PCRM Lasagna Recipe --- Even MORE Delicious with the Addition of CASHEW CREAM!


In December I finally tried a PCRM Recipe of the Week. It was lasagna and it was awesome! Until then, I had not made lasagna in at least a decade. No joke. For some reason it always seemed like too many steps or something. Silly! It was simple!

I made it again for about ten people down in Florida last week and not one of them (mostly omnis and a couple actual Italians) knew or could tell it was vegan! To me, that's a win if people who may normally steer clear of vegan food eat it, love it and are pleasantly surprised it's vegan. Pretty cool!

Look how happy they all are after dinner! 

As for PCRM, all of their recipes keep things as healthy as possible. There was zero oil used. I don't think I had ever sautéed onions, garlic and mushrooms without at least a little oil before. Well, it's totally not necessary. The flavors shine through just fine without it!

This lasagna recipe calls for spinach and mushrooms, but you could use whatever veggies you want. You could even use eggplant instead of noodles if you wanted to get crazy healthy! I haven't tried that yet, but plan to soon.

The original recipe can be found here. The only things I did differently were I omitted carrots, simply because I didn't have any in the house at the time, and for the "cheese" I added fresh, raw cashew cream, which I think made the "ricotta" richer and more flavorful. You don't have to do that, I'm sure it's just as delicious without, but I like richness, and when I think of cheese, I think richness so I added it with no regrets.

So bust out your baking dish, crank up the oven and get cooking! And unless you have a family of 12 or 10 hungry Floridians to feed, you'll have leftovers for days. Nothin' wrong with that! 

Ingredients:

Water - 1/4 C and 1/2 C divided
1 Onion, chopped
3 Garlic cloves, pressed or minced
2 C sliced mushrooms (about 1/2 lb)
1 15-oz. can crushed tomatoes, low-sodium
1 28-oz. can tomato sauce, low-sodium
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 lb firm tofu, low-fat
1/2 C finely chopped fresh parsley
2 TBSP tamari or soy sauce, low-sodium
1 10-oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry 
1/2 C raw cashews soaked at least two hours or overnight (If you have a high powered blender, you don't need to soak them)
12 oz dry lasagna noodles (about 10 noodles)

Directions:

Sauté onion in water, add more liquid as needed. Cook over high heat, stirring often until onion is soft, about 5 minutes. (No oil!)

Add garlic and mushrooms and continue cooking until mushrooms are soft, about 5 minutes.

Stir in tomatoes, tomato sauce, basil, oregano, thyme, fennel seeds, and cayenne. Simmer 15 minutes. I covered mine because even on low, sauce wanted to splatter everywhere.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Blend raw cashews and 1/2 C water on high until very smooth. Adding more water a TBSP at a time if it's too thick.


Crumble tofu in a mixing bowl (I used my clean hands), then stir in parsley, tamari or soy sauce and cashew cream.

"Ricotta"

To assemble, spread 1 cup of sauce in a 9"×13" (or larger) baking dish. Cover with a layer of uncooked noodles, about a third of the tofu mixture, and about a third of the spinach.

Repeat layers of sauce, noodles, tofu, spinach, and more sauce. I end up with about three layers of each.

I had a little extra cashew cream as well, so I drizzled it over the top before covering it tightly with foil and baking until noodles were tender, about 1 hour. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.


Note: This lasagna may be assembled up to a day in advance and baked just before serving. The noodles will soften while the lasagna stands, so the baking time can be reduced to 30 minutes.


I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did! In fact, I think I'm going to make it again tonight! :)

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