Recipe Multi-Grain Vegetable Lasagne

Multi-grain Vegetable Lasagne (Serves 4)

Ingredients:

For the stuffing
600 gm spinach (cleaned & blanched)
200 gm tofu (diced)
4 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
Salt and black pepper powder to taste

For the sauce
2 tsp olive oil
5 large cloves garlic (finely chopped)
2 large onions (finely chopped)
2 large carrots (grated)
6 large tomatoes (coarsely pureed)
1 tsp red chili flakes
½ tsp carom seeds (ajwain)
½ tsp mixed dried herbs
Salt to taste
1 packet multi-grain Lasagne sheets

Method:

1. For the stuffing, roughly chop the blanched spinach and combine in a mixer or food processor with tofu, garlic, salt and pepper and grind to a coarse paste. Remove into a bowl and keep aside.
2. For the sauce, heat olive oil over a medium flame and sauté garlic and onion till translucent. Add carrots and continue to sauté till carrots are tender.
3. Mix in tomatoes, chilli flakes, carom seeds (rubbed between your palms to release optimum flavor) and dried herbs and cook till tomatoes are cooked and mashy. Mix in salt and remove from flame. Keep aside.
4. Cook multi-grain lasagna sheets as per instructions on the pack and refresh with cold water and drain well.
5. Preheat oven to 120⁰C. To assemble the lasagna, spread a spoonful of sauce evenly over the base of a small ovenproof casserole or grease it very lightly with olive oil. Arrange one layer of lasagna sheets over the base. Spread half the filling over the sheets and top with one-third of the sauce. Arrange another layer of lasagna sheets and spread over with remaining filling mixture. Top with half of the remaining sauce.
6. Arrange the final layer of lasagna sheets and top with remaining sauce.
7. Place in the middle rack of the oven and bake for 15 minutes.
8. Remove and serve hot.

There are a few golden tips when making pasta.

• Use a pot that will heat quickly and easy to handle when full of hot water and pasta.
• Cook pasta after all your other dishes are ready. Pasta is best eaten freshly prepared. Cooked, hot pasta on cooling turns into a sticky mess.
• Al dente mean firm to the bite. Soft mushy pasta is not the right way to have it.
• Pasta must be lightly tossed in the accompanying sauce. The sauce should coat the pasta not drown it.
• A sprinkle of olive oil or melted butter over the final dish adds a whole new dimension to the flavour.

thnxxx