As we said in this post, when eating vegan, fresh sources of recipes and inspiration are always welcome! Here's a new book with 250 solid, well-illustrated, easy recipes for vegans from the venerated Vegetarian Times. And just to give you a taste, how about this recipe, an Ultimate Vegan Lasagna?
This book is a straightforward, colorful, and very beautiful book full of recipes for the vegan. There are chapters for every dish and meal, from starters and drinks, to burgers and sandwiches, easy beans and lentils, and sweet treats. There is even a chapter of sauces, dips, spreads, and jams.
There are many great vegan cookbooks out there, and this one definitely joins their ranks. It is simply so comprehensive and, for the most part, full of relatively quick and easy meals. It doesn't shy away, however, from vegan "sausage", "cheese", and other substitutes for non-vegan staples. If you are determined to avoid these, then you will need to pick a little more carefully through the recipes.
But if you are just starting out as a vegan, or looking for a solid, well-edited tome of vegan recipes and resources, do check this one out. It's beautifully photographed, and just full of things we'd like to eat.
• Find the book: Vegetarian Times Everything Vegan (Wiley, December 2010). $17.70 at Amazon.
Ultimate Vegan Lasagna
serves 8
This is the cheese-free, noodle-icious, rich and hearty lasagna you’ve been dreaming of. A blend of tofu and vegan cream cheese makes a creamy substitute for the ricotta usually layered in lasagna, and a homemade tomato sauce pulls everything together.
Filling
2 tsp. olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped (2 cups)
3 cloves garlic, minced (1 Tbs.)
1 10-oz. bag fresh baby spinach
2 12-oz. pkgs. firm tofu, drained
1 8-oz. pkg. vegan cream cheese
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
Lasagna
5 1/2 cups Speedy Red Sauce (p. 307)
12 uncooked whole-wheat lasagna noodles
12 oz. vegan Italian sausage links, cut into thin rounds, or vegan sausage crumbles, broken apart
1 cup shredded vegan mozzarella cheese (3 oz.)
1. To make Filling: Preheat oven to 375°F. Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté onions and garlic in oil 4 to 5 minutes, or until golden. Add spinach, and cook 2 to 3 minutes, or until wilted. Transfer to bowl of food processor. Add tofu, cream cheese, basil, and nutritional yeast, and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Spread one-quarter of Speedy Red Sauce on bottom of 13- x 9-inch baking dish. Cover with 4 or 5 noodles, then half of filling, and ladle on another one-quarter of sauce. Repeat layer of noodles and remaining filling. Spread sausage evenly over top, and top with one-quarter of sauce. Finish with final layer of noodles and remaining sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella. Cover with foil, and bake 30 minutes. Uncover, and bake 15 to 20 minutes more, or until noodles are tender and topping is melted. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
Related: Vegan Dinners! 15 Vegan Dinner Recipes from The Kitchn
(Image and recipe courtesy of Vegetarian Times and Wiley)
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This recipe looks decidedly mediocre, and doesn't even include the sauce that is referenced in the body of the recipe!
Think about it- if it doesn't look tasty to a nonvegan, it's probably not going to look tasty to a vegan. The complete lack of flavouring or spices of any kind except basil, nooch, onion and garlic is especially disheartening.
When I make the meat layer for a vegan lasagna, I use fresh cracked fennel seeds, crushed red chilis, garlic, oregano, rosemary, vegan Worcestershire sauce, some Burgundy, minced sun-dried tomatoes and fresh flat leaf parsley- in addition to the ground round. That's not a trick, that's just common sense- you want your sausage to taste like sausage, and vegan sausage is deliberately spice-free, so you can flavour it how you like. Otherwise, it tastes like pretty much nothing.
Vegan ricotta is significantly better when made with cashew cream, lemon, thyme and a bit of good dijon and chardonnay. Tofu doesn't taste like cheese, so make it taste like something else that's tasty and can fill the role of cheese by being creamy and savoury.
I like to add criminis sauteed in Earth Balance, garlic, and finished with a bit of tamari and white wine. Next to the cashew cheese layer, this is a great way to add umami flavour and meaty texture. and make it a more complete and satisfying meal.
You don't even need purchased vegan cheese products in a lasagna, just an extra creamy layer of cashew cheese on top will get hot and bubbly in the oven, and brown and crispy under the broiler, the perfect topping for a lasagna.
I don't mean to rain on your parade- I would just HATE to think that someone would make this recipe and think that's all veganism had to offer. Especially for a new vegan, this would just be discouraging.
Where are all the veggies? :(
I'd just like to point out that there are ways to make deliciously rich and creamy casseroles like lasagna without resorting to faux cheese products. As one of the earlier posters mentioned, cashew tofu ricotta! It's the best. Also, Terry Hope Romero and Isa Chandra Moskowitz have a recipe for pine nut cream that makes a great bechamel on top of the lasagna. I've made my own bechamels in different ways (some with soy cream when I don't have pine nuts on hand), but I've never had to resort to these expensive faux products. That said, they're still pretty good!