Vegan Neapolitan Lasagna

My hubby loves it when I make Italian food. Since I love it too, I don’t mind complying with those requests. One of his favorite foods is Neapolitan lasagna. It is such a simple dish when he wanted it for Christmas I felt a little guilty because it isn’t much work. But hey, since that is what he wanted who was I to say no.

The last time I made tofu ricotta the taste was so good I knew I was finished playing around with the seasonings. However, the texture was not quite right. This time we have a winner in terms of both texture and flavor. I knew I was finished changing it when my husband asked me to make another one so he could eat it for lunch this week with a big salad. Here is what I made for Christmas dinner.

Vegan Neapolitan LasagnaServes 8

Ingredients:
5 ½ cups meaty tomato sauce
12 whole-wheat lasagna noodles
Vegan Parmesan cheese for topping - optional

Tofu Ricotta Ingredients:
½ cup raw cashews, ground
28 ounces firm water packed tofu, drained and crumbled
2 tablespoons yellow miso
½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 lemon, zested
1 ½ teaspoons oregano, dried
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
4 teaspoons onion flakes
20 ounces frozen spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
4 tablespoons flour (I have used both whole-wheat and brown rice flours and both work fine)

Directions:
Prepare the sauce, and cool a little to make it easier to work with.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Get out two loaf pans and line them with parchment paper to make it easier to get the lasagna out of the pan after baking.

Cook the lasagna noodles until they are partially cooked, about ½ to 2/3 done. By partially cooking the noodles they will finish cooking in the pan and will absorb any excess liquid making the lasagna more firm and easier to slice.

Place all the ingredients for the tofu ricotta in your food processor and process until combined. My food processor has a 14-cup capacity. If your processor is smaller you may want to make the ricotta in two batches.

Now it is time to layer the lasagna. I started with ½ cup of the tomato sauce, then two lasagna noodles followed by 1/6 of the tofu ricotta. Continue to layer in that order ending with tomato sauce. I had three layers of noodles and ricotta and 4 layers of sauce.

Cover the pans with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes. Take the lasagna out of the oven and uncover the pans. Insert a paring knife into the lasagna to make certain the noodle are tender. Top the lasagna with vegan parmesan (if using) and bake another 15 minutes. Then allow the lasagna to cool for 15 minutes to make it easier to remove from the pan and to slice.

I placed the aluminum foil back on top of the pan and flipped the lasagna out. Then inverted it to a platter. The lasagna held together beautifully. Adding the flour to the ricotta made a huge difference in the texture. It was just as firm as a layer of dairy ricotta, only it was healthy. I love it when an experiment works this well.

Nutritional Information (without optional vegan parmesan):
Amount Per Serving
Calories - 492.69
Calories From Fat (21%) - 105.69

Total Fat - 12.67g
Saturated Fat - 1.60g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 1,308.45mg
Potassium - 4,696.09mg
Total Carbohydrates - 70.02g
Fiber - 23.00g
Sugar - 9.89g
Protein - 43.61g

Comments:
Hands down this is the best vegan lasagna I have made yet. The tofu ricotta was firm, but not too firm. This is definitely my new go to lasagna recipe. When my hubby asked me to make more I said I could make a variation (like artichoke or mushroom) and very quickly said he wanted the spinach version. It looks like there will be some repeats in my future.

A special thank you to Rose at Dandelion for posting the idea of using a loaf pan for lasagna. Such a brilliant idea, thanks again for sharing. It works beautifully to make a small lasagna. I still need to make your delicata squash lasagna. It looks beautiful and sounds amazing.

Unrelated Note:
I am off now to finish dinner for tonight. I will be back later with those recipes. We decided to make posole, salad and a documented version of the queso dip from Thursday.