Butternut Lasagne

Winter’s here, and eating comfort food is always high on my list when the temperature drops. I haven’t tried a lot of vegan cheeses, but the range in NZ is steadily growing and what’s on offer is pretty impressive. 

To celebrate vegan cheese month (The Vegan Society’s initiative for July), we are sharing this delicious plant-based recipe from “I Am Co”: the cheese is made from cashews, nutritional yeast and lemon, yum!

Pumpkin season is here so why not embrace it with this beautiful, vegan friendly Butternut Lasagne.  Many of the elements of this dish can be made ahead making Meatless Mondays even easier.  To quicken the cooking, you can even par-cook the lasagne sheets.  

Butternut Lasagne

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups cashews soaked in water for 2 hours

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups spinach, roughly chopped

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 cups butternut, peeled and diced

2 Tbsp tomato paste

1/2 tsp nutmeg

3 garlic cloves, peeled

1/4 cup almond milk

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 pack pasta sheets (we used Explore Organic Green Lentil Lasagne Sheets)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 deg C.  Place the diced pumpkin on a oven tray and drizzle with the olive oil.  Bake for 25 min or until tender when pierced with a knife.  Allow to cool slightly.

Place 1 cup of the soaked cashews into a blender along with the roasted butternut, tomato paste, nutmeg, garlic and almond milk.  Blitz until a smooth consistency.  Taste to check seasoning adding salt & pepper as required.

Clean & dry the blender to make the cashew cheese.  Place 3/4 cup of the soaked cashews into the blender with the lemon juice, nutritional yeast & salt.  Add some water to loosen the mix if necessary.  You want almost a pouring consistency.  Taste and season.  Mix in the chopped spinach.

Lightly grease an ovenproof dish and smear a few tablespoons of the pumpkin mix on the base.  Arrange lasagne sheets on top then layer with 1/3 of the pumpkin and half of the cashew cheese.  Repeat, finishing with another layer of lasagne sheets, the last of the pumpkin and sprinkle with pumpkin seeds.

Bake for 30min or until it’s soft when pierced with a knife.  Last thing you want is undercooked pasta sheets!