My delicious vegetarian lasagne recipe. Crammed full of roasted peppers, tomatoes and onions, and plenty of creamy homemade béchamel sauce and cheese.
I’m not a vegetarian and generally I tend to eat meat as a major part of most of my meals. However, I’ve always enjoyed vegetable lasagne so thought I would have a go at creating my own.There are a couple of other reasons for creating this vegetable lasagne recipe…
- I’m always looking for ways to sneak extra fruit and vegetables into my family’s food. By cutting the meat and making the dish all about the vegetables it gives me the perfect opportunity to cram in as many as possible (This vegetable lasagne contributes two of your five-a-day).
- I’m always clueless about cooking for vegetarian friends so I want to increase my repertoire of things to be able to offer them.
The gorgeous, bright vegetables that go into my lasagne
I mentioned recently in my recipe for roasted carrot and swede mash that I find that roasting the vegetables really enhances the flavour, and I’ve used that approach again here.
Another advantage is that you can just chop them and then pop them into the oven and leave them. Whereas if you were cooking them on the hob you’d have to keep checking back to make sure they don’t burn.
If you want to save time (not cooking time but the amount of time you have to spend in the kitchen) you can also buy pre-made white sauce. However, if you do have the time making your own is really simple so you should definitely give it a try.
My vegetarian lasagne recipe
I nearly made a huge mistake with this vegetable lasagne recipe. I decided early on that I wanted to use two different types of cheese to create more of a contrast in flavours.
I decided to use cheddar and parmesan. Fine for me, I’m a meat eater. Not fine if you’re vegetarian.
I just assumed that all cheese is vegetarian. However, some cheeses (including parmesan) are made using calf rennet (take a look at the Vegetarian Society website if you want to know more).
When I discovered that parmesan wasn’t in fact vegetarian, I trotted off to my local supermarket to find a suitable alternative. Whilst there are plenty of vegetarian cheeses available, it’s tough to find one in the hard cheeses section. In the end I settled for mature Manchego, which is made from sheep’s milk. I hadn’t actually tried it before but it turns out I really like it, so expect to see it cropping up more often in my recipes.
So anyway, all my non-vegetarian readers, take this as a warning. Don’t make the same mistake I did. If you’re cooking for a veggie friend then please, please check the label of your cheese.
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Roasted Vegetable Lasagne
INGREDIENTS
- 6 tomatoes
- 3 peppers in a variety of colours
- 2 red onions
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp olive oil
- Salt
- 25 g Butter
- 25 g Plain Flour
- 250 ml Milk - I use skimmed milk
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 cloves
- Salt and Pepper
- 3 fresh lasagne sheets
- 60 g cheddar cheese
- 40 g manchego cheese - or parmesan if you're not vegetarian
INSTRUCTIONS
Roast the vegetables
- Pre-heat the oven to 220ºC/200ºC fan.
- Roughly chop the vegetables (6 tomatoes, 3 peppers, 2 red onions) into large chunks (see image above to get an idea of size).
- Put the veg into a roasting dish and add the dried oregano (1 tbsp) and olive oil (1 tsp) and a pinch of salt. Toss the vegetables in the oil and oregano until they are all coated.
- Place into the oven and roast for 30 minutes. Give them a good mix up halfway through to ensure they are cooked evenly.
- While the vegetables are roasting, make the white sauce.
Make the white sauce
- Add the butter (25g) and plain flour (25g) and cook on a low heat until the butter has melted. Stir together until fully incorporated - most recipes suggest melting the butter and then adding the flour. I prefer to add them both at the start as this helps to ensure that the flour doesn't have a raw taste in the finished sauce.
- Once the butter has melted and the butter and flour are mixed together, gradually add the milk (250ml). Stir to ensure that each addition of milk is fully incorporated before adding more.
- Once all of the milk has been added to the pan add the bay leaves (2 leaves) and cloves (4 cloves).
- Stir/whisk continuously until the sauce has thickened to your desired consistency (I like to dip in a spoon and check if the sauce leaves a coating on the back when removed).
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Remove the bay leaves and cloves.
- Put the sauce into a bowl and cover with cling film, ensuring that the cling film is in contact with the top of the sauce to prevent a skin forming until ready to construct the lasagne.
Construct the lasagne
- Grate the cheese.
- In an oven proof dish, spoon in one third of the roasted vegetables and spread them evenly across the bottom of the dish.
- Lay a lasagne sheet on top.
- Add one third of the white sauce and spread evenly.
- Top with one third of the cheese.
- Repeat this process three times until you have used all of your ingredients.
- Place into the oven (220ºC/200ºC - same as for the vegetables) and cook for 20-25 minutes until the cheese has melted and the top is golden brown.
- Serve
NOTES
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.
Free From/Suitable For…
The ingredients I used to make this recipe are all free from the following allergens. However, please check any labels carefully for allergens you need to avoid as brands can vary and product recipes can change over time.
- Suitable for Vegetarians
- Tree Nut-Free
- Peanut-Free
- Sesame-Free
- Soya-Free
- Sulphur Dioxide & Sulphite-Free
- Fish-Free
- Crustacean-Free
- Mollusc-Free
- Celery-Free
- Mustard-Free
- Lupin-Free
Emma Matthews says
Can this be made ahead?
Charlotte Oates says
Yes, you can build the lasagne ahead of time (the day before) and then baked just before eating.
Rachel Chitty says
Hi Charlotte! I love your recipe! I do twice the amount of sauce now though! Happy New year! xx
Bruce says
Very tasty and straightforward to prepare. Will cook again although next time I will make twice the amount of white sauce.
Olwyn says
Made this the other night for a friend that was visiting and even though she eats meat she loved this as did my family. Will definitely do this again. Slight cheat though I bought ready prepared veg in foil trays from tesco that I roasted in the oven.
Mum says
I hadn’t realised that Parmesan was not vegetarian so thanks for including that in your notes.
Charlotte Oates says
I only found out a few days before posting this and hastily found an alternative. I was surprised how many I looked at weren’t vegetarian so it’s always worth checking the labels.
Mel says
Might have to wait a few days then. Fell asleep whilst reading a story to the kids earlier….
Mel says
I absolutely love veggie lasagne, and my best friend has just given me her recipe. It will be on my blog in the next few weeks, hehe! Yours looks absolutely gorgeous. Can I come for dinner?
Charlotte Oates says
Just spotted this comment hidden in among some other! Glad you like the look of it, I’m looking forward to seeing how you do yours.
Of course you can come for dinner, although make sure you’re cold’s gone first. I don’t want to catch it!!