Dinner from the Freezer

I like to keep a few meals in the freezer for days when I don’t have the time or inclination to cook. Today was one of those days, so tonight we had dinner from the freezer. I can’t post the recipe since I didn’t document it before I put it in the freezer but I can share the methodology.

Tonight’s dinner was “no pasta” lasagna. I grilled zucchini and eggplant slices (cut length wise) and layered those with tomato sauce and tofu ricotta. I make the tofu ricotta with firm or extra firm tofu that I crumble into a food processor with a couple of tablespoons of nutritional yeast and a handful of raw cashews and puree until the nuts have been completely pulverized (about a minute). I layer the sauce, grilled veg, tofu ricotta, sauce, grilled veg ….. until I reach the top of the pan. Sometimes I top the mixture with follow your heart mozzarella and sometimes I don’t. Bake the dish as you would lasagna, in a 350 degree oven until it is heated through.

The flavor of this dish comes from the tomato sauce and the grilled veggies. It helps to get dark grill marks on the veggies to add more flavor. This dish freezes extremely well and defrosted in the microwave in about 20 minutes on power level 3. It will give off a good amount of liquid as it defrosts. I stop the microwave every 5 minutes and pour of the liquid.

If you haven’t tried to make vegan lasagna it is very easy and turns out much better than you may expect. I think the raw cashews in the tofu help to mimic the fattiness of cheese. I have seen other recipes add vegan cream cheese to the tofu which I assume is done for the same reason. I prefer not to buy the processed vegan cream cheese (it contains too many “mystery” ingredients).

Because I made a big batch of sauce yesterday I will make lasagna, in the next week or so and post that on the blog so you have the recipe.