Food & Wine

Easy vegetarian lasagne recipe

Vegetarian lasagne

Blanche Clark

Posted August 03, 2022

This rich and creamy vegetarian lasagne recipe will satisfy the biggest appetites, and a family of four can enjoy leftovers for lunch the next day.

Lasagne is the ultimate comfort food, and it doesn’t need to be a classic cheesy beef bonanza to be a family favourite. This crowd-pleasing vegetarian lasagne, created by RACV Club Executive Sous Chef Craig Dowling, combines layers of pureed pumpkin with a sauce of ricotta cheese, cream, parmesan cheese and spinach.

“The great thing about this vegetarian lasagne recipe is that even though it’s vegetarian it’s also a very hearty winter dish, so you won’t go hungry,” Dowling says.

The origin of lasagne is said to be Emilia Romagna or Naples in Italy but, like traditional Bolognese sauce, there are many versions of lasagne across Italy.

In Australia, anything goes for creating those creamy cheesy lasagne layers. It could be Bolognese with béchamel sauce or spinach with ricotta. Whatever the ingredients, most experts agree that you need at least three layers of pasta sheets for the dish to qualify as a lasagne.

Dowling recommends a baking dish about 30cm x 24cm x 5cm for this vegetarian lasagne recipe. “Lasagne is one of those dishes that you can’t really make in small batches,” he says. “This recipe would potentially feed 6-8 people quite easily.”

The cream is mixed with the ricotta to make a “ricotta sauce” instead of a bechamel-style sauce. “This will keep the moisture in the dish, and help the dry pasta sheets to cook,” Dowling explains. “Covering the lasagne with foil during the cooking process also helps prevent the pasta sheets drying out.”

Dry pasta sheets are easily accessible, cheap to use and very user friendly. “You could go for the more extravagant option and use fresh pasta sheets, if you want to,” Dowling says.

Serve this vegetarian lasagne with roasted broccoli, asparagus, zucchini or cauliflower in winter and green salad in summer, for an easy and healthy meal. 

Vegetarian lasagne

Making a large batch of vegetarian lasagne means there's often leftovers for lunch the next day. Image: Getty.

 

Pumpkin, spinach and ricotta vegetarian lasagne recipe

Serves

6-8

Time to make

90 min

Difficulty

Moderate

Ingredients

  • 1.2kg spinach
  • 2 litres thickened cream
  • 1.6kg ricotta cheese
  • 180g parmesan cheese shredded
  • 1.12kg dry lasagne sheets
  • 1.6kg peeled and chopped pumpkin
  • 550g shredded mozzarella
  • salt to taste

Method

  1. Pre-heat an oven to 170°C fan-forced or 190°C conventional oven (moderately hot).
  2. In a large pot, place the pumpkin and boil until soft. Once cooked, drain the water and puree the pumpkin. Season to taste.
  3. In a separate pot, bring salted water to the boil. Once the water is boiling, add the spinach and blanch for 30 seconds. Remove the spinach and refresh in iced water to stop the cooking process. It is best to do this in 2 or 3 batches.
  4. Drain the spinach from the iced water and squeeze out the remaining water, then set aside.
  5. In a bowl, combine the ricotta, cream, parmesan and spinach, and mix until all ingredients are combined. Season to taste.
  6. In an oven proof tray, cover the bottom of the tray with sheets of lasagne. Spread a thin layer of pumpkin puree over the lasagne sheets. Then spread a thin layer of ricotta mix over the pumpkin, then sprinkle with the shredded cheese.
  7. Continue the same layering process until you reach the top of the tray. The last layer should be the ricotta mix and cheese.
  8. Lay a sheet of greaseproof paper over the lasagne and then cover with aluminium foil
  9. Place the lasagne in the oven and cook for 45 minutes.
  10. With 5 minutes to go remove the aluminium foil and greaseproof, and continue to cook, colouring the top of the lasagne.
  11. Once cooked, remove from the oven and it’s ready to serve.

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