipe is AWESOME!!! I did half "meat" (Yves' The Good Ground), half veggie (carrot and zucchini) lasagna, and I topped the whole thing off with grated Follow Your Heart vegan cheese, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly, and it was sooooooo delicious. The faux ricotta aspect in particular was AMAZING. Still enjoying the leftovers. Thanks!
I made this recipe tonight and it was great! I only used enough spinach to create a single layer on top of a couple of the layers of noodles, and I also added sliced portabello mushrooms to the spinach layer. I didn't have herbed tofu, but I mashed regular tofu up in a bowl with dried basil, dried oregano, salt, pepper and garlic powder. It turned out wonderfully! I was so excited to give a couple pieces to my sister that I drove to her place to drop it off right after I finished eating! Yum yum yum!!!
My family absolutely loved this recipe!! The first bite my dad took, he was like "this is really good!" I used mushrooms instead of spinach, just out of convenience, and used grated tempeh instead of tofu. And put a little shredded cheese on top.
So yummy! :)
I was pleasantly surprised by how good this was. Since I generally cook just for myself I cut the recipe down by 1/3. Worked out fine, but I wish I made more of the cheesy stuff. I added extra spinach and forgot the lemon juice. Also, I didn't pre-cook the noodles, I just baked it for about an hour instead of 45 minutes. I'll be making this a lot.
i was wondering if the cream cheese is a must.. do you think it will still be good without it?
Fantastic lasagna! I've made this several times. This time, I made half veggie style and half "meat" style. For the veggie side, I layered in sauteed garlic, onion, broccoli, zucchini, and carrots. For the "meat" side, I layered in Morningstar soy crumbles (I prefer other meat substitutes, but this is what I had access to at the time.). I skipped the spinach this time, and I also didn't use any tomato sauce (just used almost 2 jars of organic tomato basil pasta sauce). I never have herbed tofu, so I just added in some Italian spices. I always use the nutritional yeast to add more flavor to the tofu mixture. I put a layer of Follow Your Heart vegan mozzarella on top. I baked this, covered, at 350 F for 1 hour (I don't cook the noodles beforehand; just layer them in uncooked, as it's much easier.) Once out of the oven, I garnished the top with fresh parsley.
Pages