The Best Vegan Lasagne You Will Ever Have

Vegan Lasagne with Creamy Cashew Cheese and Marinara Sauce

This is a hearty dish, great for batch cooking or for a special dinner when you want something fancy. It goes super well with a fresh green salad with a balsamic dressing. I used carrots, onions, mushrooms and spinach for veggies, but you can get as creative as you want as almost any kind of vegetables are a perfect match for this recipe, from courgettes or aubergines to bell peppers or even butternut squash.

The secret to making it extra creamy is to use the cashew cheese on all the layers, as it will condense while baking in the oven, making it a joy for your palate.

• Cuisine: Lunch / Dinner

• Time: 1 hour

• Servings: 9 portions

• Requires: a blender, large saucepan, small saucepan, mixing bowl, chopping board, wooden spoon, baking tray, oven

Ingredients

For the cashew cream:

• 250g raw cashews, soaked for at least 4 hours in cold water or 2 hours in warm water (if you have a high-speed blender, you don’t need to soak them at all)

• 1 cup water

• 2 Tbsp lemon juice

• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar

• 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

• 3/4 tsp fine pink Himalayan salt

For the veggie layers:

• 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 medium red onion, chopped

• 2 large or 3 medium carrots, chopped

• 250g mushrooms chopped

• salt and pepper to taste

• 2 handfuls of baby spinach

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

For the marinara sauce:

• 1 large tin of chopped tomatoes

• 1 medium red onion, peeled and finely chopped

• 2 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced

• 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 tsp dried oregano

• Salt, to taste (if necessary)

Method

• Soak the cashew nuts in advance

• Preheat the oven to 180oc

• Start off by making the tomato sauce. Heat the small saucepan with a little oil and add in the chopped onion and garlic and cook on medium heat for a few minutes. Add in the tinned chopped tomatoes, dry oregano and a 100ml of water.

• Season with salt and pepper and cook it out for 30minutes

• In a large saucepan sweat down all of the vegetables in order of what takes longest to cook (so carrot first, then onions, then mushrooms)

• Cook them on a medium for heat 10 minutes – these will cook more in the oven so don’t worry too much about it being 100% cooked through

• For the cashew cream drain off the soaking cashew nuts and add them to a blender with all the other ingredients above and blend until smooth

• Layer up all of the elements in the baking tray until they are all used – I normally do everything twice so use half of everything and repeat

• Top with vegan cheddar or nutritional yeast

• Bake in the oven for 30minutes and then leave to stand for 15minute before serving