Cookbook challenge: Lasagne

Back when I was only vegetarian, and Chadwiko and I had just moved in together, he gave me a homestyle vegetarian cookbook that he’d picked up solely so that I could make him the lasagne in it. With ricotta, a lot of basil, a thick bechamel sauce and pine nuts, it became a quick favourite and weekend staple in our house. I’ve since made a vegan version of that recipe several times with great success, and although we love it, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try the spinach lasagne in Yellow Rose Recipes.

Spinach lasagne

This was quite similar to my usual recipe, but with a few differences including the use of vegan mozzarella (a perfect excuse to use up the Sheese in my fridge). As it’s written, this recipe doesn’t include a bechamel sauce, but since that’s always my favourite part, I decided to make the Yellow Rose Recipes bechamel and spread it on top before cooking. Containing a quarter cup of minced shallots, it’s a very different bechamel to my usual- which took some getting used to, but wasn’t bad at all.

The stand out component here, though, is the vegan parmesan. It took all of two minutes to make, and tastes better than any pre-made parmesan I’ve tried before. Best of all, it made a generous couple of cups worth. I’ll be making a lot of pasta over the next few weeks, just so I have an excuse to sprinkle this on top of every meal.

As is tradition in the Wiko house, we served this with our favourite roasted garlic bread.

Roasted garlic bread

Sometimes I think that we only make lasagne so that we have an excuse to eat this bread. Here’s the recipe, adapted from Taste.com.au.

Roasted garlic bread

You’ll need:

  • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, divided
  • 7g sachet dried yeast
  • 1 tbsp caster sugar
  • 3 tbsp chopped fresh chives
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1 cup warm water
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 bulb garlic
  • 1 tbsp non-dairy milk
  • Course sea salt to taste
  • Olive oil and balsamic vinegar to serve

Preheat oven to 200°C. Sift 2 cups flour into a bowl. Stir in yeast, sugar, chives and salt. Make a well in the centre. Add water and oil. Mix to form a soft dough. Turn out on to a lightly floured surface. Add remaining flour and knead for 5 minutes or until smooth. Shape dough into a 10cm x 25cm oval. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap or a tea towel, and set aside in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Meanwhile, wrap garlic in foil. Place wrapped garlic onto oven shelf. Roast for 30 minutes or until tender. Set aside to cool. Remove garlic cloves from skins, discarding skins. Reduce oven temperature to 180°C.

Press fingertips into dough to form indentations. Push garlic cloves into the indentations. Brush top with non-dairy milk and sprinkle with course sea salt. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve warm with good quality olive oil (we like Cobram Estate) and balsamic vinegar for dipping.

Enjoy, and try not to fill up before the lasagne is ready.

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1 comment

  1. Jojo March 14, 2011 at 4:01 am Reply

    Your food porn on the PPK always makes me hungry! I’m bookmarking your blog!

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