rants & recipes

This recipe is an adaptation of Ste Martin's Mushroom Lasagna.

Ingredients:

• ~12 cooked lasagna noodles (or fewer, see Notes)
• 1 pound of mushrooms - I used 1 pound fresh cremini and about 1/4 cup of some mystery dried mushrooms
• 1/2 cup Earth Balance
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/2 cup flour
• 4 cups liquid - I used the water from rehydrating mushrooms, plus the liquid given off from cooking fresh mushrooms plus plain, unsweetened soymilk to equal 4 cups
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tsp fresh nutmeg
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 recipe tofu ricotta (optional - see notes)
• 6-8 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (optional)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Saute mushrooms in olive oil. Reserve liquid, set mushrooms aside.
3. Melt Earth Balance in pan.
4. Stir in flour and yeast.
5. Slowly add 4 cups liquid, whisking to combine with flour/yeast/earth balance.
6. Add pepper and nutmeg.
7. Simmer sauce until slightly thickened.
8. Pour a small amount of white sauce into a 9*13 pan. Layer with noodles and 1/4 of your sauce.
9. Sprinkle on about 1/4 of tofu ricotta. Top with 1/4 of your mushrooms and tomatoes.
10. Repeat - noodles, sauce, ricotta, mushrooms and tomatoes.
11. Bake for 45 minutes.

Notes:

• The original recipe doesn't call for tofu ricotta, but we wanted this meal to be our "meat" as well as our "grain". With the ricotta, I made a 4 layer lasagna. I could have used more than 1 pound of mushrooms but the amount of sauce seemed ok. Perhaps do 3 layers, if you leave out the tofu.
• Tofu ricotta - mix together 14 oz. extra firm tofu, 1/2 cup nutritional yeast, 1/2 tsp garlic powder and 1 tbsp soy sauce.