Zucchini Lasagna

One of the popular foods that George has not been able to have in a very long time is Lasagna. I've been stumped for the longest time on how to make this dish in a George friendly way. Then we discovered Daiya and a few ricotta "cheese" recipes that work very, very well. Daiya is a dairy-free, soy-free cheese that comes in mozzarella, jack, pepper jack, cheddar and jalapeno garlic havarti. We were going to use the mozzarella in this recipe but we forgot to go to Sprouts to pick it up, so we did without. And we were not disappointed!

 

The first thing I had to do was make the ricotta cheese. This "cheese" is completely nut based, and has no dairy in it at all. I made the seasoned version instead of a plain one since seasoning always goes well with lasagna. After I had finished making it, I handed the spatula to George to taste. He licked it, looked at me with a bewildered face and said, "it tastes EXACTLY like cheese!" I was very pleased.

Seasoned Almond Ricotta "cheese"

This recipe is: Gluten-free, Soy-free, Dairy-free, Rice-free
Time it took to make: 15 minutes
Time it took to prep: 5 minutes

1 1/2 C Raw Almonds, soaked overnight

3/4 C Water

1 tsp Salt

1 Tbs Lemon Juice

1 Tbs Olive Oil

1 Tbs Rosemary*

2 cloves Garlic

Place almonds in food processor or blender and blend until they are a fine grain. Add the water, salt, lemon juice, oil, rosemary and garlic and process until creamy. Ideally you would place the ricotta in a fine mesh strainer and drain off the water for a few hours. When all water has drained away you can either use it right away or store in an air tight container until needed.

I ended up letting it sit for about half an our in some cheese cloth on top of a paper towel to pull out some of the moisture, but not very much. It didn't make too much of a difference in the lasagna, so for the following recipe, it won't make a big difference if you let it sit or not. I ALSO ended up being a half a cup short on almonds, so I threw in a half of a cup of cashews. Very tasty, easily substituted.

The zucchini is the biggest part that you really need to try and get all the water out. I set up a ton of paper towels and sliced the zucchini to about a 1/4''. I salted them and let them sit, then wrapped them individually in paper towels. I hand squeezed out a lot of water then let them sit again on more paper towels until I needed to use them. You could always grill them to help get rid of some more water too, but I didn't have the time.

Zucchini Lasagna
This recipe is: Gluten-free, Soy-free, Dairy-free, Rice-free
Time it took to make: 1 hour 15 mintues
Time it took to prep: 30 minutes


1 lb ground beef
3 cloves garlic
6 inches of green onion tops, chopped finely**
1 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper
28 oz can crushed tomatoes
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
3 medium zucchini, sliced 1/8" thick, water pulled out of it
15 oz ricotta "cheese"

In a medium pan, brown meat and season. When cooked, drain in a colander to remove as much fat as possible. Saute garlic for 2 minutes, then return meat to the pan. Add tomatoes, onion tops, salt, pepper and basil. Simmer on low for 30-40 minutes until sauce is thick.

When sauce is done, spread some on the bottom of a casserole dish.. Layer the zucchini to cover it and place a small amount of ricotta on top of that. Keep up the layers until everything is used up. Bake 45 minutes at 375F and let stand 5-10 minutes before serving.

Original Recipe Source: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2009/02/zucchini-lasagna.html

Now, if we had actually remembered to go get the Daiya cheese, it would have been in there, but even without it, this Lasagna was delicious. The ricotta "cheese" was very creamy and everything tasted wonder. George went back for seconds! And almost thirds, because it was just that good. This would easily be able to be made vegetarian, I would just use a second can of tomatoes instead of meat in the sauce recipe, just making sure that the sauce is nice and thick.
Both George and I are in agreement, Zucchini Lasagna is SO much better than noodle lasagna. I never want to make it with noodles again.

*We used home dried rosemary from my grandparents garden. I find that it's a lot more fragrant and tasty than the dried stuff you can get from the store.
**We grow green onions on our window sill since it is SUPER easy to do. I just cut the tops off and use them in whatever I need them in and they grow back in a couple of days. In this recipe you could use a regular onion, and brown it when you saute the garlic. Or just throw in the tops like I did.