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Favorite Veggie Lasagna is the Best of All Time

June 19, 2024 by thehamptonsvegan

This is the best-tasting lasagna I’ve ever made.

We love lasagna and all its cousins. Stuffed shells, manicotti, and ravioli are all super yummy. And actually, they are like the same thing in different forms. So maybe they’re closer than cousins. They all have pasta, marinara sauce, and cheese. Usually ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, and mozzarella cheese.

A vegan lifestyle can mean the end of many entrees on a traditional Italian restaurant menu. There’s always spaghetti and marinara sauce. Or any of the other kinds of pasta with marinara sauce. So it gets very same-same, which turns into ho-hum, aka boring. And that’s only if the marinara doesn’t have butter, Parmesan cheese, or even anchovies added to the recipe. (Always ask the server.)

But give up Italian Food?! Not! (Even if it’s one food pretending to be a bunch of different foods. We still love it all.) So what can we do?

Make the best-tasting vegan Italian food at home!

It is so easy to make your favorite vegan recipes at home now. The options for ready-made vegan items are more abundant today than just a few years ago.

There are more choices of vegan meats now, like Impossible meatballs, Beyond burgers, and Field Roast sausages.

There are more vegan cheeses like Miyokos mozzarella, Violife Parmesan, Follow Your Heart cheese shreds, and Kite Hill ricotta.

There are many vegan frozen Italian meals. Try Amy’s Vegan Lasagna with vegetables, Target’s vegan raviolis (by Tabitha Brown), and Gardein Italian style rigatoni n’ plant-based saus’ge.

Some wonderful vegan recipe bloggers create delicious Italian recipes. The Gentle Chef, THEPPK (Isa Chandra Moskowitz), It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken, and The Kind Life are some of them.

And Now: Our Favorite Vegan Lasagna!

Our favorite lasagna is by BOSH! Their videos are so much fun to watch. So grateful for this recipe inspiration:

It includes: veggies,

lasagna noodles,

homemade red sauce (or sub with marinara from a jar),

and the most delicious vegan bechamel sauce.

And here’s a photo dump of the steps in action to achieve this lovely, stand-alone vegan veggie lasagna!~

Vegan lasagna ingredients — Lasagna ingredients

soak cashews — Soak cashews in boiled water.

slice eggplant and zucchini 1/4 inch lengthwise — Slice eggplant and zucchini into 1/4-inch vertical slices.

Chop onions, garlic, and sundried tomatoes. — Chop onions, garlic, and sun-dried tomatoes.

Roast eggplant and zucchini slices. — Roast eggplant and zucchini

Saute the onions, garlic, and sun-dried tomatoes.

Add the rest of the red sauce ingredients and simmer.

Boil the noodles. — Cook the lasagna noodles.

Blend soaked cashews in a high-speed blender. — Blend soaked cashews with the rest of the bechamel ingredients.

Keep blending cashews until smooth. — Blend the bechamel sauce until smooth.

Lasagna assembly step 1 — The layering: Step 1

Lasagna assembly step 19 and bake. — Step 19

lasagna layers on a plate with basil on top — Viola! The most delicious Vegan Lasagna!

vegan veggie lasagna that stands up on your plate and won't let you down.

thehamptonsvegan

Favorite Vegan Veggie Lasagna

All the feels of a restaurant-quality lasagna to impress your guests.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 45

Total Time 1 45

Servings: 8

Course: dinner, Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

4 Cups Raw Cashews
3 Cups Water Plus more to soak cashews
6 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast
6 Tablespoons Corn Starch
2 1/2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
9 Cloves Garlic minced and divided
4 teaspoons Salt
1 Cup Soy Milk unsweetened and unflavored
2 Small Eggplants cut into 1/4 inch lengthwise slices.
2 Zucchini cut into 1/4 inch lengthwise slices.
1 Large Onion chopped
1/2 Cup Sun-Dried Tomatoes chopped
1/3 Cup Basil chopped
1/3 Cup Vegan Pesto Use our recipe or store bought.
10 Plum Tomatoes chopped
8 – 12 Lasagna Noodles amount depends on size of noodles.
2 Cups Strained Tomatoes or tomato puree
260 ml Vegan Red Wine
2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
1 Tablespoon Oregano
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil for cooking or use avocado oil.

Equipment

High Speed Blender or large food processor

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
SOAK THE CASHEWS:
In a medium pot, bring 3-4 cups of water to a boil then turn it off., Add raw cashews and cover with a lid. Let soak for 30 minutes.
While cashews are soaking:
ROAST ZUCCHINI AND EGGPLANT SLICES (on parchment paper to prevent sticking) in a preheated 400 degree F oven for about 15- 20 minutes, flipping halfway through until golden brown in spots and not hard anymore.
While cashews are soaking and eggplant and zucchini are roasting:
COOK NOODLES:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a tablespoon of salt to water then add lasagna noodles and cook per directions on package. When cooked, drain, then set aside on parchment paper without touching each other to avoid sticking together.
While cashews are soaking, eggplant and zucchini are roasting, and noodles are boiling:
MAKE THE RED SAUCE
In a large skillet, cook the onions in the olive oil until softened and translucent. Add 5 cloves of garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, and oregano, and cook 1-2 minutes more. Add tomato paste and red wine. Cook for about 4 minutes to cook down the wine. Add the chopped plum tomatoes and strained tomatoes to the pan. Cook until bubbling. Then turn the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for about 10 -15 minutes.
MAKE THE BECHAMEL SAUCE:
After soaking the cashews, drain them, and add to a high-speed blender or food processor. Then add the 3 cups of water, apple cider vinegar, nutritional yeast, corn starch, 4 garlic cloves, and salt. Blend well until it is all incorporated and smooth. Pour mixture into pan used for soaking cashews and heat on low to medium. Then add in the soy milk. Stir, and cook for a couple of minutes to allow it to thicken, then set aside.

ASSEMBLING THE LASAGNA

Line a 9×13-inch pan with red sauce to cover the bottom. Add a sprinkling of the basil. About 1/4 of the chopped basil.
Top with two lasagna noodles- (if the noodles you're using are too small, use 3 but don't overlap- just cut off the extra.)
Add sauce to thinly cover. Then add about 5 dollops of the bechamel sauce. Top that with little dots of pesto. (1/3 of the pesto amount you have)
Add a layer of zucchini slices.
Top with red sauce and some scattered basil.
Add two more lasagna noodles. Top with the bechamel sauce and pesto.
Add eggplant slices to fit. Top with red sauce and sprinkle with basil.
Add two more noodles. Then top with bechamel, dots of pesto, and red sauce.
Add the rest of the zucchini and eggplant and top with red sauce,
Add 2 more noodles. Top with the rest of the sauce and basil. Then cover the whole top of the dish with the bechamel sauce. (You may have extra left over).
Cover the pan with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes. Remove the foil and continue cooking for 10 – 15 more minutes.
Let cool out of oven for 5-10 minutes to achieve a lasagna that stands proudly on the plate.

Notes

If you don’t end up with enough zucchini or eggplant, pesto, noodles, etc. leave it out and layer it your way to make it work. It can be rearranged a bit without messing it up.

I like to save a bit of red sauce to the top before serving and sometimes a sprig of basil. If lasagna is in the refrigerator for a couple of days for leftovers, an extra dollop of red sauce corrects any dryness.

Rice Pudding is the best go-to comfort food

May 4, 2023 by thehamptonsvegan

Jump to Recipe

A Creamy Dreamy Rice Pudding For All

Rice Pudding is one of those foods you either love or hate. There’s not a lot of grey. I happily reside on Team Rice Pudding. The Big Guy is on Team Not In My Bowl! And some of our kids love it, and some do not. And that’s just the way it goes with rice pudding, I guess!

We used to stock up on Kozy Shack brand for home snacks and school treats. But since they didn’t add a vegan variety for us to purchase (except for their vegan fruit gels), we had to go without it for a while. Until we found an acceptable recipe to replace our former dairy favorite.

Are you a vegan who loves rice pudding too?

Then welcome to the club! And let me introduce you to our favorite rice pudding recipe. It’s complete with that creamy, vanilla taste that melts in your mouth and transports you to your happy place. And it’s simple and easy to make, so you never have to miss that dairy dream pudding again. Plus, it’s good, warm or cold, and costs much less than buying ready-made. You’re going to love it!

Simple shelf-stable ingredients for the win!

It’s very simple to make this recipe, too. I love it when a recipe involves items that don’t go bad quickly. I’m looking at you, avocados! I found that many vegan substitutes are shelf-stable, making the vegan way of cooking even more appealing. Where are my food preppers? Right? If you can keep something without the need to refrigerate or freeze it, and it lasts a good amount of time, you can rest easy. So, knowing there are some anytime-you-want foods in your pantry is a good thing!

Our rice pudding has Arborio rice, shelf-stable soymilk, organic sugar, salt, and vanilla. That’s it! If you want to add a sprinkle of cinnamon, or fruit on top, or maybe some Cocowhip, go right ahead. But it is just so good left plain and simple, too.

I always use Arborio rice because it comes out so creamy with this type. If you want to substitute with a different non-dairy milk like oat milk, it should probably work. I prefer soy milk with just two ingredients: soybeans and water. There are no added questionable ingredients like many kinds of milk; it is high in protein, and it works very well in recipes as it mimics dairy milk in texture. And I buy organic sugar, so there is no chance it has been filtered with animal bones. But if it has a certified vegan label, that’s good too.

RICE PUDDING Step 1

Rinse rice. Then add all the ingredients- except vanilla- to a medium pan over a medium-high flame and bring to a boil. (Watch it carefully so it doesn’t boil over.)

Step 2

Then, reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for 25 minutes.

Step 3

Stir for 5 minutes.

Step 4

Remove from heat and add vanilla. Mix.

Step 5

Get your bowls ready for the hot pudding!

Step 6

Dish up the pudding into 6 bowls. Done! (Now you can lick the spoon!)

For dessert, of course… but maybe breakfast too?

Especially if you are eating very sugary cereals. This beats that! And topping it with fruit, raisins, nuts, and cinnamon will add to the healthy breakfast vibes. So you decide if it’s breakfast food! But I think we can all agree it’s great for a snack or dessert. For more traditional breakfast choices, try our Bigly-Big League Breakfast Sandwich or the Badass Breakfast Casserole for a crowd!

And because you are making this rice pudding, you can decide how thick or thin you want it. When it’s still warm is actually my favorite time to eat it. It’s comforting and has my favorite consistency. It will thicken as it chills in the fridge. But stirring in some milk will thin it out if you like. It’s delicious either way.

So make this recipe! And enjoy rice pudding again.

thehamptonsvegan