Veggie sausage and lentil lasagne recipe (best "authentic" tasting veggie lasagne I've made - great for dinner with friends, or for a couple of dinners and lunches throughout the week!)

Serves: 8

Difficulty: Quite easy, just time consuming, but a nice way to spend part of an afternoon. Labour intensive at points, but much of the time is cooking down time

Time: 2.5 hours (well spent/worth it)

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Ingredients

· Olive oil 2tbsp

· Lasagne sheets x1 pack

· Veggies sausages x12 (Linda McCartney if possible (UK))

· Red split lentils 200g

· Celery x2 sticks

· Carrots x2

· Onions x2

· Garlic x 4-6 cloves

· Tinned plum tomatoes x2 400g tins

· Tomato puree

· Red wine x1 glass (optional but great for depth of flavour)

· Veggie stock pots/cubes x2

· Bay leaves x2

· Sage 1tsp

· Basil 2tsp

· Oregano 1tsp

· Balsamic/red wine vinegar 1tsp

· Sugar (to taste)

· Salt and pepper (to taste)

· Mozzarella balls x2

· Cheddar (or similar)

· Parmesan

· Feta (optional)

· Milk 1pt

· Plain flour 1oz

· Butter 1oz

· Mustard 1tsp (optional)

· Cherry tomatoes x 12 (optional)

Method

1. Cook the veggie sausages in the oven according to packet instructions, and then continue with preparing the sauce whilst these cook.

2. Finely chop the onion, celery, carrot, and garlic cloves (a food processor gives a fine chop for a bolognese, or just very finely diced). Heat some olive oil in a large saucepan, and add the chopped veggies. Add salt and pepper, and fry gently but with sizzle over a medium heat for about five minutes until softened but not coloured.

3. Add 1/3 tube of tomato puree and cook over a medium/low heat for a further 5 minutes to cook out the acidic tang from the puree.

4. Turn up the heat and add the red wine (if using) and cook fast until the liquid has gone.

5. Add the tinned tomatoes, stock pots/cubes, vinegar, bay leaves, sage, basil, and oregano. Add about 400ml water (fill one of the empty tomato tins). Bring to a fast simmer.

6. Once simmering, add the lentils (pre-wash these in a sieve under cold water). The lentils will cook in the sauce. Bring down to a medium-slow simmer.

7. After everything has settled down for a couple of minutes, taste and balance the flavour. Use salt, pepper, sugar, and any other veggie depth-giving things you have at hand to add flavour and balance (marmite, liquid aminos, parmesan rind, ketchup, cocoa powder, smoked paprika, etc.). Add any/all of these things in small amounts and taste regularly until you get it right. Remember, the sauce will get sweeter/deeper as it cooks in any case, so don’t go overboard at this point, and don’t worry if it doesn’t taste perfect at this stage, it is going to cook down for ages and develop its flavour throughout, and there is plenty of opportunity to modify it during the cooking process. You can be tasting and adjusting all throughout. Normally it is good to do a bit of balancing each time you check on and stir the sauce whilst it is cooking down.

8. Cook for about 60-90 minutes, checking on the sauce regularly (every 10-15mins). At first it will be very watery, but this is fine as the lentils will absorb some of this as they cook, and it will cook down. The lentils will take a long time to cook in the sauce, so for the first half of the cooking they will be crunchy when you taste it, but this is fine, and you still want them to have a little bit of bite to them when done.

9. At some point during the sauce cooking process, the veggie sausages in the oven will be cooked. Take them out of the oven to cool, and then chop roughly into small chunks (suggest half-moons). Leave the oven on at gas 4-5 (180C) to keep it hot for the cooking of the lasagne.

10. Prepare the béchamel white sauce whilst the tomato sauce is cooking. Grate a big pile of cheddar cheese beforehand. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat, add the flour to the melted butter to combine into a paste, and cook for a minute or so. Slowly start adding the milk, a glug at a time, stirring constantly. Once all the milk is combined, bring to a simmer, and cook for two minutes to thicken. Add in the grated cheddar, and a teaspoon of mustard (if using). Stir to combine and taste. Season and/or add more cheese if you think necessary. Set aside until needed.

11. Once you are happy that the sauce and the lentils in it are almost ready after about 60-90 minutes, combine the veggie sausages into the sauce. The sausages will absorb some of the remaining moisture, and might make it quite thick, so add more water to get the desired final consistency (you want a lasagne sauce to be well cooked down, but not too dry. It should hold its shape when you dig up a wooden spoonful from the pan, but still ooze and have good sauciness to it). Give it a few minutes on a low heat to allow the sausages and sauce to cook together. Taste the sauce again, it should be really rich and balanced by this point. Do more balancing if necessary.

12. Chop the mozzarella balls into slices and crumble/roughly chop about 100-150g of feta. Grate a bit more cheddar and some parmesan. Halve the cherry tomatoes (if using).

13. Build the lasagne. Rub olive oil around a large ceramic oven dish. Start with a bottom layer of lasagne sheets, spread in a single layer. Add your first layer of tomato sauce, aiming for about a ¾-1 inch thick layer. Add half of the béchamel sauce as a layer on top of this and spread evenly with a spatula to cover the tomato sauce. Add a layer of lasagne sheets. Sprinkle in the crumbled feta on top of this layer of lasagne sheets. Cover with tomato sauce another ¾-1 inch thick (if at this point you have more tomato sauce left over, avoid the temptation to try and stuff it all in, as it will be too much. Save it separately in the fridge/freeze it down to have as bolognese sauce with another meal). Top the tomato sauce with the sliced mozzarella spread out evenly. Cover with another layer or lasagne sheets. Add the second half of the béchamel on top of this and spread evenly. Add the grated cheddar and parmesan spread out across the top of the lasagne. Stud the top with chopped cherry tomatoes (if using). If you like you can add some pepper and dried basil on top too.

14. Put in the oven at gas 4-5 (180C) for 35-40 minutes. Once cooked leave on the side to cool and settle for a good 5-10 minutes before serving. This will help with the serving and also make it hold its shape better.

15. Enjoy with a nice salad or some garlic bread!

bon appetit