The ULTIMATE vegan lasagna

THIS is IT, this is the lasagna that even Garfield would be obsessed with. It was actually one of the first veganized dishes that I made and it tastes as good as if an Italian grandma made it, I swear!

At one of my first office jobs, I had a colleague that we used to call the "grandma" of the team. He was the oldest in the group and quite frankly the sweetest person that I have ever met. He is Sicilian and he would make the best italian dishes for us. I remember the day when he spent pretty much the whole day preparing his amazing lasagna. It was waaaay before my vegan times and the thing that concerned me the most were the mushrooms in it (yes, I am a picky eater). And yet, even with the mushrooms I totally loved it. And I want to believe that even though my lasagna doesn't take the whole day to cook, he would still appreciate it as much as I appreciate his back in the day. For the moment, it's up to you to test and let me know here or comment on my Instagram!

Also, I have already shared the link to my Bolognese sauce so I won't be sharing it here again. So for the Bolognese part, just click here to learn how to prepare it.

For the Bolognese you will need:

• Click here for the ingredients

For the béchamel you will need:

• 1/2 cup vegan butter

• 1/2 cup flour

• 4 cups plant-based milk (ideally soy, I find oat or almond milk too sweet)

• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast

• salt, peper

• nutmeg

Pasta

• 1 pack dried lasagna sheets (most probably you won't use all of them)

Optional:

• Vegan grated cheese

First, start making your Bolognese sauce. In case you haven't read the previous few paragraphs and skipped to this part, here is the link to the recipe. You can start working on your béchamel and preheating the oven to 360F at the point when you have around those 15 minutes left to the Bolognese sauce preparation or you can just finish one and then move to the rest.

Preheat your oven to 360F.

Prepare your béchamel. First, start heating your milk - it's better to incorporate it into your roux while warm. Melt the butter in a pot and then stir in the flour. Cook the mix whilst stirring for a couple of minutes to cook out the flour. It should resemble a paste like consistency. Once the roux is done, gradually whisk in the warmed up milk. I usually do it in 8-10 goes. Yes, it's time consuming but totally worth it! As you incorporate the last drop of your milk, add the nutritional yeast and grate a bit of nutmeg. You can eventually add some grated vegan cheese but personally I don't think it's necessary.

Roux is flour and fat cooked together. It is used to thicken the sauces. As it's supposed to be cooked to a desired level of brownness, it's the color that has given it the name - brownish ginger color. Ginger in French is "roux". In this recipe, it's not desired to cook it to that brown level as we still want the white looking béchamel but the idea is the same here.

Now as your Bolognese and béchamel are done, you can just assemble it all together. Build it in an oven proof baking dish, a layer at a time. I usually start with just a bit of the béchamel, then the pasta sheets, Bolognese ragu, béchamel, sheets.... and finish with a generous layer of béchamel. You can also sprinkle some grated vegan cheese on the top. Put the lasagna in the oven for 45 minutes. Once done, let it sit for at least 15 minutes - it's easier to cut and it holds better the form!