Although making lasagna takes time (requiring very little skill), it is well worth the effort, when I see how much my family enjoys it. The cheesy soft warm pasta is layered between luscious, juicy, and perfectly seasoned black beans, tomato, and onion sauce. I need to emphasize that it is 100% gluten-free and vegan.

The most time consuming part of making this lasagna is preparing the sauce. I combined cooked black beans, tomato puree, tomato paste, onion, and all sorts of spices in a saucepan and let it simmer for 1 hour. In the end, the black beans thoroughly absorbed the distinctively flavored tomato sauce. This black bean tomato sauce can be prepared ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator. I prepared it the night before I assembled the lasagna, which makes the work much easier, especially if I have a tight schedule that day but still want to serve a big meal.

Due to the increasing availability of gluten-free lasagna and vegan cheese, I was able to buy them at the local grocery stores. I used a package of non-boil gluten-free brown rice lasagna, and it turned out surprisingly nice and soft. For the cheese mixture, I combined Daiya gluten-free/dairy-free mozzarella cheese, Tofutti sour cream, Silk unsweetened soy milk, and basil. The assembly process of this lasagna is the same as a beef version lasagna. Pay attention to avoid overlapping the pasta layer when assembling, otherwise the overlapped part will not be thoroughly cooked.

You can prepare and assemble the whole dish the day before you are going to bake it. Using black beans instead of beef makes this dish less heavy and healthier. It is a great vegan main dish to serve your family and guests.