Veggie Lasagna

How many of you love Italian food? And Lasagna? Of course, you do! Everybody does! But what about Vegetable Lasagna? Maybe not as many takers for that. Well, here's one of my favorite recipes for Lasagna and yes its made with vegetables. I start with onions and red sweet bell peppers chopped up fine and added to a skillet with organic olive oil. 

I'm also going to chop up some broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, yellow squash, zucchini and radishes. I added all these wonderful vegetables to the skillet with olive oil and let them simmer for about 15 or so minutes. I absolutely love how colorful this is. You know I love colorful things, especially food.

After this mixture has simmered for a bit, I add the pasta sauce and let this mixture simmer for another 15 or 20 minutes. Meanwhile I have been heating water to a boil and cooking the penne pasta. My penne is made from red lentils. I love adding gluten free options to my cooking. Now of course, this is lasagna and I will definitely need lasagna pasta, but I thought I would add a layer of red lentil penne into this dish to add some variety. And I saw the idea on Reddit. 

I also tried something else new as well. I saw in the grocery store a pasta option called "oven ready". I learned that meant that the lasagna didn't have to be pre-cooked before being added to the layers. It basically stated that the pasta would absorb the sauce and cook itself soft in the oven. I was very nervous that this wouldn't work and since I was having guests for dinner, I wasn't brave enough to try this completely. 

So I soaked the lasagna noodles for about 10 minutes to give them a head start on cooking before adding them to the layers. I also lined the pan with sauce on the bottom. The penne I cooked thoroughly in boiling water, but the lasagna I halfway tried the oven cook method and halfway presoaked them.

My lasagna filling is my own secret recipe. I guess it won't be secret anymore. I really don't like ricotta that well, so I use my own homemade filling. I start by beating two organic free range eggs and then adding a cup of sour cream. I then add a cup of parmesan cheese and a generous amount of basil.

When the dish bakes in the oven, the eggs make this part of the filling perfect and so very tasty. Now I am ready to begin the layers. Again, I start with a thin layer of sauce, then the pasta, then the vegetables and sauce mixture, then the filling, then a good amount of mozzarella cheese sprinkled. I do this twice with the 4/5 layers until my lasagna pan is full. 

I add a good sprinkle of basil as garnish and it also adds more flavor to the top of the dish. The pan is ready to be put into a preheated oven of 350 degrees and left in there for about an hour. I covered my pan with tin foil to allow all the layers to bake well and then I removed the foil for the last 10 minutes to let the cheese top brown slightly. It should look like this...

Let's see how this tastes...

Trust me, it was scrumptious!!