We love alfredo pasta and we love lasagna, so we decided to put them together and use up some of the larger zucchinis we’ve had access to this summer!
Serves: 4-6
Time: 2 1/4 hrs (1 3/4 hrs active)
Ingredients
1 large head broccoli, cut in small florets
2 med zucchini, cut in half coins
3 cups chopped wild mushrooms
8 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
oil
1 box lasagna noodles, gluten-free option
4 large chard leaves, cut into ribbons
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
salt
For the sauce:
1 cup cashews soaked for at least 30 min
3 cups water, divided
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 tbsp garlic granules
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
1 small onion, sliced
2 tbsp white wine (optional)
5 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
Put cashews in water to soak. Boil a pot of well salted water. If you aren’t sure how much salt to use, the water should taste similar to seawater. Once boiling, add pasta and cook to desired consistency (follow instructions on pasta package). Once pasta is done, strain and thoroughly cool down with cold water. Add a little bit of oil to keep the pasta from sticking.
While the pasta is cooking, cut your veggies. Cut mushrooms into small pieces. Cut broccoli into small florets and cut the stem into pieces the size of a penny. If you aren’t using a garlic press, mince the garlic. Cut the chard into ribbons and slice the onion.
Fry the mushrooms in oil at medium heat until you start to get browning. Set the cooked mushrooms aside and cook the broccoli the same way until some of the florets start to get browned. Then add 8 cloves of garlic, minced, or press the garlic straight into the broccoli and cook another couple minutes so the broccoli is browned and the garlic is fragrant but not burnt. Set aside. In the same pan, saute the zucchini until browned. Cook the zucchini long enough that most of its moisture has been removed, otherwise it will release the moisture while baking and make your lasagna soupy. Once this is browned, set aside.
Drain the soaked cashews. Add the cashews, 1 cup of water, lemon, garlic granules, nutritional yeast, salt, and red pepper flakes to a blender and blend until smooth. To test the consistency, put a small amount of sauce on your finger and rub your fingers together. If it is completely smooth then you are there! If it feels at all like there is some sandiness, keep blending.
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Re-heat and add some oil to the pan you used to cook the vegetables. Saute the onion until it caramelizes and turns a beautiful brown color. You will need to stir less at the beginning, but as the onion starts to break down you will need to be stirring non-stop. When the onion is close to done add the garlic, and stir for another 2-3 minutes. If the onion starts to stick, de-glaze the pan with a bit of white wine (optional) or water. Add the cashew alfredo sauce to the pan and stir until slightly thickened. Add the remaining 2 cups of water to the blender and pulse briefly to clean out the blender and then add this to the sauce. Once the sauce is slightly thickened, turn off the heat.
Set aside 1/3 cup of alfredo sauce. To layer the lasagna, start with a bit of alfredo, then layer pasta, alfredo, broccoli and chard, pasta, alfredo, zucchini and mushrooms, and then repeat. End with a layer of noodles and cover with the reserved 1/3 cup of alfredo sauce. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tbsp nutritional yeast, swirl it into the top layer of sauce, and bake for 30 minutes, or until the top starts to crisp a bit.
Enjoy!
