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Vegan Lasagna

People can't believe its vegan

By Elizabeth GrantPublished 3 years ago 6 min read
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Vegan Lasagna!

I started my vegan journey a year ago. I liked the idea of veganism on a conceptual level because I saw plenty of PETA videos about factory farming. It made me physically ill to watch little piglets and cows be physically abused just so I could eat meat and dairy products. I knew that ethically it was wrong to eat meat after seeing these videos. Like most people who jump into a vegan lifestyle, I felt overwhelmed because I realized very quickly that veganism requires a commitment to reading labels and researching preservatives. I then ended up down the rabbit hole of forum posts for vegans. For the first 6 months I always felt unsure of myself... my shopping was taking 3 times as long as normal.

One of the hardest things I had to give up was lasagna. I remember my grandmother affectionately calling me Garfield when I was little because I would inhale the stuff. I went from eating lasagna every week to nothing. After about 2 months, I started dreaming of lasagna. I had whole dreams filled with me eating lasagna and stuffing myself so full of food that I would call myself a 'stuffed bell pepper'. I knew I needed to find a vegan recipe that tasted as good as any lasagna my grandmother made.

It took me months of testing meat and cheese alternatives to finally perfect this recipe. This lasagna tastes so good it is sometimes hard to tell it isn't vegan. I've fed it to plenty of non-vegans who actually think its non-vegan. They can't believe how good it tastes.

Ingredients:

6 cloves garlic

2 bell peppers (I prefer green so the sauce can look like the Italian flag... also green bell peppers taste better with tomatoes).

2 28oz cans of crushed tomatoes

2 large yellow onions

6 stalks celery

dried Italian herb mix

dried basil

garlic powder

onion powder

Lawry's season salt

kosher salt

black pepper (please use freshly ground)

16 oz beyond ground

3 packages of violife mozzarella cheese

1 container of violife parmesan cheese (optional)

2 boxes of lasagna noodles

extra virgin olive oil (evoo)

Directions:

1). Mince your garlic cloves. Cut up the onion, bell pepper, and celery into small pieces (make sure you cut them evenly so they cook evenly).

2). Place a large 6 quart stock pot on medium low heat. Open cans of tomatoes and dump into stock pot. Add Kosher salt, pepper, italian herbs and basil until well seasoned. Stir occasionally throughout process so it doesn't burn. Each time you add ingredients into the crushed tomatoes make sure to taste to see if it is becoming too salty (if it is, then add less salt to the other ingredients).

3). Open up the package of beyond ground into a large cold pan. Use a utensil to break up the ground into small pieces. On medium or medium low heat, add season salt, garlic powder, onion powder, Italian herbs, and basil (use a little seasoning so you can taste and adjust once meat is cooked). Stir in seasoning until evenly distributed. Heat meat until hot. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired. Dump into stock pot with tomatoes. Stir the tomatoes and beyond ground until beyond ground is evenly distributed.

4). In same pan you used to cook the beyond ground, add evoo and heat oil on medium to medium low heat. Add in your minced garlic and salt and stir occasionally. You should cook the garlic until it no longer smells pungent. Taste and adjust seasoning. Dump garlic into stock pot. Stir the tomatoes and garlic until garlic is evenly distributed.

5). In the same pan you used to cook the garlic, add evoo and heat oil on medium to medium low heat. Add in your celery and Kosher salt and stir occasionally. you want to cook the celery until it is soft. Once cooked add some black pepper and stir until black pepper is evenly distributed. Taste and adjust seasoning. Then dump the celery into the stock pot. Repeat this with the bell pepper. You want to stir the celery and bell peppers into the tomatoes until they are evenly distributed.

6). In the same pan you used to cook the celery and bell pepper, add evoo and heat oil on medium to medium low heat. Add the onions and kosher salt. Stir occasionally. Cook the onions until they are translucent and slightly caramelized. Add black pepper and stir until the black pepper is evenly distributed. Taste and adjust seasoning. Dump the onions into the stock pot making sure to scrap all the caramelized bits off the bottom of the pan.

7). Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Stir and cook tomato sauce until it is reduced and thick.

8). Take a 8 quart stock pot and fill halfway with water. Add salt to water and taste (it should taste like seawater). Heat water on high until boiling. Add lasagna noodles. Only cook them 2/3 of the way that way they can cook the rest of the way in the oven). Remove them from pot and rinse them with cool water. Drizzle evoo onto noodles and mix them so they are lightly coated so they don't stick together. Allow to cool down so they are cool enough to touch without burning yourself.

9). take deep baking dish and add evoo to the bottom and sides with your fingers. Add a thin layer amount of sauce onto the bottom of the baking dish.

10). Add lasagna noodles to the baking dish. Cover with sauce. Cover sauce with mozzarella cheese (the mozzarella should cover the sauce so you can't see it). Lightly sprinkle parmesan cheese on top of mozzarella (violife parmesan cheese has a slightly tart and sour flavor which becomes more pronounced when heated... it is definitely an acquired taste... if you're not sure you'd like it I would recommend you leave it out or taste before add). Repeat lasagna noodles, sauce, mozzarella and parmesan cheese until you get near the top (you should finish so the cheese is on top). If you have extra noodles, cut the noodles up into long, thin strips and take some sauce and heat them in pan until pasta is al dente.

11). Place in oven for 45- 50 minutes or until cooked through. If cheese is not brown on top I usually broil it. Set oven to broil. Broil for 5-10 minutes so cheese can become golden brown.

12). Remove lasagna from oven and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes so everything can settle.

13). Cut into pieces and serve.

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