A healthy, lower calorie vegetarian lasagne is something I’ve been attempting to create for many years. I’ve also failed many many times. The trouble was that I was trying to make it too similar to classic Italian lasagne by using meat substitutes and tortilla wraps instead of pasta. Yes, you read that right, I used wraps instead of pasta, and no, it was NOT good. So I went back to basics and focused only on the layering theme of lasagne. I completely blocked the original ingredients from my mind. I created a mushroom and tomato Ragu style sauce. A herbaceous cream cheese sauce. I also bought a mandolin specifically for the use of thinly slicing strips of courgette instead of a pasta layer. And of course, no vegetarian Lasagne style dish would be complete without a topping of cheddar cheese.
As always, this dish is designed for 1 (or maybe 2 if you serve with sides). If you’re feeding more people, don’t forget to increase the ingredients. This recipe is great for those with dietary restrictions. This recipe is:
- Vegetarian
- Gluten Free
- Nut Free
- Low GI
Firstly, as always, prepare your veg. I like to try and prepare my veg in the early afternoon. I know that if I leave it until the evening, when I’m tired and hungry, there’s a good chance I’ll not cook at all. But if my veg it pre-prepared then half the work is already done. I used a mandolin to shave slices of courgette but for this recipe a knife or a wide vegetable peeler will do just fine. Roughly chop around 15 chestnut mushrooms along with ⅓ red onion. Sauté in a pan until cooked. Add in 15 halved cherry tomatoes and cook for roughly 20 minute. The tomatoes will have formed a thick sauce around the mushrooms and onions. At this point I added in a teaspoon of dried basil and a sprinkle of salt.
Whilst my mushroom and tomato sauce was cooking I prepared the cream cheese, this makes up the béchamel section of a traditional lasagne. I took 100g of cheese, mixed in 1tsp of oregano. As this cheese was quite thick I thinned it out slightly with a splash of milk but this step is down to preference
Now your lasagne ingredients are ready for layering. I started off with a thin layer of mushroom and tomato sauce. Then courgette, followed by a generous layer of cream cheese. I then used another layer of courgette before repeating the whole order over again until I reached the top of the dish. Top with a slight sprinkling of cheddar cheese. pop in a preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the cheese on top is golden.
I paired this dish with a small side salad. If you wanted to share your lasagne with a friend I would recommend treating yourself to a nice big slice of rustic garlic bread!
Check out my latest posts:
- Chicken And Mushroom Soup Recipe
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Courgette Lasagne
Ingredients
- 1 courgette small
- 100 g cream cheese low fat
- 1 splash milk
- 200 g chestnut mushrooms
- 250 g tomatoes
- 1 tsp basil dried
- 1 tsp oregano dried
- ⅓ whole onion
- 15 g grated cheese
Instructions
- Slice courgette into thin strips to use in place of lasagne, roughly chop mushrooms, onion and cut cherry tomatoes into halves.1 courgette
- Sauté the mushrooms and onions until reduced and add tomatoes. Cook for around 20 minutes until tomatoes have formed a thick sauce around the mushrooms and onions.200 g chestnut mushrooms, 250 g tomatoes, ⅓ whole onion
- Add basil and a sprinkle of salt and remove from heat. Your ‘meat’ style sauce is now ready.1 tsp basil
- Mix oregano into cream cheese and optionally thin out with milk if needed to make your ‘béchamel’ style sauce.100 g cream cheese, 1 splash milk, 1 tsp oregano
- Start layering your courgette lasagne, in the traditional way e.g. ‘meat’, ‘pasta’, ‘béchamel’, ‘pasta’ repeat until your dish is full.
- Top with grated cheddar cheese and bake for 30 minutes or until cheddar is golden.15 g grated cheese
