Green Cheesy Lasagna

The first time I made this lasagna was long time ago, when I wanted to surprise my family with something different and delicious. We had loads of zucchini in the garden, frozen peas in the freezer, and green beans in the fridge, so I decided to make a green dinner. And it was a great success and has become our favorite recipe for family meals. 

It takes about 15 minutes to assemble and thirty minutes to bake, and the combination of green vegetables, cheese and spicy tomato sauce is hard to resist.  

Ingredients

1 package of whole wheat lasagna noodles

1 package of mozzarella cheese

1 package of ricotta cheese

1 medium size lemon (juice & zest)

1 small handful of fresh basil (chopped)

2 zucchini (sliced)

1 eggplant (sliced)

300 g mushrooms,

300 g fresh kale or spinach

1 clove garlic

a pinch of sea salt

a pinch of lemon pepper

For tomato sauce

3 tbsp olive oil

1 medium size onion (finely chopped)

3 cloves garlic (minced)

1 fresh chili (medium strong, finely chopped)

2 tbsp capers (drained) - optional

4 large tomatoes (cut in quarters)

2 cans plum tomatoes

half a pot fresh basil

Directions

Here we’ll go step-by-step, preparing the lasagna layers first.

Step 1

Preparing the tomato sauce

Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add onion, garlic, and chili and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add olives, capers and fresh tomatoes and cook it a couple of minutes more before adding the rest of the ingredients. Cook for 10 minutes, lower the heat and let it simmer for half an hour more under a lid.

Step 2

Preparing the cheese layer

Place ricotta cheese in a bowl, grate the lemon zest and sqeeze the lemon, add zest and juice to the bowl. Add basil, salt and lemon pepper and mix it together.

Step 3

Preparing the veggies layer

Dash the zucchini and eggplant with olive oil and salt and grill them in the oven at 400°F for about 10 minutes. Stir fry the mushrooms and the kale in a pan for 5 minutes with olive oil, salt and garlic. You could also grill the zucchini and eggplant in a broiler pan, the important thing is that the vegetables release some of their moist before putting them in the lasagna.

Step 4

Finally!! Putting the lasagna together.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Start with a thin layer of tomato sauce, cover with a layer of lasagna noodles, a layer of ricotta cheese, a layer of grilled vegetables, a layer of kale and a layer of tomato sauce. Repeat 2-3 times, top the last layer with the rest of the vegetables, the tomato sauce, the lemon-ricotta and the grated Mozzarella cheese.

Bake it in the oven for 40-50 minutes. Serve right away!

Enjoy this super delicious vegetable lasagna! I’m sure it will become your favorite!