Tofu Spinach Lasagna

Eating vegan has major challenges. Making meals with no eggs, milk, cheese, or meat can be very difficult. How about a dish like lasagna that normally has cottage cheese and meat? Can a vegan do it justice? “The Vegan Table” by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau has the answer and it happens to be yes.

On page 193 the most amazing non-meat Lasagna is waiting to be made and it’s called Tofu Spinach Lasagna.  Tofu is way cheaper than hamburger, 1 dollar for a package instead of the 4 dollars you will spend on the same amount of meat.

1 pound of lasagna noodles

2 packages (280 g) of frozen spinach thawed

1 package (455 g) firm tofu

 2 peeled garlic cloves

1 tablespoon sugar

¼ cup soy milk

juice from ½ a lemon

1 teaspoon salt

6 cups basil tomato pasta sauce

(In California I just go to Fresh and Easy for their basil tomato pasta sauce)

Preheat oven to 350°F and boil the lasagna noodles until soft.  In a bender put halfway thawed spinach, tofu, garlic cloves, sugar, soy milk, lemon juice, and salt. Blend till completely mixed.

In a large baking dish (I like to make lasagna in a glass baking dish), layer tomato pasta sauce, lasagna noodles, spinach mixture, noodles, tomato pasta sauce, spinach mixture until  all ingredients are gone.

Bake for 45 minutes than take out and let cool 10 minute.  It is ready to eat and it’s easy to make what more could you ask for.

Winter Dessert: Lemon Tart

Winter brings more than just cabbage and Brussels sprouts, citrus fruits are in season as well.  The best way to finish up a winter themed dish is with a Lemon Tart for dessert. Unlike the Lemon Pie the Lemon Tart has a nice tang to it and far less sugar which is a relief.  I used a recipe from “a cook’s bible-Seasonal food” by Susannah Blake for the Lemon Tart in the picture below. 

 This is a vegetarian recipe because of the ingredients, just a warning to Vegans.

¾ cup sour cream

4 eggs

grated rind of  2 lemons

juice of 5 lemons

¾ cup sugar, plus 2-3 tbsp. for the topping

For The Pie Crust

¾ Cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp. sugar

½ cup ground almonds (I used walnuts)

½ stick butter chilled and cubed

about 1 tbsp. cold water

Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix Pie crust ingredients together than roll out dough and put in pie tin. Bake in oven with foil covering for 10 minutes than take off foil covering and bake for 10 more minutes to hardened bottom of crust.  

Mix sour cream, eggs, grated rind, lemon juice and sugar in a bowl. When crust is done baking take it out of oven and pour liquid ingredients in to the hot pie shell. Turn down oven to 325°C and bake for 35-45 minutes till knife comes out clean when put through the middle. 

Let cool for 20 minutes and sprinkle sugar on top of tart.  Place under oven broiler until the sugar is browned and bubbling.

Winter Food

Nothing says winter more than Brussels sprouts and conveniently there happens to be a wonderful recipe on page 230 of “The Vegan Table” for Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Caramelized Onions and Toasted Pistachios.Normally Brussels sprouts are quite bitter but with caramelized onions for sweeter and the warmth of an oven toasting, Brussels sprouts transform into one of my favorite winter veggies.

Here is the secret to making Brussels sprouts taste good.

Get 1 ½ pounds Brussels sprouts end cut off and cut in half

3 tablespoons olive oil

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoons ground black pepper

For the onions

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 large onions thinly sliced

1 teaspoon sugar

½ cup pistachios toasted separately 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and then put Brussels sprouts on a baking sheet and drizzle olive oil over Brussels sprouts then take the salt and pepper and sprinkle an estimated ½ teaspoon over the whole batch than put the sheet in the oven and cook for 30 minutes checking every so often to protect your sprouts from burning. They will brown which is what you want just an even browning. In a skillet heat oil with onions and sugar tell caramelized and/or brown this could take 30 minutes so as the Brussels sprouts are put in the oven start the onions and then they will both be done at the same time. When everything is close to done heat up pistachios in a toaster oven or in a pan with a little oil just for a few minutes tell toasted. Then toss everything together in a large bowl and enjoy. 

The Start of Something Great

For Christmas I received a wonderful present, a book called "The Vegan Table" by Colleen Patrick Goudreau. In it are beautiful vegan dishes which have inspired me to make these dishes and try them first hand.

So for the next month or so that is just what I will do.

Dish number one… 1/12/2011 dinner.

Harvest-Stuffed Acorn Squash page 235 and Home-Fried Potatoes Page 95

For the Harvest-Stuffed Acorn Squash, I used black sweet rice to give it that dark purple color.

The rice and acorn squash are very tasty because of the pecans, raisins, and dates mixed in with ground ginger and cinnamon spices. 

If you do make this dish note that I used a few different ingredients from the recipe so it will not look the same but the taste will be very close.