I have decided to make a vegetable lasagna instead of my usual meat recipe. I plan to use vegetables, as you might expect. Which ones work best and which ones should be avoided?
We’ve done a lentil and broccoli version in the past. Nice enough, if not the “real thing”.
Spinach and mushroom is my favorite combo.
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Artichoke. (Cheater albeit delicious version = jarred bruschetta + bechamel + no-cook pasta sheets, Into the oven in 5 minutes. )
Let your imagination be your guide. Vegetables with a high moisture content should be sauteed to reduce the sog factor, but otherwise, whatever floats your boat. I would steer clear of lettuces and celery, though. Not the kind of lasagna I’d want to eat!
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I’d advise against trying to load the dish with veggies–round hole meets square peg.
But… In addition to tomato in your base sauce, I’d sub mushroom duxelles for the ground meat.
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Mushroom only (white sauce) or spinach and mushroom (also white) are my favorite, but my sil makes a tomato sauce one with chopped-up mushrooms, peppers, and onions in place of the meat, and it’s pretty delicious too. No ricotta in the first two, yes ricotta in the last.
(Someone once fed us zucchini and eggplant lasagna with the vegetables sliced long on a mandoline and laid along the pasta sheets, and it’s one of the worst dishes I’ve ever eaten; there were no other options at this dinner party aside from a side salad, so it was a truly memorable meal).
If you want a really simple vegetarian lasagna, though, this one from a prior COTM got many rave reviews (no vegetables, just a creamy tomato sauce and cheese):
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I seem to be thinking of red sauce, mushrooms, onions, and perhaps some peppers and/or eggplant, along with the usual cheeses. I also have some frozen chopped hot peppers from my summer garden that might be a good addition. I am not clear on how I should handle eggplant with this, though.
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Or separately. Spinach lasagna or mushroom lasagna. Those would be my choices for meatless as well.
This mushroom lasagna is amazeballz.
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If you use eggplant, chop it into inch cubes, toss with salt and oil, then roast at 400F for 20-30 minutes until cooked through and slightly charred. You want to try and concentrate flavors while driving moisture out. Veggie s in general will continue to shed moisture into the lasagna while baking, so you might want to reduce your tomato sauce with your cooked vegetables making up the bulk of the volume, with enough tomato sauce to just barely bind it
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I’ve enjoyed a squash lasagna with a white sauce.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/roasted-butternut-squash-lasagna-3361907
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That eggplant prep sounds good for more than just this application. Thanks!
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You’re very welcome! Please report back to let us know how everything turns out!
Eggplant, sliced very thin and oven dried to remove moisture.
…and then processed through the Disposall…
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Today the deed was done. I was lazy, so for vegetables I just microwave steamed a package of “California mixed vegetables.” I make lasagna using the “don’t bother to cook ordinary lasagna noodles” method (none of the no boil stuff), adding a half measure of water to the sauce to hydrate the dry noodles and sealing the pan with aluminum foil for a one hour bake. I add extra herbs and garlic to jarred sauce rather than make my own, by the way.
It came out fine. The vegs did not add flavor, just texture. Next time I will use raw mushroom slices and onion pieces instead.
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This is a funny way to conclude this exchange 
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Next time try jackfruit.
Thank you for reminding me of that lasagna. I really like it.
