Who doesn’t love a lasagne?! We recently cooked up this deeply smoky and truly delicious version in the Greencity kitchen, served up to hungry warehousers to see them through an afternoon of picking your orders!

This classic pasta dish lends itself so well to introducing new flavours each time, and we’ve gone with smooth and smoky aubergine and added a burst of flavour with Sgaia’s spicy Nduja alternative - a plant-based tribute to the Calabrian speciality. Layered up with bechamel, pasta, and tomatoes, this is a family favourite and stores well for leftovers the next day too.

Lasagne ingredients

  • 5 aubergines
  • 2 tins cherry tomatoes
  • 2 onions, finely diced
  • 1 tin cooked lentils
  • 6 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 box lasagne sheets
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • I Am Nut Ok Bluffalo Notzarella
  • 10 tbsp Sgaia Nduja

Bechamel sauce ingredients

  • 3 tbsp vegan butter
  • 2 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
  • 3 tbsp flour
  • 100ml silken tofu
  • 700ml plant milk
  • 1 tsp vegan stock powder

Method

  1. Place your aubergines directly over a naked flame. Cook for 5 mins, turning frequently so that they soften and char evenly.
  2. Remove with heatproof tongs and place them on a plate to cool slightly.
  3. Heat a sauté pan over a medium heat, add a glug of olive oil, and cook the onion for 15 mins until softened. Meanwhile, peel the charred skin off your aubergines, and shred the soft flesh.
  4. Add your chopped garlic and ‘nduja to the pan, then cook for 2 mins more. Tip in your cherry tomatoes, cooked lentils and aubergines, then simmer for 15 mins to thicken the sauce slightly.
  5. Heat your oven to 200°C.
  6. While the ragu simmers make the vegan bechamel - melt your butter in a medium-sized saucepan over a medium heat. Once foaming, add your flour and mix to a paste. Cook for 2 mins.
  7. Gradually pour in your milk in small increments, beating all the while to ensure that you have a smooth mixture before adding more milk. Once all the milk is added, bring the mixture to a boil and allow it to thicken. Add the nutritional yeast, silken tofu, and stock powder, and season with a little salt and pepper if necessary.
  8. Pour a little of your white sauce into the base of a 9" x 13" baking dish. Arrange your lasagne sheets neatly on top, snapping sheets where necessary to plug the gaps. Pour over ¼ of your remaining ragù followed by ¼ of your remaining white sauce, then more lasagne sheets. Continue like this until you are out of all your mixtures.
  9. Mix the top layer so that the ragù and white sauce combine, pushing it all the way to the edges so the lasagne sheets are fully covered. Sprinkle the surface with I Am Nut OK Bluffalo Notzarella or a meltable vegan cheese of your choice then bake for 30 mins.
  10. We served up with a nice crisp side salad and griddled flatbreads, brushed generously with I Am Nut OK’s Rosemary & Sea Salt Gourmet Not Butter. Enjoy!