Vegetarian Pumpkin and Silverbeet Lasagne with Ricotta

I love lasagne. It is one of my favourite comfort dishes - but there's a catch: I don't like very creamy or cheesy lasagne. Bechemel sauce is a no-no, I much prefer tomato sauce based lasagnes. I think it's because I have a lactose intolerance and have avoided cream sauces since childhood because they made me feel quite sick, and it wasn't until I was in my teens that I tried a lasagne I liked. As with most Italian pasta dishes, there is room for variations on the theme through different regional influences. The tastiest meat lasagne I have baked to date used gravy beef cooked in a pressure cooker with fresh tomatoes, which I based on the traditional ragu-style of rustic tough cuts slow cooked to pull-apart tenderness.

While I am a part-time meat eater, I am very aware of the impacts meat consumption has on the environment at large and my heath. I like to take dishes and convert them into vegetarian-friendly meals which not only gives me a higher nutritional intake, but it also helps the hip pocket. 

In this post you'll see a vegetarian lasagne that uses less pasta by substituting sliced pumpkin, making the glycemic index of this dish a very low one. The carbs come from the pasta and also from the red lentils added to the tomato sauce. The vegetable count is six per serve (onion, carrot, celery, pumpkin, silverbeet, tomato) and protein is provided by the lentils, the ricotta, and the cheese topping. All in all it is a really balanced meal that will satisfy even the most dedicated meat eaters. Did I mention it's also incredibly delicious?

Below the pics you'll find the recipe and directions on how to freeze this dish, along with a costing of the whole thing and individual portions. Keep some handy in the freezer for those nights you get home late, or keep some in reserve for family or friends that need a gift of food when they're sick. I promise, you won't even be able to tell it's been frozen. Best of all? each serve costs $1.25.

Sliced pumpkin, washed silverbeet and ricotta cheese

Tomato and red lentil sauce

Sliced pumpkin layer

Silverbeet and ricotta layer

Topped with sliced pumpkin

Top layer is tomato sauce and mozzerella and pecorino cheese

Vegetarian Lasagne

Ready for the freezer

Recipe

Makes 12 serves

Cooking time 1.5 hours

Ingredients

olive oil

1 brown onion, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 sticks of celery, chopped

3 cans of whole peeled tomatoes

1 cup of red lentils

1 half of a Jap pumpkin, peeled, seeded and sliced into thin pieces

1 large bunch of silverbeet, washed and stalks removed

600 grams of dry ricotta cheese (from the deli)

1 packet of large lasagne sheets (250 grams)

1 cup of mozzerella cheese, grated

1/4 cup of pecorino cheese, grated

Method

In a large saucepan heat olive oil and fry off brown onion for 2 mins. Add the celery and carrot and cook for a further 4 mins, until vegetables are softened. Add the canned tomatoes and 4 or 5 canfulls of water. Add to this the red lentils and bring to the boil for 20 mins, until lentils are cooked.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

In a large backing pan with deep sides spoon in the tomato sauce so it covers the bottom of the pan in a layer. Add a layer of dried lasagne sheets, topped with another layer of tomato sauce. Ontop of this lay the sliced pumpkin so it covers the whole area. Top the pumpkin with the silverbeet, making a thick layer. Top this with large chunks of the ricotta cheese and then top with more pumpkin. Add a layer of tomato sauce, followed by lasagne sheets, and top everything with a layer of tomato sauce. Sprinkle with cheese, cover with aluminium foil and bake in hot oven for 35 mins. Remove foil and bake for a further 10 mins.

Lasagne will have dropped in height because as the silverbeet cooks it looses its structure and collapses.

Breakdown of layers (bottom to top)

tomato sauce

dried lasagne

tomato sauce

pumpkin

silverbeet

ricotta

pumpkin

tomato sauce

dried lasagne sheets

tomato sauce

mozzerella and pecorino

To Freeze

After lasagne is cooked, let it cool at room temperature for an hour and then place in the refrigerator for 12 hours. Cooling the lasagne makes it easier to cut as it holds its shape better than if it's cut hot. Cut lasagne into 12 serves, and ready 12 large sheets of baking paper and 12 large sheets of aluminium foil. Place one serve of lasagne onto baking paper and wrap it securely, then wrap in alfoil - this double wrapping minimises freezer burn. You can opt to place each foil-wrapped serve into zip-loc bags to further reduce freezer burn. Label and date lasagne and freeze. Keeps in the freezer for up to 3 months.

You can also freeze the whole lasagne if you won't be needing the baking dish in the meantime. Simply wrap the whole dish, top and bottom with cling wrap and cover again with alfoil to minimise freezer burn. 

To defrost both individual and whole lasagne, take out and leave in the fridge the night before, and re-heat by your favourite method. I prefer using the oven to re-heat, but this can dry the lasagne out a bit. 

Costing

I weighed the ingredients and kept receipts of everything I used in order to make a costing of this dish . The total ingredients in cost $15.10 and each serve costs $1.25 or thereabouts. I did use up some lasagne sheets I had in the pantry and made a guess at the cost of a cup of red lentils (guess is around .20c).  

Lamb Cutlets with Veg

There's no recipe for this, but I wanted to post it because the cabbage was the best I've had in a long time. It was home-grown by Mrs. Lopez and was soooooo good!

We had lamb cutlets pan fried with roasted pumpkin and broccolini, peas and sauteed cabbage with butter. Yes, I know, naughty naughty, but I love cabbage cooked that way. We had mint jelly on the side, proper Anglo-styles.

Home grown

Two-Bean salad with Chorizo

I've been making lunches for both Carlos and I to take to work/uni and have really enjoyed trying out different ideas. If I'm preparing vegetables for dinner, I'll sometimes make extra in order to put in a salad for the next day - I particularly love roast broccoli and pumpkin.

Recipe

Makes 4 serves

Cooking time 20 mins

Store in fridge up to 4 days

Ingredients

Pumpkin, 3cm wedge, chopped into medium chunks

Broccollini (baby broccoli)

1 can of canellini beans, rinsed and soaked in fresh water

1 can of red kidney beans, rinsed and soaked in fresh water

1/4 red onion, sliced thinly

1/4 red capsicum, sliced thinly

6-8 olives, left whole

12 slices of chorizo cut thinly (you can substitute salami)

30g parmesan cheese, grated

Method

Preheat oven to 200C and roast the pumpkin and broccolini for 15 mins.

Combine the rinsed beans in a bowl. Add the onion, capsicum, chorizo, olives and parmesan cheese. Once the roast veg are cooled, add to the salad. Mix.

This is a really low-gi salad as it's main ingredients are beans - they will give you slow-release energy all through the afternoon. You don't have to use any meat product in this if you choose not to. 

The type of chorizo I used was bought from an importers and was Spanish style - be careful because sometimes a South American sausage which is also called chorizo is sold which is not cured to a point where you can eat it without cooking first.If you're at all unsure, fry the slices off in a fry pan just to be safe.

Vegan Roast Pumpkin and Butter Bean Salad

Recipe

Makes 2 serves

Cooking time 20 mins

Ingredients

1 2-inch slice of pumpkin, cut into large chunks

olive oil

pinch of salt

1 can of butter beans

1/2 red onion, sliced into thin cresents

2 sticks of celery, cut thinly

rocket leaves

1 roasted red capsicum, drained, patted dry and sliced into long strips

Method

Pre-heat oven to 200C. Cut pumpkin into large chuncks and place on an oven proof tray. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and roast for about 20 mins, until pumpkin has caramelised a bit. Once pumpkin is cooked, remove from oven and let cool before making the rest of the salad. 

Drain and rinse the butter beans and place in a bowl of fresh water for about 10 mins. When ready to use drain them again. 

Add the sliced onion and celery to a large bowl, along with the drained butter beans and cool pumpkin, the rocket and red capsicum. Mix gently.

I didn't use a dressing for this salad as the roast pumpkin disintegrated a bit and coated the other ingredients with its sweetness, and the roast capsicum also added a vinegary flavour to the salad.

Thin slices of onion and celery

All packed for tomorrows lunch

Vegetarian Barley 'Risotto' with Pumpkin, Spinach and White Wine

I know, I know, this is the second barley dish in three days, but I'm not apologising.

I'm trying to get the best out of the last part of winter, and what makes a better comfort food than risotto? While I made a meat-content one the day before last, I wanted to try my hand at a vegetarian one.

I adapted a recipe I found in a Super Food Ideas magazine. I'm unable to find a version of it online, I assume because it's from the current magazine (August 2013). Once it's available through taste.com.au I'll post a link to it, even though my modifications make my recipe a vastly different one. For starters, the SFI recipe uses a mix of barley and aborio rice, and it uses cream. I adopted the method of their recipe though, so thought I should mention it here.

Pre-soak the barley for 4 hours before cooking

Recipe

Makes: 4 meals
Cooking time: 45 mins (+4 hours for pre-soaking the barley)
Vegan/Vegetarian

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups dried pearl barley, soaked in water for 4 hours
1 kg Jap pumpkin, peeled, with 700 grams sliced thinly and 300 grams chopped into small cubes
1 brown onion, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
4 portions of frozen spinach (around 150 grams)
2 litres of stock (I used vegan Massel stock cubes, one chicken style and one vegetable style with water), stock should be heated
1 cup of white wine (I used chardonnay)
salt, white pepper, black pepper
olive oil

Frozen spinach, celery, onion, garlic and cubed pumpkin

Method:

In a medium sauce pan place thinly sliced pumpkin and cover with the warmed stock. Cook over a moderate heat until pumpkin is soft, then mash with a fork, retaining the stock.

Before the stock is added

Cooked and mashed

In a large heavy based sauce pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and fry the brown onion and celery until onion is translucent. Add 1/4 cup of the white wine and cook over a high heat until half is evaporated. Add another 1/4 cup and reduce to half again.

Drain the barley and add to the onion and celery mix, along with a half a litre of the warmed stock. Bringing it to the boil, cook it for about 5 minutes. Add the mashed pumpkin mix to the barley and continue to cook on a high heat, stirring occasionally. You can season the mix with salt and white pepper at this stage. Once stock has reduced a bit more, add the frozen spinach to the pan and stir through, adding more stock when necessary.

Pre-heat the oven to 200C and place the diced pumpkin pieces in an oven-proof dish. Sprinkle with a teaspoon of olive oil, some cracked salt and pepper. Once oven is hot, bake pumpkin for about 10 mins, until just cooked. The cubes should still hold their shape, so don't over-cook them.

As the spinach de-frosts in the barley mix it will release a lot of liquid - this is good as that liquid contains vitamins. When cooking the risotto don't be afraid of using a high heat to reduce the liquid content, making sure to stir constantly and top up with the warmed stock. When the barley is 3/4 done (at around the 30 min mark) add the rest of the white wine to the pot and reduce as before.

Barley is cooked when it is soft to the bite, but still a tiny bit firm. I personally like my barley with a bit of firmness, but you can cook it until it is softer if you like.

Once barley is cooked to your liking, take it off the heat and let it sit for 5 mins. After it has rested, stir it and add the roasted pumpkin pieces, folding them through gently. Serve.

Notes:

While this dish is labour intensive, it is a real winner - the barley is so creamy from the mashed pumpkin that you wont even notice the missing dairy. It is a great meat free dish, and it's a good one to make extra for a take-to-work lunch the next day.

Recipe without photos - for easier copy/paste printing

Vegetarian Barley 'Risotto' with Pumpkin, Spinach and White Wine Recipe

Makes: 4 meals
Cooking time: 45 mins (+4 hours for pre-soaking the barley)
Vegan/Vegetarian

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups dried pearl barley, soaked in water for 4 hours
1 kg Jap pumpkin, peeled, with 700 grams sliced thinly and 300 grams chopped into small cubes
1 brown onion, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
4 portions of frozen spinach (around 150 grams)
2 litres of stock (I used vegan Massel stock cubes, one chicken style and one vegetable style with water), stock should be heated
1 cup of white wine (I used chardonnay)
salt, white pepper, black pepper
olive oil

Method:

In a medium sauce pan place thinly sliced pumpkin and cover with the warmed stock. Cook over a moderate heat until pumpkin is soft, then mash with a fork, retaining the stock.

In a large heavy based sauce pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and fry the brown onion and celery until onion is translucent. Add 1/4 cup of the white wine and cook over a high heat until half is evaporated. Add another 1/4 cup and reduce to half again.

Drain the barley and add to the onion and celery mix, along with a half a litre of the warmed stock. Bringing it to the boil, cook it for about 5 minutes. Add the mashed pumpkin mix to the barley and continue to cook on a high heat, stirring occasionally. You can season the mix with salt and white pepper at this stage. Once stock has reduced a bit more, add the frozen spinach to the pan and stir through, adding more stock when necessary.

Pre-heat the oven to 200C and place the diced pumpkin pieces in an oven-proof dish. Sprinkle with a teaspoon of olive oil, some cracked salt and pepper. Once oven is hot, bake pumpkin for about 10 mins, until just cooked. The cubes should still hold their shape, so don't over-cook them.

As the spinach de-frosts in the barley mix it will release a lot of liquid - this is good as that liquid contains vitamins. When cooking the risotto don't be afraid of using a high heat to reduce the liquid content, making sure to stir constantly and top up with the warmed stock. When the barley is 3/4 done (at around the 30 min mark) add the rest of the white wine to the pot and reduce as before.

Barley is cooked when it is soft to the bite, but still a tiny bit firm. I personally like my barley with a bit of firmness, but you can cook it until it is softer if you like.

Once barley is cooked to your liking, take it off the heat and let it sit for 5 mins. After it has rested, stir it and add the roasted pumpkin pieces, folding them through gently. Serve.