Lasagne ai Funghi e Spinaci

This is a vegan white lasagne, or could be considered a lasagne verde due to the spinach. 

Recipe for a 9" x 9" lasagne dish, adjust as necessary.

Cheesy Béchamel Sauce

• 3/4 cups vegan butter or olive oil (if using olive oil, you should season with extra salt)
• 1 tbsp white miso paste
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 2 tsp lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 cups plain flour
• 500ml oat milk  (approx. I add until the right consistency, this may take more)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Layers

• 600g spinach
• 750g mushrooms, sliced (I prefer chestnut mushrooms)
• 8 cloves garlic, crushed / grated
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Pasta sheets
• Olive oil
• Bunch fresh basil (optional)
• Vegan parmigiano (optional)

Method

1. On a low heat, melt butter / heat olive oil and stir in miso paste until no lumps remain.
2. Add nutritional yeast and stir until thoroughly combined.
3. Add the flour and mix thoroughly into a roux.  Allow the flour mixture to cook gently while stirring constantly.  This should be done for 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Add the milk bit by bit, stirring constantly to avoid any lumps. If you can heat the milk up in advance, the mixture will combine more easily.
5. Stir in lemon juice or apple cider vinegar.
6. Wilt spinach with basil leaves (if using) and add 4 cloves crushed garlic.  This will likely need to be done in two or more batches.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.
7. Decant the spinach into a bowl and squeeze out excess moisture.  You may choose to cut down the wilted spinach a bit at this point.
8. Sautee the sliced mushroom with 4 cloves of garlic until juices are reduced.  Decant into a bowl.
9. Divide the béchamel sauce between the bowl of spinach and the bowl of mushrooms, reserving enough to cover the top of the lasagne.
10. Preheat the oven to 200 C.
11. Oil up your lasagne dish, and it is recommended that you par-boil your lasagne sheets before placing in the dish. 
12. Add pasta as the bottom layer, then add half of the spinach mixture and spread evenly.  Add another layer of pasta, then add half of the mushroom mixture.  Spread evenly.  Continue this pattern until all of the spinach and mushroom has been used.
13. You have the option to lay down another layer of pasta before using your reserved béchamel, or you can put the béchamel directly on the previous layer.  If using vegan parmigiano, grate this on top of the lasagne.
14. Cook for 30 to 45 minutes until pasta is cooked and lasagne is headed throughout

The Ultimate Vegan Cheese Sauce

I've always loved cheese.  It was my favourite comfort food growing up.  We had to be very frugal with food, and pasta and basic béchamel sauce was a staple, usually with tuna, but if there was cheese in the fridge I knew we were in for an amazing mac and cheese or cauliflower doused in delicious cheese sauce.  So it's fair to say that I had an emotional attachment to cheese.  Whenever there was a party, I was all over the cheese and pickle porcupine.  When I started hosting Christmas parties, I'd always have a cheese platter, and I'd relish going to the cheese shops that smelled like feet, because if it doesn't it's not a good cheese shop!

Alas, in my mid-20s, at the height of my cheese addiction, I became suddenly lactose-intolerant.  At first I had wiggle room, but it got progressively worse and now I just can't handle dairy at all.  But as we've established, I was rather attached to cheese and I refused to say goodbye!  Thus began my quest to find a vegan cheese that would work for me.  My first route was to find something already on the market.  I tried various vegan cheeses, everything that was available locally, and I started to order some more expensive nut creamery cheese from the internet.  NOTHING hit the spot for me, even though some came close enough if paired with marmite for toast and cheese.  It was very rare to find a melty vegan cheese, but as long as the flavour profile was right, I would have sacrificed melty in a heartbeat.

After my failure to purchase a satisfying substitute, I started going through as many cheese sauce recipes posted online as I could.  Again, I found them too sweet, too spicy, and just not cheesy enough even when Nooch was involved (that's 'nutritional yeast', for the uninitiated).  It seemed that a lot of recipes added things to make it look like cheese sauce rather than taste like it.  So I started off with sauces that use potato to give the creamy texture, and started eliminating things that threw off the flavour profile, but cheese is a bit of a tricky mistress and she won't submit to you all that easily.

So a bit of research was required.  Why is cheese so good?  What makes cheese so special?  Well, as it turns out, cheese is a natural source of glutamic acid.  This is what gives it that satisfying, savoury umami flavour.  Nooch gives a good base for being cheesy, but is almost nutty in flavour and it's missing that vital hit of glutamic acid which explains why I never found it satisfying enough.

I looked at other things that contained glutamic acid.  At first, I added tamari / soy sauce to give it some umami, and it tasted so much better!  It did make the sauce a less appetising colour, though, and it was still missing something.  Later on, I moved onto white miso paste.  This was a vast improvement, because it gave a sense of fermentation as well as making the sauce look cheesy!  But there was still something missing.

The final key to making a satisfyingly cheesy non-cheese sauce is a bit of acidity.  Naturally fermented cheeses contain lactic acid, which gives the cheese that extra tang.  This was missing from my earlier experiments.  To replace that, a splash of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar is all it takes.  Actually, a bit of both is best so that neither flavour is easily discernible.

At least eight years on from the onset of my intolerance, I have FINALLY got a cheese sauce I can enjoy!!!  My next cheesy project will be to making a solid cheese, but for now, this is ace!  I'm keeping batches of it in the fridge to use with pasta for mac and cheese, or as a dip, and because i leave it so thick, I can even sling it on toast and pretend it's melted cheese.  Enjoy!!

Cheesy deliciousness! 

The Ultimate Vegan Cheese Sauce
Serves 4

Ingredients
2 medium potatoes, peeled & diced
3 tbsp vegan butter /margerine
2 tsp white miso paste
1/4 C nutritional yeast
2 tsp low-sodium vegetable bouillon
1 C non-dairy milk 
1 garlic clove
2 - 3 tsp lemon juice / apple cider vinegar
1 tsp cornflour
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste

Optional:
1/4 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 tsp dried thyme

Directions


1. Cover the diced potatoes with cold water and bring to a boil. Cook until tender.

2. While the potatoes are cooking, measure out the other ingredients. The boullion should be added dry; don't mix it with water. 

3. Drain potatoes and put them in a blender. If you don't have one, a stick blender will do the trick. 

5. Add the remaining dry ingredients on top, and add a quarter of the non-dairy milk. Blend on high until very smooth.


4. Keep adding the non-dairy milk until you reach your desired consistency. You can always add, but can't take away. For dips you would want less. For pasta sauce you might want to use the full cup.

NOTES:
For an oven bake sauce, I would add an extra half cup as the excess moisture will bake off. The added herbs should definitely be added for this purpose. 

Food, Glorious Food!

Welcome to Foxy Foodie, the place where I will be cataloguing all of my favourite culinary successes!  

I first started experimenting with recipes when my sister developed a wheat intolerance, and I wanted to master gluten free baking.  When I became suddenly lactose-intolerant in my mid-20s, by which time I'd already developed a healthy cheese and ice-cream habit (not together, that'd be weird), my serious experimentation began.  As time went on, I started my egg free experiments, and making my baking completely vegan where possible.  Over time, I've found that a lot of my cooking has become plant based, but I'm not quite there yet.

My plan is to recreate allergen safe versions of my favourite dishes from childhood, and tread on culinary paths yet to be explored.  It'll be interesting, if nothing else, so I hope you enjoy the journey!

This will be one of two sister food blogs, the other being Kawaii Noms where I plan to make food that mostly looks adorable and tastes delicious - who knows, I might merge it with this one?

On ethics

I am committed to using fair trade and organic produce in my food preparation, and I hope to encourage others to do the same.  Using organic produce will help minimise your exposure to carcinogenic chemicals, as well as generally being more environmentally friendly and friendly to farm workers than their non-organic counterparts. Check out the 'Organic Living' from the Soil Association for more info.

Using Fair Trade products, far from what some believe, is not a fad but a moral obligation that needs to be built into our consumer culture.  Many people don't seem to realise that everything they buy is grown, raised, caught, or made by people in developing countries.  Globalisation means that products are supplied by those nations (and companies therein) that can supply goods and services cheapest, and this more often than not leads to the exploitation of those most vulnerable.  It is unfair that we enjoy luxury products at the expense of other members of our human family who work in dangerous conditions for long hours and receive barely enough money on which to live.  Fair Trade is helping to put a stop to the unfair practices of corporations making millions from the mistreatment of their workers.  Make sure you read '10 Reasons to Support Fair Trade', and you can find out more about Fair Trade at the Fair Trade Foundation's website.

That all being said... *hops off high horse* I hope you enjoy my experiments. :)