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I made this dish especially for Cam who was craving a good classic lasagna with white sauce and cheese. This recipe is essentially a classic beef lasagna recipe with lentils instead of beef mince and is wonderfully scrumptious comfort food.
The flavours and texture work great together; try it out on your meat eating friends or family and see if they can taste the difference!! A great dish for those new to vegetarianism or anyone wanting to reduce meat from their diet; it sure hits the spot as far as lasagna cravings go : )
I used ready-made lasagna sheets but if you would like to make your own pasta the recipe here will work a treat!!
Preparation time: 55mins
Serves 4-6
- 1½ cup brown lentils
- 3 cups water
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 brown onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, diced
- 1 large carrot, grated
- 250g (9 oz) of cherry tomatoes, halved
- 2 vegetable stock cubes (I used no animal content ‘beef’ stock cubes)
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 tbs red wine
- ½ cup tomato paste
- 50g (2 oz) butter (dairy or non-dairy)
- ¼ cup plain flour
- 350ml (12 fl oz) milk (diary or non-dairy)
- ½ cup vegetarian parmesan cheese, grated
- 8 lasagne sheets
Rinse the lentils until the water runs clean. Bring the lentils, water and bay leaves to the boil; simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 210°C (410°F)
Meanwhile heat a small amount of olive oil in a large frypan. Add the onion and cook for 1-2 minutes until soft.
Add the garlic and cook for a further minute until fragrant. Add the carrot and cherry tomatoes, stock cubes, sugar, wine and tomato paste and simmer over low heat for 5 minutes.
Add the lentils to the sauce with remaining liquid and continue to simmer for 10-15 minutes; season with salt and pepper to taste.
To make the white sauce melt the butter in a medium saucepan over a low heat; add the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes until combined. Remove from the heat and gradually add milk, stirring until smooth. Return to the heat and slowly bring to the boil over a gentle heat, cook for 10 minutes until sauce starts to thicken. Season with salt and pepper.
In a large baking dish layer the lentils with the sauce and cheese and then top with lasagne sheets. Continue to layer finishing with a layer of cheese.
Bake in the pre-heated oven for 30-35mins until golden on top.
Serve with a simple green salad for a delicious main meal.
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for the wonderful recipe, Trudy!
I was looking for a good, healthier lasagna to make yesterday evening. This one was perfect. Everyone raved and went for seconds. I love how “rich” the lentil sauce turned out. The only things I changed to the recipe were to substitute tomato sauce for the fresh tomatoes and to add freshly grated nutmeg to the bechamel. Delish!
Sounds great! But is 210 not too low of a temperature?
Claudia so glad you all enjoyed the lentil lasagna, it really is just as good (or better) then the traditional meat variety :) Thanks so much for the feedback, I love to hear how people have adapted and cooked the recipes to their liking!! Cheers!!
Oana I forgot to include the temperature in Fahrenheit, sorry, I have amended the recipe, hope this is helpful!! :)
Tried this recipe tonight, it was wonderful. Thanks for the recipe!
Really good :)
So glad you both like the Lasagna Jessi & Saga :)
I loved this so much I had two servings for dinner – yummy
Made this tonight. While the flavors were outstanding, I found it to be a little dry. I didn’t pre-cook my noodles (I never do in lasagna, the filling always cooks them for me) but in this case the filling didn’t have enough moisture and the noodles didn’t fully cook.
I’d recommend putting more wine into the lentil mixture to give it some more juices, and pre-cooking your lasagna sheets.
Otherwise, really excellent recipe.
Hi Conor, thanks for the feedback. Always very useful to hear from other people and their experiences with the recipes!! Cheers and I hope it turns out perfect next time :)