I love winter break! I actually have time to make yummy food. This evening’s dish is vegan lasagna. I looked up a few different recipes and kinda did my own thing. Lasagna is fun like that. And is ideal for someone like myself who often strays from standard recipes for one reason or another.

We used a 10.5×7″ stoneware dish, but you could probably go a bit bigger. We reached maximum capacity with ours. And glass works fine, too.

Ingredients:

• handful of fresh basil
• 1 box lasagne noodles
• 12 oz. bag of soy crumbles
• 18 oz jar of marinara sauce (at least)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 C chopped onion (or onion powder)
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced (or garlic powder)
• 1.5 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1/2 block vegan cheddar
• 1/2 block vegan mozzarella
• 1/2 tub firm tofu
• tub of vegan cream cheese
• few squeezes of lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Boil lasagne noodles with a pinch of salt to al dente. Drain and cool.
In skillet, simmer soy crumbles with olive oil, onion, and garlic. Once cooked, add marinara sauce, fresh basil (chopped or whole), and oregano.

In food processor, make “ricotta.” Put tofu, cream cheese, olive oil, and lemon juice. Pulse until mixed. Try to maintain coarser texture.

In dish, layer bottom with noodles, then soy crumbles, then “ricotta”, then grate mozzarella and cheddar on top. Repeat layering process 2-3 more times. Top with oregano. Bake for about 40 minutes. Let sit for 10 minutes or so before serving.

Note: to avoid burning the edges of the noodles, which is easy to do, cover the noodles completely with sauce. Lesson learned.