Eggplant, spinach and tofu lasagne Ⓥ

March 6, 2016 by Ambika Yoga 1 Comment

One evening we were having friends over for dinner and I actually wanted to make my delicious eggplant tempeh gnocchi recipe, but I couldn’t find any vegan gnocchi (and didn’t feel like making them myself) whereas I had all the other ingredients. After some quick searching online I improvised and came up with a parmigiana alla melanzana/ lasagne combo. It was relatively quick.

Ingredients (6 servings)

• 1 block of firm tofu (400 g)
• 2 large or 4 small eggplants
• 400 g spinach (frozen)
• 400 ml tomato sauce
• 200 ml soy (or other plant based) cream
• Vegan mozzarella (I used “Mozzarisella”)
• 2 tbsp. nutritional yeast
• Handful of fresh basil
• 2-3 tsp. asafetida
• 1-2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1-2 tsp. Cayenne pepper
• Salt
• Pepper
• Unscented coconut oil (or olive oil)

Preparation

1. Wash then cut the eggplant in slices (lenghtwise) of about 1 cm thick.
2. Generously sprinkle salt on each layer and leave in a strainer (with a plate underneath) to ‘sweat’ for about 15 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
4. Drain the tofu (using plates method OR squeeze using your hands in the sink).
5. Press the tofu into tiny bits (using a kitchen machine OR a potato masher).
6. Season the tofu with the spices and mix well, add some olive oil so the spices absorb nicely (don’t use the nutritional yeast yet).
7. Heat some coconut oil and stir fry the tofu until slightly crispy.
8. Add the frozen spinach (or fresh if you prefer but then you’ll need a lot more) and leave to simmer until the spinach is done.
9. In the meantime, rinse the eggplant, then dry with a clean kitchen towel and slice the flesh a few times diagonally.
10. Place the eggplants onto a baking sheet. Brush each slice with olive oil and season with a little bit of salt and pepper, both sides and place in the oven for about 20 minutes, turn them after 10 minutes (or until nicely cooked).
11. Add the tomato sauce to the tofu/ eggplant mixture and let it simmer.
12. Mix in the cream, nutritional yeast and fresh basil, season with salt & pepper if necessary.
13. Slice the mozzarella.
14. Take 1 big or 2 medium sized oven plates and place a thin layer of the tomato sauce, add slices of eggplant, repeat until done, ending with a layer of tomato sauce and cover with mozzarella.
15. Add foil and place in the oven for about 20 minutes, take away the foil after 15 minutes.
16. Serve with simple green seasonal salad (purslane, lettuce, dandelion, …) and a lemon-olive oil dressing.

By now you must be wondering what happened to the tempeh? I seasoned the slices with sesame oil and Tamari & baked them about 15 minutes in the oven and served them with a tahini sauce as an appetizer. The one year old that was visiting with her parents LOVED the tempeh. A vegan in the making 😉

Om shanti -ॐ शान्ति