Vegan Lasagna with Cashew Cheese

I honestly was never a huge fan of pasta… or bread… or pastries… basically any grains for that matter. I would only buy donuts to lick the icing off, or I would only eat a bagel so I could have a one inch layer of cream cheese on it. If it didn’t look weird I would have probably ordered just the icing or just the cream cheese from Tim Horton’s. So ya, breads in general are not my thing, and I do count myself as lucky because according to some women they can be quite addicting.

However, vegan lasagna is something I have wanted to do for a long time. I have always liked lasagna, not loved, but liked. It was never a meal we ate as kids, seeing as my dad had celiac and my sister and I were not that adventurous when we were making meals. They usually consisted of meat and potatoes, rice and stir fry or hot dogs and fries, not a lot of imagination for a couple of teens. But my parents were thankful that they didn’t have to cook meals when they got home from work.

I think the appeal of making vegan lasagna is the fact that it's so not vegan. You have anywhere from 3 to 10 types of cheese and then hamburger or pork as the key ingredients, which of course are everyone’s favourites. So this was kind of a test for me, to make lasagna that super ooey gooey, cheesey, deliciousness that everyone would love. Naturally my inner self yelled, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED and I set out on the net to check out some recipes. Unfortunately, none really caught my attention, so I just took all of my favourite aspects and blended them into one amazing lasagna recipe.
This is probably one of the best things I have EVER made, vegan or non-vegan. My husband even agrees that this is the best vegan thing I have ever made... even better than my chili, SHOCKER I KNOW! Because my chili is fricken fantastic. So I hope some of you are adventurous and try out my recipe, it’s totally worth it and you don’t even have to tell anyone its vegan, just let them decide if they like it or not!

Cashew Cheeze

1 cup of cashews, soaked overnight

1/2 cup of fresh basil

¼ cup of fresh lemon juice

2 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp of nutritional yeast

¼ cup of water or vegan broth

Place all of the ingredients into a blender or a food processor and blend until smooth.

Lasagna - 8 x 8 pan

½ pkg of vegan, ready to cook, lasagna noodles, gluten free or not!

1 jar of vegan tomato sauce

1 medium zucchini, sliced thinly lengthwise
1 tbsp of coconut oil

½ of medium onion, diced

1 pkg of mushrooms, diced

2 red bell pepper, diced

8 cups of fresh spinach

2 cups of Daiya Cheese, mozzarella flavour.   

1) Make a base layer of sauce on the bottom of the pan, followed by a layer of noodles.

2) Spread half of the cashew cheeze across the noodles.

3) Layer of zucchini slices.

4) Layer of sauted vegetables
5) Layer of tomato Sauce, which I had forgot to do, oops!

6) Another layer of noodles

7) The rest of the cashew cheeze!

8) Layer of zucchini slices.

9) Layer of tomato sauce
10) Place the last of the vegetables on top of the sauce.

11) Final layer of Daiya cheese!!

Bake Lasagna at 400 degrees F. for an hour.

For 40 minutes, covered in tin foil, the last 20 minutes to be uncovered. 

Thanks for reading!!
xoxo -N