GLUTEN FREE LASAGNE

There is nothing quite like sitting down in the midst of Winter with a nice glass of red and tucking into a delicious hearty Lasagne. The old Brooke (pre gluten intolerance and on a mission to put on weight days) used to, without fail, order the creamiest most glutinous Carbonara for dinner whenever it was on a menu. Lasagne, however actually was never a favourite until the new and reformed Brooke, (sans gluten) where I began experimenting with vegetables to replace pasta sheets along with dairy free sauces made from cashews. Who knew, that with such swaps, it would evoke a new appreciation for a food I would not have looked at before. Now, it’s become a weekly staple where I cook up a batch on the weekend to make a perfect, high protein, low carb option to enjoy right throughout the week.

Ingredients:

Meat sauce

1 garlic clove

500g mince ( Beef, chicken, turkey)

2 tins of chopped tomato

1 handful of basil

Salt, and pepper to taste

Pasta

1 eggplant sliced thinly into “pasta sheets”

1 sweet potato sliced length ways into “pasta sheets”

2 zucchinis sliced length ways into strips

White Sauce

1 block of silken tofu.

½ cup raw cashews (preferably soaked for half hour)

½ tsp nutmeg

1 tbs nutritional yeast flakes

1 tsp wholegrain mustard

Extra nutritional yeast to garnish

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees c.

In a pan fry off 1 garlic clove, and 500g of beef (or your meat of choice) until almost cooked.

Add the tinned tomato, basil, salt and pepper and reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour or until the sauce has reduced.

Place sliced eggplant and sweet potato on a baking tray, spay a light surface of coconut or olive oil and bake for 10 minutes (eggplant) 15 minutes (sweet potato) or until golden brown and soft.

While your meat sauce is cooking and vegetable pasta is baking, it’s time to make the white sauce.

In a high-speed blender (I use a Nutribullet) add the silken tofu, cashews, nutmeg, nutritional yeast and wholegrain mustard. Pulse and blend until smooth and creamy. If you feel the mixture is too thick, add a tbs of water at a time to help blend.

Assemble the Lasagne
Grease a medium sized casserole dish with olive oil
Place a layer of sweet potato slices on the bottom, slightly overlapping edges so it covers the entire dish.
Next spoon the meat mixture, spreading to form an even layer.
Top with a layer of White Sauce
Add a layer of eggplant
Add a layer of meat
Add a layer of white sauce
Add a layer of zucchini
Repeat until you get to the top of the dish. With the final layer It’s best to finish on zucchini with white sauce on top. Sprinkle a generous amount of nutritional yeast on top and place back in the oven for 20 minutes or store in the fridge. Reheat in the oven as per needed.