Vegetarian Lasagna with Red Lentils

In my quest to diversify the food my children eat, I decided to have a go at Red Lentil Lasagne (btw, I can never decide whether to write Lasagne or Lasagna … I think both are acceptable!). Red Lentils is something that I haven’t quite managed to get the kids eat yet with enthusiasm. We have cottage pie and red lentil bakes and added them to soups etc. But there is usually some sort of resistance. Anyway. The quest continues. I am a big believer in try, try and try again. Especially when it comes to kids and food.

How did the vegetarian lasagna recipe go down? The little one ate it all up with barely a murmur. The older one, half way through realised that something was up and shouted “what’s this?!”, I calmly replied “a tomato, you like tomatoes”, “No, it is YUK”, “Well, just it the pasta dear” “Can you lick off all the sauce, mummy?” “No”. Later, when he was hungry, he actually ate it all up and had a second portion, I loaded the fork for him, with sauce hiding under a big piece of pasta.. and yes, it all got eaten! The Englishman, who can also be a little fussy with veggie food, said “mmmmh, it actually not too bad”. I think he prefers the meat version.

Still, I will try this again! I liked it and I think the children may like it more if they eat it again!

Ingredients:

Veggie Bolognese

  • One large onion
  • 2 garlic gloves
  • olive oil
  • 4 medium sized carrots finely chopped
  • approx 200g of red lentils, thouroughly rinsed under cold water
  • 2 tsp of soup stock
  • a splasch of wourcester sauce
  • mixed herbs – I used basil, thyme & majoram
  • 2 tins of chopped tomatoes + a 3rd tin later
  • a big squirt of tomato puree
  • Lasagne Pasta

(Lots) White sauce (I never stick to instructions, so this is an estimate):

  •  2 lumps butter
  • 3-4 tablespoons of plain flour
  • approx 500ml of milk
  • Cheese+ cheese for topping

I always think the more white sauce you have the better!

Method:

Bolognese:

  1. Chop your onions and fry in the olive oil.
  2. When softened, add your garlic. Fry a little, then….
  3. Add all the rest of your ingredients to taste. You may want to add a splash of water to fully rinse out your tins of tomato & add liquid. Stir well.
  4. Bring to the boil, then leave to simmer for 30min. Stirring every so often.

White Sauce:

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan
  2. Add the flour and mix.
  3. Slowly add the milk, and stir into a paste. Keep adding the milk gardually to avoid lumps. Stir stir stir.
  4. Once all the milk is in, keep stirring until it begins to thicken.
  5. Grate in a little cheese.

Assembling.

Pre heat the oven to 180C

  1. As lentils have a tendency to be dry and absorb all the liquid, I decided to add a layer of  tin tomatoes between each sheet of pasta, so that there is liquid for it to soak up.
  2. In a large dish layer: a thin layer of tinned tomatoe, add some pasta, then add a layer of veggie bolognese, some tinned tomato, lasagne sheets, lots of white sauce. This last layer twice – so we had a total of 3 layers of pasta.
  3. Grate cheese over the top and pop into the oven.

Happy eating!

We had a little left over, which I will freeze for the girl’s lunches mid week I hope you will give this vegetarian lasagna recipe a go!

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