Last night I decided to continue my Allie and Pete-inspired “no food goes to waste” streak by making this vegan lasagna. Interesting fact: ‘lasagna’ actually means the sheet of pasta used, and ‘lasagne’ means multiple lasagna sheets. In most countries outside of the US (including Italy, and Australia where I grew up), ‘lasagne’ is the correct spelling for this dish.
For the past few months, every time I eat a load of bread I have been putting the ends of the loaf in the freezer. I didn’t know what I would do with them, but I knew I would use them one day. No food goes to waste! Then yesterday I had the idea to make lasagna, and instead of buying pasta sheets I decided to use up all the frozen bread ends.
I microwaved the ends and chopped them into cubes, just like croutons. I tossed them in a little olive oil and toasted them in the oven at 400F.
While they were toasting I sliced a large eggplant and browned the strips in a frying pan. I didn’t cook them in oil because I’d already used oil on the bread, and my pan is nonstick. They cooked perfectly!
About 7 months ago I thought I had become intolerant to eggplant because I had it a few times and felt really unwell afterwards. I now know that this was more likely because of the amount of oil used in the dish (eggplant parmigiana hero) and also possibly because I was eating it well before it was in season, therefore it was grown far away and conventially. I can eat it now with no problems whatsoever.
I sliced some mushrooms and onion and then steamed the onion in the frying pan with a little water until it was soft but not cooked through. Once that was done I began to layer my lasagna in a glass dish.
I started with a layer of bread, then spooned half a medium can of diced organic tomatoes over the top. I added a layer of onion and then a layer of mushrooms.
On top of that went a layer of eggplant, then the other half of the can of diced tomatoes, another layer of bread, more onions, more mushrooms and more bread. I opened large can of whole organic tomatoes and spread them out across the top, smushing them as I went. Then, a layer of torn basil leaves…
… before I layered the last of the eggplant and then poured the sauce from the can of whole tomatoes over everything. I topped the lasagna with bread crumbs made from some leftover croutons (I had to make some myself using a rolling pin; if you have a food processor, you can save yourself 10 minutes!) and then poured nutritional yeast over the top. I baked the dish at 375F until it was cooked. I covered it with foil halfway through cooking, but you may not need to do this.
It tasted fantastic! … last night, and this morning for breakfast :)
Quick summary:
Ingredients
~1 loaf of bread, cubed and toasted
1 large eggplant, sliced into thin strips
2 onions, steamed to soften
~10 white mushrooms, sliced
1 medium can diced tomatoes
1 large can whole tomatoes
~4 large basil leaves
Nutritional yeast
Directions
Layer ingredients in a large dish. Top with bread crumbs and nutritional yeast. Bake until cooked on top and soft in the middle.
Buon appetito!
