Recipe: Veggie lasagne
Our lasagne is packed with veggies and deliciously sauced with both a red tomato sauce and white sunflower sauce. The preschoolers and educators enjoy it as part of our Spring + Summer menu. Give it a try and see why they come back for seconds! Make 2 and give one to a friend, or put it in the freezer for a quick dinner on a busy evening :).
Lasagne ingredients (serves 12):
- 16 lasagne sheets
- Topping: shredded mozzarella cheese (Made by Plants brand)
- 1 cup sweet potato, grated
- 1 cup eggplant, grated
- 1 cup zucchini, grated
- 1 teaspoon native oregano
Sunflower white sauce ingredients:
- 1 cup sunflower seeds
- 1 1/3 cup water
- 4 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 teaspoons sea salt or to taste
Red sauce ingredients:
- 1 jar tomato passata
- 1 can lentils, brown
- 1 teaspoon marmite
- Sprinkle basil, fresh or dried
- Sprinkle salt
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
- Grease a deep 33cm X 24cm pan
- Boil hot water in the kettle, add the sunflower seeds to a small bowl, and pour hot water over them. Allow them to soak for 20 minutes and then drain.
- Prepare the filling:
- Grate the sweet potatoes, eggplant and zucchini
- Heat olive oil in a pan and saute the veggies until tender
- Make the white sunflower cream sauce:
- Add the sunflower seeds and all other ingredients to a high-powered blender. Blend on high for 2-3 minutes or until smooth.
- Add seeds, water, garlic powder, onion powder, nutritional yeast and salt to the blender. Blend until smooth.
- Make the red sauce:
- Combine the red sauce ingredients in a saucepan and season to taste
- Put it all together!
- Using a large deep pan, add 1 cm of red sauce, then add 4 lasagna sheets (okay to overlap a little), then sprinkle grated veggies, and top with white sauce
- Repeat adding lasagna sheets, grated veggies, red sauce, white sauce, etc. layering until the pan is almost full (or layer however you like)
- Top with shredded plant-based mozzarella
- Cover the pan with foil and bake in the oven for 30 minutes covered. Then remove the foil and turn on the oven grill for about 3-5 minutes to brown the cheese on top. Top with fresh basil, and allow to set up on the counter for about 10 minutes before cutting into slices. Serve and enjoy!
We offer Preschoolers fresh meals and snacks prepared onsite daily in our commercial-grade kitchen by our trained and passionate cook, all included in our daily fees. Our menu is 100% plant based, entirely free of animal products. The snacks and meals have been thoughtfully developed to appeal to children, but most importantly to be perfectly nutritionally balanced for children aged 2-6.
Our cook has crafted rotating seasonal menus in partnership with a registered dietitian and in consultation with Australian government guidelines for optimum age-appropriate nutrition. Our menu was also awarded the Excellence in Food & Menu Design award at the 2022 Excellence In Early Childhood Education Awards. This award recognised the hard work of our team to provide well-balanced, nutritious, and delicious food, that is considerate of the individual needs of children, allergies, sensitivities and cultures.
At Sustainable Play we encourage children to learn where their food comes from and to empower them with the tools to eat sustainably while being thoughtful to our planet and its animals. Children are encouraged to participate in planting, growing, and tending to fresh produce in the preschool garden – harvesting, helping prepare, cook, and then continuing the cycle by composting leftovers to be later used to feed our garden plants.[/ultimate_heading]