Recipe Vegetable Lasagne

SatNavSaysStraightOn

SatNavSaysStraightOn

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This is my grannie's recipe for vegetable lasagne. As a word of warning it is one of those that includes few quantities.... on the bright side of things she has included a rough idea on cooking time, which is unusual for my (late) Grannie.

I find 3 medium carrots, 2 onions, 3 or 4 sticks of celery, 2 tins of chopped tomatoes and around 1.5pts of cheese sauce serves around 6 with when put with something else and 4 if you just have it by itself. But, it is one of those that you can chop & change and make as healthy or unhealthy as you want it to be. Less cheese sauce or make the cheese sauce with soya milk will reduce the saturated fat content, but the teaspoon of sugar is essential as is the tomato puree.

A good tasty (really strong cheddar) is also essential. Our family prefer to use Tickler which has a good tangy taste. I also add 1tsp of Coleman's mustard powder to the cheese sauce and find it takes between 40-60 mins in the oven.

Grannie's Vegetable Lasagne - smaller.jpg
 
Sounds good. I used to make vegetable lasagne a lot when the kids were at home, as my daughter was vegetarian, but the rest of the family wasn't. They'd all eat the veggie lasagne, though, as it was just as tasty as the meat one.

One word of advice I'd offer though is not to use too many watery vegetables. For example, you could add some aubergine or courgette to make it more 'Mediterranean' in style, but if you added both, the filling would be rather slack. My friend found this out a couple of weeks ago when she made a veggie lasagne. It tasted great, but it was very watery. I suggested she strained off some of the juice and used it as the base for a soup. She did, and it was great, but next time she'll be more careful.
 
My mother in law still makes me a lentil lasagne even though I've not been veggie for years. As I dont make it at home I always look forward to it when we visit (live 300 miles apart) Just replace the mince with red lentils. :)
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
This is my grannie's recipe for vegetable lasagne. As a word of warning it is one of those that includes few quantities.... on the bright side of things she has included a rough idea on cooking time, which is unusual for my (late) Grannie.

I find 3 medium carrots, 2 onions, 3 or 4 sticks of celery, 2 tins of chopped tomatoes and around 1.5pts of cheese sauce serves around 6 with when put with something else and 4 if you just have it by itself. But, it is one of those that you can chop & change and make as healthy or unhealthy as you want it to be. Less cheese sauce or make the cheese sauce with soya milk will reduce the saturated fat content, but the teaspoon of sugar is essential as is the tomato puree.

A good tasty (really strong cheddar) is also essential. Our family prefer to use Tickler which has a good tangy taste. I also add 1tsp of Coleman's mustard powder to the cheese sauce and find it takes between 40-60 mins in the oven.

View attachment 41
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I also cook vegetable lasagne but usually include beans or lentils to provide body to the sauce. This recipe is dependent on celery, onion, carrots and tinned tomatoes alone for the bolognese, which surprised me somewhat. I will cook it up, photograph and report back. Probably later next week..... :happy:
 
Yo will have to trust me, it only needs onion, celery and carrot. Plus obviously the tomato sauce and then the separate cheese sauce.
My Grannie would serve it with green veg (or cauli) for me and then add something like some meat to the veg and the lasagne for others. Over the years, my OH and I have just eaten that. If you think about it, cheese is full of protein and fat, as is the milk. Lasagne & flour are the carbs and carrots, celery and onion plus tomatoes give a pretty good range of vitamins and minerals. Sometimes we would add green lasagne sheets as well, but we found it was fine as is as a main meal! After all you don't need to get everything in in the way of vits, minerals, fat, carbs & protein every single day provided it averages out over the course of a few days and we found it more than filling enough.
 
I agree. I was thinking more about the 'body' of the sauce in terms of texture and mouth feel. But its interesting that your gran served it up with something on the side.... perhaps that is what I sensed was missing. :)
 
morning glory said:
Isn't it just so beautiful to see that handwriting!? Its a dimension that's missing here. By 'here' I mean on-line in general.
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Both my Grannie and Mamgu (Welsh for Great grannie) had the most wonderful handwriting. I do know exactly what you mean and it is one of the reasons that I uploaded her handwritten recipe (I still have the originals and her recipe books).
 
I'm in the middle of making this recipe. I was surprised at cooking the carrots in the tomatoes as from my experience they take forever to cook that way - I diced them really rather small. They've been simmering now for 40 minutes (gran's recipe says 10 mins, I think) and they are certainly not cooked - unless of course the aim is to get crunchy carrots! I do realise that they will get further cooking in the oven but I'm not convinced that I should be assembling the dish when they are this crunchy.
 
morning glory said:
I'm in the middle of making this recipe. I was surprised at cooking the carrots in the tomatoes as from my experience they take forever to cook that way - I diced them really rather small. They've been simmering now for 40 minutes (gran's recipe says 10 mins, I think) and they are certainly not cooked - unless of course the aim is to get crunchy carrots! I do realise that they will get further cooking in the oven but I'm not convinced that I should be assembling the dish when they are this crunchy.
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How long will it bake and how old are the carrots?
 
Personally, I tend to make lasagne (whether meat or vegetarian) by cooking the tomato/meat/veg/lentil mix first until its done, Then assemble and heat everything through in oven for approx. 25 mins.
 
It's simmer for 15 mins and cook in the oven for an hour. No meat it is not necessary and not vegetarian. (my grannie's handwriting is not that clear). I promise they are cooked when I make it.

I'm now on GMT+11 btw. So it's 5:45am here.
 
Are you saying that carrots diced to 7mm cook through in 15 mins when simmered with a tin of tomatoes? This is not the case. If you mean that the carrots will be cooked through after baking, then I'll find out tomorrow!

Not sure what you mean by 'no meat it is necessary and not vegetarian'. Of course no meat is necessary as it is a vegetarian recipe. I was giving examples of the various ingredients I use to make lasagne: with meat or lentils, or just veg or combinations of them all.
 
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