Triple mushroom white lasagna

This is the first recipe I am sharing with the world on No Meat Man. It tasted amazing and it also proves my initial premonition that vegetarians can eat just as unhealthy as anyone else.

This thing is cheesy and delicious. Okay, here we go!

Triple Mushroom White Lasagna

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons butter (I use Earth Balance.)

4 ounces white mushrooms

4 ounces portabello mushrooms

4 ounces cremini mushrooms

12 ounces fresh spinach

1 medium yellow onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

½ tablespoon nutmeg

½ cup parmesan cheese

20 no-boil lasagna sheets

3.5 cups of milk

12 ounces of fresh ricotta

8 oz. fresh mozarella

Salt and pepper to taste

This meal is made in easy, per layer, stages. It will feed five people easily, but it’s also great for freezing or storing in the refrigerator to reheat for the whole week if you are just cooking for yourself!

Start by preheating your oven to 375° and then it’s off to the stages:

Stage one: The mushroom and spinach layer

Chop or dice all three types of mushrooms into small pieces. Whichever size you prefer, but not too big or your lasagna layers will be lumpy. After they are chopped, sauté them with some butter (or substitute) for about 3-4 minutes until they soften up and set them aside in a bowl to cool.

Give your spinach a few chops and sauté it just like your mushrooms until they start to release their juices and shrink down drastically in size.

Pile the spinach on top of your mushrooms and salt and pepper to taste.

Give everything a light mixing and then set aside and let it continue to cool.

Stage two: The white sauce (bechamél) layer

Put a large saucepan over medium-low heat and begin by melting 3 tablespoons of butter in it. Stir until melted, then add onions and garlic and sauté for 5-6 minutes or until onions are soft and translucent.

Slowly add milk and bring the mix to a simmer for about five minutes. You can use milk of any kind… I used plain almond milk from Trader Joes and it turned out wonderful.

Add nutmeg, a ½ teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of pepper and simmer for five more minutes. Remove ¾ cup of the sauce and set aside.

After 10 minutes of simmering, slowly add parmesan cheese while stirring until the sauce is thick enough to cling to a mixing spoon or whisk, but still able to run off. Turn heat to low, save remaining parmesan (to top the lasagna) and move to stage three.



Stage three: The cheese layer

In a large bowl, mix ricotta, fresh mozzarella (diced) and a dash of salt. I added cayenne pepper to this mix too for a little added zing, but not required at all.

Stage four: Assemble and cook

Start by pouring the 1/5 of the sauce from your sauce pan into the bottom of a baking dish. Cover the sauce with no-boil lasagna sheets. I used four sheets per layer, but if you have a different size pan that is okay too. Just make sure to adjust the other layers accordingly.

Spread 1/5 of the cheese layer evenly over the pasta sheets.

Spread ¼ of the mushroom and spinach layer on the cheese.

Cover the mushrooms and spinach with another 1/5 of the sauce and then add another (alternating) layer of lasagna sheets on top of that.

Repeat the above until you end up with five layers of pasta sheets ending with the fifth layer of cheese.

Cover the cheese with the remaining ¾ cup of sauce that you set aside and cover that with the remaining parmesan. Voila, assembly is done!

Cover the lasagna with tin foil and bake for 25 minutes.

Remove the foil and bake for another 5 minutes so the cheese is lightly browned. Let it it cool 5-10 minutes before serving and enjoy!

Here was my final meal: I enjoyed the lasagna with a celery, tomato, and basil salad and a slice of San Francisco sourdough.

I hope you enjoyed my first recipe. My apologies on the iPhone photo quality, but here is to many more!

Thanks for the inspiration from writers here, here, and here.

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