This recipe is not one for the faint-hearted. It involves a fair amount of preparation and piecing together but trust me, the fruits of your labour will be well worth it. This vegetable lasagne is a fairly figure-friendly comfort food, for vegetarians and meat-eaters alike.
• 600g capsicum (about 3 medium ones—green are best value for money at the moment)
• 600g of thinly-sliced eggplant, cover with about 2 tablespoons salt
• 250g of mushroom, thinly sliced
• 600g of kumara, thinly sliced
• 700g pasta sauce (store-bought or make your own from canned tomato, mixed herbs and garlic)
• 1 box of instant lasagne sheets (or, if you really like, use fresh ones)
• 150g of feta/ricotta
• 1 tablespoon of parmesan (or whatever cheese you fancy)
• 40g butter or margarine
• ¼ cup flour
• 1 ½ cups milk
• 2 more tablespoons of parmesan
Preheat your oven to 240 degrees Celsius (this is pretty darn hot). Quarter your capsicums, remove seeds and lay them skin side up on a baking paper covered tray and pop in the oven. The skin will blacken and come away from the capsicum, remove from oven, let cool and then remove the skins. Reduce oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Rinse salt off eggplant, pat dry and lay eggplant and kumara flat on a baking paper covered tray. Roast for 20 minutes or until tender. Sautee mushrooms in a pan until softened.
Make a white sauce by melting the butter/margarine in a pan, stir in the flour for a minute or two, and then gradually add the milk. Keep stirring until it thickens. Remove from heat and stir in cheese.
You are going to want one big baking dish, or two smaller ones. Spread about a cup of pasta sauce in the bottom of the dish and layer your ingredients. I like to go half of each eggplant, capsicum, mushroom, kumara, lasagne sheet, feta, more pasta sauce and then do it all again. Finish with a layer of lasagne sheet, white sauce and cheese on top! Bake for about an hour, or until bubbling and browned.
It is easy to swap vegetables for something different, some spinach, zucchini or pumpkin would go nicely, or a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds on top. *