Vegan Lasagne

Phoebe Conway is a 27 year-old nutritionist and food stylist/photographer from Adelaide. Follow her Instagram here: @pheebsfoods

"As a child whenever I would go out to dinner with my family, I would ALWAYS order the lasagne, it also one of the first recipes my mum even taught me to cook! And let me tell you, this vegan lasagne is delicious enough that even the biggest meat eater will enjoy it!"

"I used Califia Farms Unsweetened Almond Milk to make the cheesy bechamel sauce and it just works so well! I hope you guys try and love this recipe as much as I do! One thing to note, this makes a nice big lasagne and it freezes really well so an fantastic recipe to make that will feed you for at least a few meals!"

Serves 8 – 12

Ingredients:

Bechamel Sauce

1 ½ cups raw cashews
1 cup Califia Farms Unsweetened almond milk
½ tsp garlic powder
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp Italian herbs
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
Big pinch of salt and pepper

Filling

400g pumpkin thinly sliced
½ cup vegetable stock
1 onion diced
1 jar passata
1 carrot diced
1 tin brown lentils *drained and rinsed

1 stalk of celery diced
½ tsp chilli flakes
3 garlic cloves crushed
1 tsp Italian herbs
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sugar
¼ cup red wine *optional
Salt and pepper
Fresh Basil
1 packet dried lasagne sheets*

*I used gluten free but feel free to use any you prefer.

Method:
1. Soak the cashews in enough boiling water to cover them and leave for 15 minutes. 2. Pre heat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius and line and baking tray with paper
3. Place the pumpkin slices onto the tray, drizzle with some olive oil and season with salt and pepper, bake for 20 minutes or until just tender
4. To make the bechamel sauce, place all ingredients including the soaked and drained cashews into a blender and blend until smooth, set aside.
5. Heat a large pan over a medium heat and add the olive oil
6. Fry off the onion, carrot and celery for 5 minutes or until softened, stirring often
7. Add in the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds
8. Add the wine if using and allow to simmer for another minute or so before adding in the stock, passata, lentils, herbs and seasonings. Stir well then bring to a boil before reducing to a simmer
9. Allow the sauce to simmer for 20 minutes until thickened slightly, stirring occasionally
10. Once the sauce has thickened you can assemble the lasagne
11. Start with a small amount of the sauce on the base of your lasagne dish then layer some of the sheets, top with more sauce and a drizzle of bechamel. For the second layer add sauce and then your pumpkin slices, then continue with layers like the first until you've used up all your sauce. Make sure you keep enough bechamel for the top of the lasagne.
12. Feel free to sprinkle the top with extra Italian herbs or even some vegan parmesan cheese. 13. Bake the lasagne for 45 minutes on 200 degrees Celsius or until the lasagne sheets are cooked through, if it begins to brown too quickly cover with alfoil
14. Serve straight away with fresh basil leaves on top and a green salad, any leftovers freeze well too!

For more details on Califia Farms visit: califiafarms.com.au or head to @califiafarmau