Wheat Free Vegetarian Lasagne

One of my favourite types of foods before becoming almost paleo was Italian. We would have eaten a cheesy pasta dish about once a week. I have been missing it of late. A few weeks ago a friend from Australia was visiting and he made a lasagne using sheets of aubergine and courgette instead of pasta. It was yummy, and something I have been meaning to try and recreate ever since he left.

I was inspired today by the contents of my freezer. In the spirit of zero waste week we are trying to reduce our food waste and use up what was in the freezer. We had a pack of Quorn mince, something I used to love in my vegetarian days. I have been getting tired of meat, so I thought this would make a nice change.

I used this recipe, http://www.quorn.co.uk/recipes/vegetarian-lasagne/ and followed it almost to the letter for the Quorn and tomato sauce (I used fresh tomatoes which I skinned and cooked down prior, omitted the red wine and used real stock instead of a stock cube).

For the courgette and aubergine 'pasta', I cut them thinly, salted them and roasted them for about 10 mins to get rid of some excess moisture. This was a lesson learned from when my friend made his. Though it was fine to eat as the moisture was drained as we served it, I thought it might be worth a try to try and get rid of some. It seemed to work.

To make a grain free sauce I used two pots of Ricotta Cheese (2x250g) and 2 eggs, mixed together well, with salt and pepper added. Then I added some grated parmesan to the top, before putting it an oven at 200ºC for about 30 mins

Half on the mince with a courgette layer on top

Half of the Ricotta and egg cheese sauce

A second layer of mince, with aubergine 'pasta'

Add the remained of the cheese sauce and top with parmesan

As it came out of the oven

The smell as it was cooking was to die for - this is something I have missed. It tasted great too. Although it's not paleo, I think Quorn mince might appear in our dinner again occasionally. After all, I did only ever claim to be Almost Paleo, and I was a veggie for a very long time! You could of course use real mince if you wish - I am still struggling to like meat though!

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