Tales from a Veggie Kitchen

I have to include this here, as it was so yummy that everyone should try it. Apologies for the weak picture, my dad has yoinked my camera for a while, and my phone doesn't cope well with our bad lighting. It shows the salad nicely though.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4716/creamy-courgette-lasagne

Don't be fooled by the name, there's no actual cream in it. The creaminess comes from ricotta, which I adore, which is stirred in to the courgette mix before assembling the lasagne.

I added a pint of white sauce because I like saucy pasta which added to the creaminess and also increased the moisture content. It also allowed me to get away with using less cheese than I would normally on the top (the recipe is very skimpy on the cheddar, in my opinion). I also added some basic dried mixed herbs to the courgette mix, as I felt the need for a little extra layer of flavour.

I would also recommend that it serves 6 rather than 4 if you add a couple of pieces of garlic bread and a bit of salad each. I served it as 4 with a salad of baby spinach, 2 beetroots and an orange pepper and I was stuffed 2/3 of the way through. Of course I still ate it all, and because there's a large amount of veggies the stuffed feeling wears off pretty quickly.

I must say that this is one of my favourite dishes. If you're not a fan of fake meat then you can't go wrong with this lasagne, especially if you get a good quality tomato sauce.

Another baked pasta favourite. This is the quorn version (I sometimes also have spinach, ricotta and mushroom) and is very simple to make and reasonably good for you.


Quorn Lasagne


Serves a very generous 4

Total time to prepare and cook: around 45 minutes


500g Quorn mince

2 x 450g tins of flavoured tomatoes (i.e. with herbs or garlic in) OR 2 jars of similar-sized ready-made pasta sauce

2 peppers (I used orange and yellow)

Grated cheese enough to sprinkle over the top

Lasagne sheets - I can't say how many as there are so many different sizes and different sizes of baking tins/dishes. I use Waitrose fresh ones, 1 packet.

For the white sauce:

2 pints (1.1L) of milk

4 tbsp flour

1 tsp dried rosemary

Preheat over to 200C


* Make the white sauce as per recipe shown in this blog

* Cook the peppers, mince and tomato sauce mix for 10 minutes over a moderately high heat

* Layer the lasagne sheets with the mince and white sauce in a baking dish, remembering to keep some white sauce spare for the topping

* On top of the last layer of pasta, pour a good amount of white sauce to cover and then sprinkle with the cheese

* Bake for up to 30 minutes, checking to make sure the cheese doesn't burn!