Maternity leave is for.....cooking plant based yummies
I haven't had much of a chance to write my blog lately, but I'm BACK! My plan is to write some more about my pprom journey in my pregnancy and my experiences with a premmie bub, but for now I will write about something a bit more light hearted, my love for food and for cooking plant based meals. I never used to love being in the kitchen, until I ditched eating animal products. Now I absolutely love experimenting with new foods and recipes and cooking with ingredients that I never used to cook with when I used to eat animal products. Eating plant based is so much more fun with so many different flavours and tastes. I think back to the foods that I used to eat and it used to be soooooo boring!!!
I'm not very good at following recipes. As my partner calls it, I love to mod recipes to suit either what I have in the kitchen or what my tastes are. Often the recipe ends up nothing like the original version. I also rarely make things exactly the same because I often forget what I have put in and in what quantity I have used. From now on I plan to take a bit more notice so that I can share these recipes on my blog.
I decided yesterday that I had a serious craving for lasagne! So I looked up a few different recipes and made up my own little version which actually turned out to be pretty damn yummy! Feel free to make your own mods too!
The key is to make your sauces first and then compile it all together. As I eat gluten free I used gluten free lasagne sheets but you can use normal.
TOMATO SAUCE
3 cans crushed tomatoes
750gm of sliced mushrooms
3 tbsp soy sauce (you can get gluten free soy sauce or use tamari if you can't find and you want to keep it gluten free)
salt and pepper to taste
Saute the mushrooms in the soy sauce in a fry pan until the moisture has gone. You will notice that the water will come out of the mushrooms and then reduce. Be patient because it will take a little while to do so. Once this has happened, add the crushed tomatoes, salt and pepper and simmer for a few more minutes. If the sauce is too runny you will just need to cook for a little longer.
CHEESE SAUCE
6 tbsp olive oil
5 tbsp buckwheat flour (or any other flour if you don't need gluten free)
4 Cups Soy Milk (you could also use almond milk but I found that the soy milk gave it a nice creamy taste and texture)
3/4 cup shredded vegan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
Heat the olive oil and sift in the flour. Cook for a few minutes continually stirring before adding the milk and cheese. Keep stirring until the sauce thickens to the correct consistency and then remove from the heat.
You are now ready to assemble the lasagne!!
Place a layer of tomato sauce in the bottom of a baking dish, followed by a layer of lasagne sheets, then a layer of tomato sauce, then cheese sauce, then lasange sheets, lasagne sheets, tomato sauce, white sauce, lasagne sheets, tomato sauce, white sauce, tomato sauce, lasagne sheets, white sauce, then place a layer of sliced vegan cheese, sliced tomato and black pepper on top.
Cook in a fan forced oven at 220 degrees for 30 minutes then ENJOY!!!!!
