Vegan Pesto Lasagna

My roommate, Kendal has a new blog called Leafy Eats where she posts vegan recipes that she experiments with once a week. One of her New Years resolutions is to cook more, so she thought blogging & cooking would be fun.

Though I'm 100% vegetarian and about 80% vegan, Kendal is 100% vegan with a few exceptions, like honey.

All of her experimental fooding will be with vegan recipes, so if you're a vegan or are interested in trying out some vegan dishes, be sure to check out her blog each week (and follow her!) because it's bound to get better and better with each post! :)

Last night I helped her make Vegan Pesto Lasagna.

Here's the recipe:

Pesto Lasagna

Source: The Accidental Vegan by Devra Gartenstein

Takes about an hour and a half total.

• 12 to 15 lasagna noodles
• 2 lbs soft tofu
• 2 cups pesto (see appendix a, below)
• 4 cups tomato sauce
• 1 cup faux cheese (see appendix b, below)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil over medium-high heat, and add the lasagna noodles. Cook noodles for about 8-10 minutes (or until noodles are soft). Drain and set aside. While the noodles are cooking, crumble the tofu into a bowl with the pesto.

Layer the ingredients in a 9 x 11 pan as followed:

• 1/3 of the tomato sauce
• 1/3 of the noodles
• 1/2 of the tofu/pesto mixture
• another 1/3 of the noodles
• another 1/3 of the tomato sauce
• the rest of the tofu/pesto mixture
• the 1 cup of faux cheese

Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes, or until the "cheese" starts to brown. Let cool for a little while, and serve hot.

Appendix A: Pesto

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 cups loosely packed basil leaves
• 1 cup raw walnuts
• 2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in boiling water for a few minutes, until softened.

Put the garlic in a food processor and pulse several times until chopped finely. Drain the sun-dried tomatoes and add to the garlic, along with the basil, walnuts, olive oil, parsley, salt, and pepper. Process until smooth. Note: If you mix this with pasta or veggies that have just been cooked, don't reheat the mixture further, as you may risk burning it. You can also serve pesto cold, as a spread on bread or crackers.

Appendix B: Faux Cheese

Ingredients:

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or any flour will do)
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast, preferably large flake
• 3 cups water
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp prepared mustard

Directions:

Gently heat the oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat, then whisk in the flour and nutritional yeast. Turn the heat down to low and cook, whisking constantly for a minute or two, or until the mixture is reasonably homogenous, with few lumps.

Add the water and raise the heat to medium. Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking until it is relatively smooth. Simmer for 2-3 minutes, or until the mixture thickens to the consistency of pea soup.

Remove from heat and whisk in the salt and mustard. Be sure to use immediately, as this mixture forms a layer on top.

It was very delicious! And there are so many leftovers. Yum yum yum!

Let me know if you end up trying it for yourself!