I’m finally getting round to doing this recipe because many, many people have asked me for it over the years. It debuted at a church potluck years ago and since then everyone has wanted me to make it for them, or share the recipe. I used to make this with cashew cheese, but found that using sweet potatoes as the base was just easier: I always have sweet potatoes at home. Cashews, not so much.
So, let’s get stuck in!
Vegan Lasagne with Sweet Potato “Cheese” Sauce (Serves 16)
Duration: About 1 hour
Ingredients
For the sweet potato sauce:
- 2 large sweet potatoes, diced
- 2 red onions
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- A generous helping of rosemary and thyme
- A sprinkle of cloves
- 2 cups nutritional yeast flakes
- 1 tablespoon sea salt
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 500g coconut milk
- 1 tea spoon smoked garlic puree
- 2 tablespoons tumeric
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- A dash of mixed herbs
For the lasagne + filling
Tomato Sauce
- 400g canned chopped tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons tomato puree
- 2 tablespoons sundried tomato paste
- 1 white onion
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- sesame seed oil for frying
Filling
- 1 packet 100% durum wheat lasagne sheets
- 3 courgettes, chopped and diced
- 1 aubergine, chopped
- 2 broccoli bunches, chopped into florets
- A few handfuls of spinach
Method
- Preheat oven 200 degrees C
- In a baking pan, drizzle vegetable oil, rosemary, thyme and cloves over the sweet potato and red onion. Roast in the oven for 20 mins
- Whilst the potato is roasting, fry the white onion in a saucepan on medium- high heat with the sesame seed oil. After 30 seconds to 1 minute, add the brown sugar and allow to caramelise. Stir until any sugar lumps are dissolved before adding the chopped tomatoes.
- Add the puree, sundried tomato paste and smoked paprika. Stir thoroughly and bring down to a low heat to simmer
- Add the aubergine, broccoli and courgette to the simmering tomato sauce mixture
- Remove the sweet potato and onion from the oven, but keep the oven on
- In a blender, combine the sweet potato, onion, coconut milk, nutritional yeast flakes, maple syrup, and all the other spices and herbs on the list. You may want to add about 1/2 cup of boiling water to the mixture if it’s too thick. Blend for 5 minutes, until smooth
- Finally, remove the tomato sauce mixture from the heat
- In a 23cm square roasting pan (it can be larger, like 30cm), spread a generous helping of spinach, followed by a layer of tomato sauce filling, then a layer of lasagne sheets, then cheese sauce. Repeat until you get to the top.
- Cover with foil and roast in the oven for 25 mins
