Vegan Eggplant Lasagna with Vegan Cheese
This delicious lasagna recipe is adapted from Cookie+Kate's Love Real Food but includes a vegan twist with plant-based cottage cheese and mozzarella.
Equipment
- food processor
- large baking dish, 9x9 or larger
- Parchment Paper
- skillet
- foil
Ingredients
Roasted Eggplant
- 1 medium eggplant
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
- salt & pepper
Tomato Sauce
- 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
- ¼ cup chopped fresh basil or two tablespoons ground basil
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- ½ sea salt
- ¼ red pepper flakes
Vegan Cottage Cheese
- 12.3 oz silken tofu
- 3 tablespoons raw cashews, soaked
- 3 tablespoons almond milk
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
Spinach Mixture
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup chopped red onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 5-6 ounces baby spinach
- salt and pepper
Putting it All Together
- 9 no-boil oven ready lasagna noodles
- 2 cups vegan mozzarella
- fresh basil for garnish
Instructions
Roast the Eggplant
- Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Slice off the round ends of the eggplant and then slice on its long side. Make your slices about half an inch thick, as even as you can. You toss the slices with the skin still on it.
- Brush those slabs with olive oil, and then arrange them on the baking sheet. Add salt and pepper and roast for 20 minutes, turning halfway.
Make the Tomato Sauce
- To make the tomato sauce from scratch, combine the tomatoes, basil, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper flakes. Process until it is smooth and nearly pureed, and then set aside in a bowl.
Make the Vegan Cottage Cheese
- Crumble up silken tofu and add it to the food processor with cashews, almond milk, vinegar, and nutritional yeast until smooth to turn into sauce. Set the cottage cheese mixture aside.
Make Spinach Mixture
- Warm olive oil over medium heat into a skillet and cook the onion with salt. Cook and stir until onion is translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
- Toss in spinach until all of the spinach has wilted, for about 3 minutes.
- Put the whole mixture into the food processor and pulse until it's chopped, but not pureed, about 5-7 pulses. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and mix with the cottage cheese, with salt and pepper.
Assemble it all together
- Spread half a cup of tomato sauce over the bottom of your dish. Layer 3 lasagna noodles on top. Spread half the cottage cheese and spinach mixture over the noodles evenly. Then arrange half the eggplant slices over it. Top that with ¾ cup tomato sauce and half a cup of vegan mozzarella.
- Top with 3 more noodles, and the remaining cottage cheese mixture. Arrange the rest of the eggplant over the slices. Sprinkle another half cup of the mozzarella on top.
- Finally, top with the 3 remaining noodles, and spread the last ¾ cup of tomato sauce over the top to cover the noodles. Sprinkle with the last cup of vegan mozzarella.
- Wrap a sheet of foil over the lasagna carefully so it doesn't touch the cheese. Bake covered for 18 minutes, and then take the cover off, rotate the pan, and bake for another 12 minutes, or longer until the cheese melts and the top begins to darken slightly. This may vary if your mixtures are more watery.
- Remove from oven and let the lasagna cool for 15-20 minutes. Then, garnish with basil and serve.
Notes
This is a doozy of a recipe, but it can be simplified through the following.
- You can use store-bought tomato sauce or even pasta sauce instead of the homemade provided recipe.
- You can also use store-bought vegan cream cheese, (Kite Hill is one such brand.)
- Lastly, use oven-ready lasagna. If you can't find those, just prepare your lasagna per the package instructions and strain before using.