Lush Roast Veggie Lasagne
This lasagne is one of those recipes we keep coming back to, honestly. There's something about layers of roasted aubergine, courgette and peppers with a proper creamy béchamel and a rich tomato sauce that just feels like a big, warm hug on a plate. The roasting step is key, it deepens all those veggie flavours in a way that boiling or frying just can't match. It takes a little bit of time but it's absolutely worth every minute, and the smell when it comes out of the oven is unreal. Make this on a weekend when you want to properly impress someone, or just treat yourself.
Before You Start
- Preheat oven to 180°C
- 3 large baking trays
- Lasagne dish
- Large saucepan
- Tin foil
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp olive oil - 1 tbsp per tray
- 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary
- 8 sprigs of fresh thyme
- 1 large red onion
- 2 bell peppers
- 1 courgette
- 1 aubergine
- Salt & pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp capers
- 60g Kalamata olives pitted
- 2 x 400g can of chopped tomatoes
- 4 garlic cloves crushed
- 450g cherry tomatoes
- 8 garlic cloves crushed
- Salt & pepper to taste
- 8 tbsp Nooch
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- 60g plain flour
- 80ml olive oil
- 1 litre soy milk
- Salt & pepper to taste
- 120g plant-based cheese
- 9 lasagne sheets
- 30g spinach
Method
Prepare the roast vegetables
- Slice the aubergine and courgettes
- Quarter and slice the bell peppers and onion
- Spread all the roast vegetable ingredients over 3 days, and roast them in the oven for 20 minutes
Start the tomato sauce
- Put the cherry tomatoes and garlic cloves on a baking tray and roast them for 15 minutes
Start the béchamel sauce
- Pour the soy milk, flour, nutritional yeast and seasoning into the pan and stir it until the béchamel reaches your desired thickness (it needs to be roughly the same thickness as custard)
Continue cooking the tomato sauce
- Pour the olive oil, chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, olives, capers and seasoning into the pan and cook them so they're simmering gently
- Take the cherry tomatoes out of the oven, add them to the pan and stir them in to the tomato sauce and take the pan off the heat
Arrange the lasagne
- Take the roast vegetables out of the oven and let them cool down to room temperature
- Pour a cup of the tomato sauce into the bottom of a lasagne dish and smooth it out with the back of a wooden spoon
- Arrange a layer of roast vegetables on top of the tomato sauce
- Sprinkle a layer of chopped spinach
- Add a layer of dry lasagne sheets
- Pour a cup of the béchamel on top of the lasagne sheets and smooth it out over them with the back of a wooden spoon
- Sprinkle on some plant-based cheese
- Repeat the process until all the ingredients have been used - make sure you finish on a béchamel layer
Time to bake
- Put a layer of tin foil on top of the lasagne & bake it in the oven for 30 minutes
- Take the lasagne out of the oven, take the tin foil off the top of the dish and put the lasagne back in the oven for a further 15 minutes Take the lasagne out of the oven, let it rest for 5 minutes and serve with a side salad
Tips & Variations
- Get ahead with the roasting: You can roast all the veg the day before and keep it in the fridge. It actually tastes even better once it's had time to sit, so it's a great way to break the recipe up.
- Béchamel consistency: If your béchamel feels too thick, just add a splash more soy milk and stir it through. You want it pourable enough to spread between the layers without tearing the pasta sheets.
- Rest it before serving: We know it's hard to wait, but letting the lasagne sit for 10 minutes after it comes out of the oven makes a massive difference. It holds together so much better when you slice it.
Why This Works
The trick here is double-roasting. The veg goes in the oven first to get some colour and sweetness, and then the cherry tomatoes and garlic get their own roasting time too, which gives the sauce this incredible depth you just can't get from a tin. The nooch in the béchamel is the other big one, it adds that savoury, almost cheesy flavour without any dairy and it makes the whole thing taste really indulgent.