Lasagna Hold The Cheese Please Recipe

Ingredients

• Pasta sauce ingredients:
• 1 box Pomi Finely Chopped Tomatoes, 26.46 oz
• 1 box Pomi Tomato Sauce, 17.64 oz
• 1 jar Bionaturae Organic Tomato Paste, 7 oz
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning OR 1 teaspoon each oregano, basil and thyme
• 1 tablespoon parsley
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1/4 ground black pepper
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon safflower oil
• Lasagna layer ingredients:
• 1 lb. white mushrooms, sliced
• 1 large bag fresh spinach OR 2 boxes of frozen spinach
• 1 large zucchini, thinly sliced
• 1 box Barilla Lasagna noodles
• Cashew cheese ingredients:
• 1 1/2 cup cashews
• 1/4 cup almond milk, unsweetened (see my recipe for homemade almond milk)
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp granulated onion
• 1/4 tsp granulated garlic
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 egg, beaten
• Optional ingredients: 1 lb. ground turkey or beef, 2-3 more zucchini

Instructions

1. In the morning, put the cashews on to soak in a jar of clean water and cover with a lid.
2. Start by making the cashew cheese. Drain the water and rinse well. Put in food processor. Add milk and spices. Pulse a couple times. Then blend until it looks like creamy ricotta. Do a quick taste test to see if you want to add any additional spices. Add egg and blend thoroughly. Put in fridge while flavors blend.
3. Next make the pasta sauce. In a heavy bottom pot saute onion in safflower oil. If adding meat, do so now and cook it until browned. Add all tomatoes, seasonings and minced garlic. Bring to a boil and turn down to simmer for at least 30 minutes and up to an hour.
4. Put on two pots of boiling water. One with just a couple inches of water for veggies and one 2/3 full for pasta. Optional: Add a 1/2 teaspoon of salt to each. When the pasta water comes to a boil, add noodles and cook until al dente.
5. Now on to the veggies. Clean and slice mushrooms. Saute mushrooms in pan until slightly browned and reduced. Set mushrooms aside. Blanche zucchini in boiling water of veggie pot for 3 minutes. Scoop out zucchini and set aside. If using fresh spinach, add to boiling water and cook until wilted. Pour spinach in to strainer to drain. If using frozen spinach, thaw and drain.
6. Time to make lasagna. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Turn off pasta sauce. Put a layer of sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13 casserole dish OR deep 9 x 9 casserole dish, then do two layers of the following: noodles, cashew cheese, spinach, mushrooms, zucchini and sauce. If using zucchini in place of noodles, start and end with zucchini. Top with noodles and more sauce.
7. Bake for 1 hour OR until sauce is bubbling. Let stand for at least 10 minutes. Then cut and serve.