Jules Of The Kitchen_CROPPED 2In this recipe series, we bring you recipes by Julia Toon, culinary motivator and author of the book ‘Good Eating: A Taste of Qatar’. New recipes every week, straight from Jules of the Kitchen.    

Roasted Veggie Lasagne

 A delicious non-meat vegetable lasagne, perfect for those who adore lasagne but wish the dish to be meat-free.

Serves 6
Preparation time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 45 mins
Oven temperature: 200C veg roast, 180 final bake

Ingredients

Veggies

4 x bell peppers using red, green, yellow and orange – diced
350g cherry tomatoes – left whole
6 small Japanese aubergines – or 1 large aubergine
2 garlic cloves – chopped
150g button mushrooms – washed and halved
4 baby marrow or 1 medium marrow – chopped
2 large sprigs of fresh rosemary – no stem, chopped
Large handful fresh thyme – no stem, chopped
3-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil – be generous

Cheese Sauce

20g butter
30g plain flour
600 ml milk
2 bay leaves
Large pinch of nutmeg
Seasoning of salt and pepper – to taste
50g fresh parmesan – grated for top

Others

2 tbsp black olives – pitted and sliced
2 tbsp capers – drained, left whole
100g mozzarella – thinly chopped or sliced
8 NO cook lasagne sheets – number depending on the size of dish

Instructions

Prepare veggies

Wash, trim and chop all the vegetables into even bite-sized pieces, removing seeds from peppers. Chop the garlic and fresh herbs.

Assemble for roasting

Place all chopped vegetables into a large roasting tin, add oil and seasonings. Toss well and place in the hot oven to roast (see raw and ready to roast image). This can take 30 minutes plus (remember to stir every 10 minutes to evenly roast all).

Raw and ready to roast
Raw and ready to roast
Vegetables baked and ready to assemble
Vegetables baked and ready to assemble

When all roasted remove from the oven and add black olives, capers. Check seasoning again. Set aside. (see vegetables baked and ready to assemble image).

Cheese sauce

Melt butter on low heat in a saucepan, add flour, milk and bay leaves and nutmeg. Slowly bring to a simmer stirring all the time, and cook until it starts to thicken and coats the back of a spoon, then cook, stirring, for 1 minute more. Take off the heat, remove the bay leaves and add half of the grated parmesan cheese. Set aside.

Assemble lasagne

Lightly oil an ovenproof dish. Spoon 1/3 of the vegetables into the dish, then top with 1/4 of the mozzarella and a layer of lasagne, followed by 1/3 of the cheese sauce. Repeat twice more, ending with a layer of the cheese sauce. Scatter the remaining parmesan and mozzarella on top. (If your dish is large and shallow, just do 2 layers).

Cook

Once assembled, this lasagne can be cooked straight away or left until later required. When you are ready to cook, pre-heat the oven to 180°C, place the dish on a baking sheet to catch any juices that bubble over, and bake for 30 minutes or so until golden and bubbling.

Serve

Absolutely delicious served hot either on its own or with a healthy green salad.

Jules tips This wonderful vegetable lasagne can be made with a variety of vegetables. The selection I provided are my favourites but if you wish to add more of one, or remove another please go ahead. Just make sure you have a good selection to roast. If you feel the vegetables require more oil for the roast do add, and remember these vegetables should not be blackened, just softened and toasted light brown at the edges. If you wish to remove the skins on the cherry tomatoes do go ahead but I find it’s a labour-intensive action really not required. Finally, all the stages i.e roast vegetables, cheese sauce etc can be made the day ahead, and assembled prior to baking. This vegetable lasagna can also be frozen.


Contributed by: Julia Toon, Jules of the Kitchen

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