Vegetable Lasagne

In a bid to to up the amount of vegetables we eat as a family, a few weeks ago I thought I would try out something new for our dinners as a family - to have a vegetable based meal for our dinner at least 3 times a week. It hasn't been easy let me tell you but we are managing to stick to it.

One dish that I have made that even the kids devoured was vegetable lasagne. As a family we have always stuck to the classical meat lasagne and as of yet I haven't even attempted a moussaka due to both my kids not being so keen on aubergines but after them loving this, moussaka is on the to do list.


To make my vegetable lasagne for a family of 4 you will need:

1 red onion
2 aubergines
2 bell peppers (I used 1 red and 1 yellow)
4 cloves of garlic cloves crushed or 1 tbsp garlic paste
2 courgettes
500g chopped mushrooms
small bunch of basil
2 cans chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
a generous handful of cheddar cheese
40g Italian hard cheese
2 tsp sugar
7-8 lasagne sheets (I used fresh sheets for speed and ease of cutting them to fit my dish)
1 batch of my cheese sauce 

• Start by preparing your vegetables. Wash as required and chop the courgette, aubergine into small chunks. Slice the bell peppers and the red onion.
• Heat a large heavy based pan with a drizzle of olive oil and add in the garlic cloves/paste. Cook the garlic till just coloured and softened, and add in all your vegetables with a large pinch of salt.
• Cook the vegetables on a medium heat, stirring intermittently until they start to brown and slightly caramelise
• Whilst the vegetables are cooking, make up a batch of my cheese sauce. You can find the recipe here
• Once the vegetables have cooked, add the tomato paste, sugar, chopped tomatoes and about 180ml-200ml of water. Simmer the vegetables on a medium heat until you have a slightly thickened but not dry mixture. Chop up half of the bunch of basil, add to the vegetables  and stir through.
• Now to layer up the lasagne. Start with a layer of the vegetables at the bottom of an oven proof dish. Pour a little of the cheese sauce to just cover the vegetables. Cover this layer with the lasagne sheets- each of my layers took 3 fresh sheets.
• Repeat this process until the last layer is lasagne sheets. Pour the cheese sauce over the top, ensuring the whole top layer is covered. Sprinkle the top with the cheddar cheese and Italian hard cheese and bake in a preheated oven 200c (fan) for 35-40 minutes or until the cheese layer has melted and is golden brown 
• Just before serving, chop up the remaining basil and scatter over the top of the lasagne and serve.