Rainbow Lasagne
A beautiful vegan rainbow lasagne – the ultimate healthy comfort food. Layers of bolognaise, beetroot, cheese sauce and spinach. It’s pretty special.
I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited about a recipe before. I shared a sneak peek of this Rainbow Lasagne a few weeks back on Social Media and you all went as crazy for it as I did.
When I first had the idea for this recipe, I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out.–were the colours going to work or were they all just going to merge into one? But after a few practice runs and a couple of tweaks here and there, I could create the perfect rainbow lasagne that is sure to be a hit with all your friends and family (and a great way to sneak some extra veggies into your kids).
Lasagne is one of those ultimate comfort foods. It’s got all those delicious layers that are packed full of flavour, the depth from the sauce and the creaminess from the cheese layer; all sandwiched between pasta sheets.
When you see a lasagne bubbling away in the oven, you literally can’t help but smile. I’m smiling now just thinking about it.
Plus, it’s always a great family pleaser. You can serve it on the table in its dish and everyone can just tuck in and go back for seconds (which I’m definitely sure you are all going to do after you try this one). It also tastes amazing the next day. I actually really like it cold (is that strange?) but it heats up really easy as well.
You can pop it back in the oven to warm through or you can individually portion and microwave.
Pairing dishes with it is, again, super simple. This just adds to the overall score of how brilliant a lasagne is. You can pair it with a crisp, seasonal, green side salad, a big chunk of garlic bread or homemade flatbreads (which you can brush with garlic for a quick garlic bread alternative).
Roasted seasonal vegetables work great too. You can just pop them in the oven with a thick gloss of olive oil and some salt and pepper and bake alongside your main dish. If you wanted to keep things simple, some blistered roasted vine tomatoes with a pinch of sea salt would work amazingly, too.
Because of the veg-packed flavours in the sauces, you get such a flavour bomb explosion that makes this a supercharged levelled up version of the classic.
The sundried tomatoes are key to bringing this dish together. Their condensed flavour that has come from their natural drying process just encases their sweet flavour but has a slight tart note to it, which is balanced out with the bitterness of the beetroot layer. If you can’t get your hands on any sundried tomatoes, you can use roasted red peppers, add an extra tbsp of tomato paste or dry your own in the oven.
To dry your own tomatoes, you need to pick a sweet variant. Cherry or plum work well. Slice them in half and cook at around 250F for around 2 hours. They should dry out and intensify the flavour, but monitor them so they don’t burn. Then follow the recipe as continued or encase them in oil in a tight jar to use in future dishes.
This dish doesn’t just have one sauce, it has four. The second being a vibrant green layer that is made from spinach, peas and fresh basil and compliments the aforementioned tomato-rich traditional ‘red sauce’ above. This layer has fresh zingy notes from the herbs and the sour cream and looks just as amazing as it tastes. The beetroot sauce brings some purple colours to the plate and adds an earthy depth with a subtle sweetness. Both sauces would work amazingly tossed through any type of pasta or gnocchi or used to accompany your favourite root vegetables–either roasted or dipped in raw.
And no lasagne would be complete without that beloved cheesy béchamel sauce. That oozy gooey thick white sauce that just brings it all together and makes you want to go back in for more. I made this one using almond milk and nutritional yeast for that extra luxurious taste and texture and clings to the lasagne sheets to give it that ultimate feel-good comfort food factor. You can use any milk alternative you like but try to use one that is unsweetened and will not have too much of an impact on the taste, such as coconut.
I always like to top my lasagne’s off with some fresh herbs. Thyme or rosemary work great. Or fresh basil such as in my Vegan Lasagne with Lentils and Spinach Pesto, another deliciously vibrant dish that is packed full of veggies and those perfect lasagne layers.
Ingredients
For the bolognese layer
- 1 onion chopped roughly
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic sliced
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 3 to matoes chopped up
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 230 g cooked green lentils
- 8 sundried tomatoes chopped
- 250 g veg stock
- 1 tsp sea salt
For the creamy spinach layer
- 100 g fresh spinach
- 100 g frozen peas defrosted
- 30 g fresh basil
- 2 tbsp vegan sour cream
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- Black pepper
For the beetroot layer
- 500 g cooked beetroot
- 1 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- Black pepper
For the cheesy béchamel sauce
- 2 tbsp vegan butter
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 500 ml almond milk
- 3-4 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- Big pinch sea salt
- Twist black pepper
- 6 Lasagne sheets
Instructions
To make the bolognese layer
- In a large pan, fry the onion with the oil on medium until soft and caramelising.
- Add the garlic and paprika and fry for a further minute.
- Add the lentils, tomatoes, soy sauce, stock, tomato puree and sun-dried tomatoes.
- Cover and simmer on a low to medium heat for 10 minutes, then turn off the heat.
- In a separate pan, boil the lasagne sheets as per instructions on the pack. Aprox 2-3 minutes. Set aside.
For the creamy spinach layer
- Add all the ingredients to a food processor and blitz to combine.
To make the beetroot layer
- Wash out the food processor and then add all the ingredients to a food processor and blitz to combine.
To make the cheesy béchamel sauce
- Add the butter to a frying pan and melt on a low heat, then add the flour. Stir to combine well.
- Next, add the almond milk, nutritional yeast, and garlic powder. Simmer for 5 minutes stirring constantly to ensure no lumps form. Now season well and remove from the heat.
To build the lasagne
- In a medium high sided baking tray–add a layer of lentils, then lasagne sheets and some cheese sauce.
- Now add the green layer, more pasta, purple layer, and a last layer of cheesy sauce.
- Bake for 40 minutes on 180C.
3 Responses
I made this recipe and it was a delight to make! To create the different sauces with their radiant colors and fabulous flavors, it was a feast for my senses. I even made the vegan sour cream from scratch and it turned out delicious. I had a joyful time in the kitchen.
The lasagne looked gorgeous when i took it out of the oven. When eating it, however, i found the lentil layer very dominating, with its salty and smoky flavor. I could hardly taste the spinache layer and the sweetness of the beetroot layer didn’t really pair well with the lentil layer. I looked gorgeous, really, but i didn’t enjoy eating it as much as i had hoped. I am looking forward to creating a lasagne with just the green layer and bechamel sauce.
Oooooo this looks delicious! I have a question. You write 230 grams cooked lentils. Do you know how much dry lentils that is? Or is it 230 grams dry lentils, cooked? Thank you for enlightening me 🙂
Sorry Daphne, I dont. I used some I had cooked previously.
xx