I had been wanting to try this recipe for awhile as the combination of eggplant, spinach, and portabellas sounded good to me. The opportunity finally presented itself Sunday what with guests expected. And, even after they canceled due to illness, I went ahead as planned. After all, I had the ingredients, and I like having leftovers.
I baked the eggplant as directed, except that I lined the pan with aluminum foil rather than using non-stick spray. Generally I oil the foil under these circumstances, but forgot this time. However this was no problem as the eggplant didn't stick.
Every time I bake eggplant I recall my mother's description of the first – and possibly only – time she was making her Russian-Jewish mother-in-law's "fake" caviar recipe. She forgot to prick the eggplant and it exploded disastrously in the oven. So be forewarned.
Every time I bake eggplant I recall my mother's description of the first – and possibly only – time she was making her Russian-Jewish mother-in-law's "fake" caviar recipe. She forgot to prick the eggplant and it exploded disastrously in the oven. So be forewarned.
One of the people commenting at the original website thought that there was way too much garlic in this recipe, but I thought there wasn't enough, of the baked kind anyway. As to the one minced clove, I completely forgot to add that. The instructions call for baking eight cloves of garlic (in a foil packet) sprinkled with thyme, rosemary, basil, oregano, and covered with olive oil. I used extra-virgin olive oil but skipped the rosemary since I couldn't find any on my cluttered spice shelves, and I'm not overly fond of rosemary anyway. I'm thinking a small casserole would be a better container for baking garlic as it was difficult to scrape all of the oil & herbs from the foil. Or perhaps the packet could be lined with parchment paper.
From years of using lasagna noodles rolled up with a cheese filling to make "canneloni" I have developed my own system of cooking these noodles. Although I have a large stockpot with a pasta insert, I cook only one third of a sixteen-ounce box
at a time, finding this amount more manageable. I nest them in the pot as shown once they start cooking. After draining the cooked noodles, I move them with tongs into a bowl of cold water to rinse, then lay them on a kitchen towel to drain. I return the cooking water to a boil and do likewise with each remaining third. Yes, I know that it's really not correct to cook pasta in starchy water but I do it anyway, and for lasagna recipes only. The kitchen towels I use here are actually recycled pieces of high–thread-count Egyptian-cotton sheets that I had cut into reasonably-sized squares and finished with a zig-zag edging. They're nearly lint free, and I've gotten a lot of use from them in my kitchen.
I found it difficult to peel the eggplant once it was cool and was wishing I had tried immersing it in cold water while it was still hot. However it was easy enough, although time consuming, to scrape the pulp from the outer skin, especially with the help of a grapefruit spoon that I'd once found in a thrift store. Moreover, I should have left the eggplant in the oven longer as it wasn't evenly cooked. So, after dicing it, I gave it a minute in the microwave.
I dissolved a third of a cube of vegetable bouillon in about six ounces of boiling water with which to saute the onions and sliced portabellas, although I don't think "saute" is the proper term when cookin
g without oil or fat. I rarely use vegetarian bouillon but when I do it's Rapunzel brand. For those of you watching your salt intake, it does contain a significant amount of sodium despite having no salt added. The spinach, drained if frozen – and I did use frozen – was added to the onions and portabellas to cook for another minute or so. And then these vegetables were combined with the eggplant and the contents of the garlic packet. I decided to finely dice the garlic cloves, although this wasn't mentioned, in order to distribute them more evenly.
I think of lasagna as layers of noodles going first lengthwise, and then crosswise, with a cheese filling between the bottom two layers making a sort of sandwich, and with a tomato/meat sauce separating these repeated "sandwiches," so perhaps this recipe should be called "nasagna" or "vegetable noodle bake" to dissipate this mental image. I did alternate the noodles lengthwise and crosswise, and, because the baking dish I was using has rounded corners, I trimmed the lasagna noodles to fit with my
kitchen shears. (I love kitchen shears, especially mine that cleverly come apart. A gift from my youngest son. I don't remember my mo
ther ever using kitchen shears when I was growing up. I'm not sure she even had any then. But my mother-in-law used them and I learned how handy they can be from my husband.) For this recipe I layered as directed with my favorite bottled pasta sauce, noodles, and vegetable mixture, topped with pieces of vegan "mozzarella."
According to the package this Follow Your Heart brand "Vegan Gourmet Cheese Alternative" melts and can be shredded. I considered trying to grate it but it seemed too soft to grate. Perhaps one should try chilling it first in the freezer if this is desired. I put some on a small piece of lasagna and gave it twenty seconds in the microwave, and, yes, it did melt nicely. However it didn't melt for this lasagna recipe in my Corning-ware baking pan in the oven. Had I read the "melting tips" on the package I would have found out that, for casserole toppings, this "cheese" should be melted under the broiler, or covered. And it probably didn't help that I was baking at twenty-five degrees lower than the recipe said – as one is supposed to do for Pyrex, and, I believe, for Corning ware. One of my sons tells me that he has used it successfully for pizza and within a recipe. Of course it doesn't taste like real cheese, but it is definitely reminiscent of cheese, so a nice option for vegans.
Because I was using soy cheese, I ended my layering as directed with lasagna noodles topped with the "cheese." Which, in retrospect, was a mistake, as the noodles curled up at the edges and got crunchy, and the cheese toasted rather than melted. I tried putting more pasta sauce around the edges toward the end of cooking to hold down the noodles, along with covering the casserole with foil, but this didn't really help. I think lasagna noodles simply have to be under some sauce to cook properly. I covered the leftovers (still in the casserole) with foil while still a little warm and when I took them out of the refrigerator the next day, the moisture had equilibrated so the top noodles were no longer crunchy, but just right. Incidentally the cheese no longer melted in the microwave once it had gone through the baking process.
The nice photo of a layered serving at the top of the page could be taken only when the lasagna was cold – the one below shows how it looked when served freshly made and hot. I wasn't working very efficiently, and I was taking photos as I went along, so preparation took me a good two and a half hours, but I think it will go faster the next time. And, yes, I do plan to make it again.
at a time, finding this amount more manageable. I nest them in the pot as shown once they start cooking. After draining the cooked noodles, I move them with tongs into a bowl of cold water to rinse, then lay them on a kitchen towel to drain. I return the cooking water to a boil and do likewise with each remaining third. Yes, I know that it's really not correct to cook pasta in starchy water but I do it anyway, and for lasagna recipes only. The kitchen towels I use here are actually recycled pieces of high–thread-count Egyptian-cotton sheets that I had cut into reasonably-sized squares and finished with a zig-zag edging. They're nearly lint free, and I've gotten a lot of use from them in my kitchen.I dissolved a third of a cube of vegetable bouillon in about six ounces of boiling water with which to saute the onions and sliced portabellas, although I don't think "saute" is the proper term when cookin
g without oil or fat. I rarely use vegetarian bouillon but when I do it's Rapunzel brand. For those of you watching your salt intake, it does contain a significant amount of sodium despite having no salt added. The spinach, drained if frozen – and I did use frozen – was added to the onions and portabellas to cook for another minute or so. And then these vegetables were combined with the eggplant and the contents of the garlic packet. I decided to finely dice the garlic cloves, although this wasn't mentioned, in order to distribute them more evenly.I think of lasagna as layers of noodles going first lengthwise, and then crosswise, with a cheese filling between the bottom two layers making a sort of sandwich, and with a tomato/meat sauce separating these repeated "sandwiches," so perhaps this recipe should be called "nasagna" or "vegetable noodle bake" to dissipate this mental image. I did alternate the noodles lengthwise and crosswise, and, because the baking dish I was using has rounded corners, I trimmed the lasagna noodles to fit with my
kitchen shears. (I love kitchen shears, especially mine that cleverly come apart. A gift from my youngest son. I don't remember my mo
ther ever using kitchen shears when I was growing up. I'm not sure she even had any then. But my mother-in-law used them and I learned how handy they can be from my husband.) For this recipe I layered as directed with my favorite bottled pasta sauce, noodles, and vegetable mixture, topped with pieces of vegan "mozzarella."
According to the package this Follow Your Heart brand "Vegan Gourmet Cheese Alternative" melts and can be shredded. I considered trying to grate it but it seemed too soft to grate. Perhaps one should try chilling it first in the freezer if this is desired. I put some on a small piece of lasagna and gave it twenty seconds in the microwave, and, yes, it did melt nicely. However it didn't melt for this lasagna recipe in my Corning-ware baking pan in the oven. Had I read the "melting tips" on the package I would have found out that, for casserole toppings, this "cheese" should be melted under the broiler, or covered. And it probably didn't help that I was baking at twenty-five degrees lower than the recipe said – as one is supposed to do for Pyrex, and, I believe, for Corning ware. One of my sons tells me that he has used it successfully for pizza and within a recipe. Of course it doesn't taste like real cheese, but it is definitely reminiscent of cheese, so a nice option for vegans.
Because I was using soy cheese, I ended my layering as directed with lasagna noodles topped with the "cheese." Which, in retrospect, was a mistake, as the noodles curled up at the edges and got crunchy, and the cheese toasted rather than melted. I tried putting more pasta sauce around the edges toward the end of cooking to hold down the noodles, along with covering the casserole with foil, but this didn't really help. I think lasagna noodles simply have to be under some sauce to cook properly. I covered the leftovers (still in the casserole) with foil while still a little warm and when I took them out of the refrigerator the next day, the moisture had equilibrated so the top noodles were no longer crunchy, but just right. Incidentally the cheese no longer melted in the microwave once it had gone through the baking process.
The nice photo of a layered serving at the top of the page could be taken only when the lasagna was cold – the one below shows how it looked when served freshly made and hot. I wasn't working very efficiently, and I was taking photos as I went along, so preparation took me a good two and a half hours, but I think it will go faster the next time. And, yes, I do plan to make it again.
I love eggplant and spinach and this looks delicious..except I would use real cheese:-)
ReplyDeleteAs for cooking pasta in starchy water, though it's not correct or authentic, I have come across sources that actually recommend the inauthentic cooking of pasta in smaller amounts of water. I've done that as a time-saver and have never identified any resulting ill effect.