Now I know what you are thinking…..Gluten and Dairy free does not exactly go with lasagna and that is certainly what I used to think! Having been dairy free for over 3 years and lasagna being one of my favourite foods, I was desperate to come up with a dairy free recipe. A vegan friend of mine told me about using tofu as a replacement for cheese, so although I was very skeptical I decided to give it a try. Here is my take on an old favourite. Let me know what you think!
Ingredients:
• 1/2 zucchini chopped
• 1lb of ground beef
• ½ eggplant chopped
• 1 onion chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 tbsp dried Rosemary
• Olive oil
• Gluten free ready bake lasagna noodles (health food section of loblaws has these)
• 1 block of firm tofu
• 4 cups of spinach
• 4 tbsp of nutritional yeast (health food section of loblaws has this too)
• 1/2 tsp. Herbamare
• 3 cans of tomato sauce (I used the PC organic basil, but any kind will do)
• Daiya cheese – optional
Directions:
• Preheat oven to 350F
• Place chopped zucchini, onion and eggplant on a roasting pan, drizzle with olive oil, rosemary and 1/2 the chopped garlic
• Bake for 25-35 minutes until all veggies are roasted and soft
• When veggies are cooking pan fry the ground beef until cooked through, rinse the fat off and transfer to a sauce pan
• Add cooked veggies and tomato sauce to the saucepan with the ground beef
• Allow the sauce to simmer for a few minutes
• While sauce is simmering, place the tofu between a few sheets of paper towel and press the extra liquid out
• In a bowl crumble the tofu (like feta cheese)
• Stir fry the spinach with olive oil and remaining garlic until the spinach is wilted
• Add the spinach to the tofu and add the nutritional yeast and herbamare.
• In a 9 x 11 pan place a small layer of sauce then a layer of noodles add more sauce, more noodles, place the tofu on top of noodles followed by another layer of noodles, add another layer of sauce and top with cheese
• Bake at 350 for 45mins-1 hr
• Allow the lasagna to cool for 10 minutes before cutting into it
• **tips for success with this recipe – the GF noodles require a lot of moisture to cook through, so be generous with the sauce layers.