This Mushroom, Squash and Butter Bean Lasagne is a real celebration of autumn. Using seasonal produce in a hearty dinner is perfect for the colder months. Get the recipe below.
Seasonal eating
Eating with the seasons is a great way of decreasing your carbon footprint and eating a healthy diet. It also makes meal times more exciting when you're not just eating the same meals year round.
For these reasons I love to keep an eye on the farmers markets and supermarkets to see what seasonal ingredients are available. When autumn rolls around you'll find interesting mushrooms and lots of different varieties of squash. Dark leafy green vegetables like kale are also in abundance.
I use all of these ingredients in my Mushroom, Squash and Butter Bean Lasagne. It's a really hearty meal, with deep, earthy flavours. I love the combination of textures too.
Of course it is essential that you allow the edges of the lasagne to get crispy. You can fight over those bits once it is cooked!
Making a cheese sauce
In a regular lasagne you'd have two sauces: a tomato based sauce and a cheese sauce. But, because this dish doesn't used a tomato based sauce, the cheese sauce is even more important.
My vegan cheese sauce recipe is incredibly simple and tastes delicious! In fact there are just, 5 steps and 8 ingredients.
First you melt butter, then you add flour and mix until you have a smooth paste. Next you turn that paste into a smooth sauce by stirring as you slowly add soy milk. A top tip is to make sure that the soy milk is at least at room temperature.
Once you have a sauce all that's left to do is flavour it. To make this a cheese sauce, rather than a white sauce, just add cheese! This will melt in the sauce making it rich and thick.
For extra flavour I add nutritional yeast, mustard, onion powder and garlic powder. Do taste the sauce and adjust the flavours to suit your tastes - I won't be offended!
Vegan lasagne sheets
Are lasagne sheets vegan? The answer is maybe. If you're looking to buy dried lasagne sheets then its highly likely that they will be - most dried pasta is unless you're buying a really high end variety.
If on the other hand you're looking to buy fresh lasagne sheets then these will almost certainly have been made with egg and so should be avoided.
The good news is this recipe can be made perfectly fine with dried lasagne sheets. It is in the oven long enough and there is enough sauce for the sheets to soften.
If you do want to use fresh pasta to speed up the cooking time you can always make your own using my vegan pasta recipe.
Make ahead
The good thing about lasagne? It tastes GREAT reheated. Cover it with foil and cook it for 30 minutes at 180 C / 356 F / gas mark 4. Remove the foil then cook for a further 15 minutes uncovered.
Serve when it is piping hot in the middle.
The recipe
Mushroom, Squash and Butter Bean Lasagne
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 leek thinly sliced
- 2 cloves garlic thinly sliced
- 200 g mushrooms thinly sliced
- 350 g butternut squash cut into 1cm cubes
- 100 g kale stems removed and roughly chopped
- 235 g butter beans from a 400g tin
- 1 tablespoon dried sage
- salt and pepper to taste
- 50 g vegan butter
- 25 g plain flour
- 500 ml soy milk warm
- 200 g vegan cheddar cheese grated
- 4 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon mustard
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 6 lasagne sheets
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 180C / 356F / gas mark 4.
- Drizzle the squash with 1 tablespoon of oil and roast for 20-30 minutes or until soft.
- Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a large, flat bottomed frying pan.
- Add the thinly sliced leeks and cook until softened.
- Next add the mushrooms and garlic to the pan and cook until the moisture has left the mushrooms and evaporated.
- Add the kale and butter beans to the pan and cook until the kale is wilted and the butter beans are hot.
- Season with the sage and salt and pepper.
- Remove the roast squash from the oven and add to the pan.
- In a separate saucepan, melt the vegan butter.
- Stir in the flour until you have made a smooth paste.
- Slowly add the soy milk, stirring constantly, to make a smooth sauce.
- Add 150g of the vegan cheddar cheese along with the nutritional yeast, mustard, onion powder and garlic powder.
- Keep stirring the sauce until the cheese has melted and its completely smooth and thick.
- Cover the bottom of a large baking dish with half of the mushroom, squash and butter bean mixture.
- Pour over one third of the cheese sauce.
- Lay over 3 lasagne sheets.
- Repeat by layering on the remaining mushroom, squash and butter bean mixture, one third of the cheese sauce and another 3 lasagne sheets.
- Top with the remaining cheese sauce and the remaining grated vegan cheddar cheese.
- Bake in the oven for 35 - 40 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and the edges of the lasagne are going crispy.
Nutrition
More mushroom and squash recipes
More autumn recipes
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