So you would look at that title and think to yourself- “is that even possible?” Lasagna is usually loaded with layers of ooey-gooey cheese and creamy stuff. How can one make lasagna without cheese? How could it even begin to taste good? Well, let me tell you, it can, and it does. When I decided to make lasagna for Sunday Company Dinner, I knew I was presenting myself with a bit of a challenge. Since one of our friends has a dairy allergy, I was going to have to tackle a lasagna without dairy if I was to be a good hostess. I spent a fair amount of time searching through vegan lasagnas looking for the prefect recipe. I decided on Herbed Tofu Lasagna with Zucchini from Vegetarian Times. I was intrigued by the idea of tofu instead of ricotta cheese. However, when I mentioned it to Andy, he thought the idea of tofu was incredibly scary and asked if there was a different lasagna I could try.
Then we both remembered this Asparagus-Pesto lasagna and I debated as to whether or not I could adjust to make it dairy-free. I decided that yes I could, only the asparagus isn’t very good yet around here, so I ended up deciding to use a combination of zucchini and mushrooms, and then, since I needed dairy-free, but not necessarily veg-friendly, I opted to add some sweet Italian sausage as well. For the milk, I chose rice milk to make my bechamel. And finally, the cheese. I debated using a soy cheese or other vegan cheese substitute, but since I haven’t tried any of those, I was hesitant as to how well they worked. I ended up deciding to just eliminate the cheese, and instead add some nutritional yeast flakes to my bechamel to get that nutty Parmesan flavor. I’d never used nutritional yeast before, but it certainly has my attention now. Not only is the flavor comparable to Parmesan (not identical, but similar) but it’s actually a nutritional powerhouse. It’s not bad flavor-wise, and since I have a big container of it, I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of it here.
The lasagna came together easily enough, but I did run into a bit of a snafu at one point. I was going to use some homemade pesto in the bechamel for a flavor punch, but when I opened up my pesto container, I saw the little white flecks that meant that I’d used Parmesan in the pesto. Obviously, the pesto was out, so I ended up using a combination of dried herbs for the flavor I was looking for. When I make this again, I plan to try it with pesto that has been made without the Parmesan. I have to tell you, even I was surprised with how delicious this White Sausage Lasagna turned out. It really was wonderful! The turkey sausage, zucchini, mushrooms, and garlic made a great filling, and the sauce cooked into the noodles perfectly. I certainly didn’t miss the cheese in the least, and my company agreed that this was a repeater. It also happens to be quite low in fat and calories, and by all means, leave out the sausage for a completely vegetarian version. I’ll be getting up a picture a little later, but in the meantime, here’s the recipe.
White Sausage Lasagna
A Dairy-Free Lasagna
Serving Size : 10
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray, set aside.
Begin by browning the Italian sausage in the olive oil over medium high heat. Remove the browned sausage from the pan, leaving any drippings in the pan.
Add the zucchini and mushrooms to the pan and saute until the zucchini is soft. Add the garlic, and continue to cook for about another two minutes. Add the cooked vegetables to the sausage and toss to combine.
In another saucepan, combine the flour and about half of the rice milk. Whisk to combine, and once smooth, add the remaining rice milk. Cook over medium-high heat until thickened and bubbly, stirring very frequently to keep it from clumping. Remove from the heat. Add the sea salt, black pepper, nutritional yeast flakes, garlic powder, basil, and Italian seasoning. Stir to combine. Remove 1 cup of sauce pan and set aside.
Place about 1 cup of sauce in the prepared baking dish. Spread the sauce evenly around the pan. Lay 4 of the lasagna noodles over the sauce, overlapping slightly. Spread half of the sausage and vegetable mixture over the noodles, followed by half of the remaining sauce. If you’d like, you can sprinkle with additional nutritional yeast flakes. Cover the sauce with another layer of 4 overlapping noodles. Spread the remaining vegetables followed by the other half of the sauce. Layer the remaining 4 lasagna noodles on the top. Pour the reserved 1 cup of sauce evenly on top of the noodles.
Gently, pour the 1/4 cup of water around the edges of the lasagna. Cover the pan tightly with foil and pop into the 350ºF oven. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit for at least 15 minutes before cutting into pieces.
Serves about 10.
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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 239 Calories; 8g Fat (28.3% calories from fat); 12g Protein; 31g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 49mg Cholesterol; 512mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 1/2 Vegetable; 1/2 Fat.
NOTES : Alternately, for the sauce, you can also use 6 tablespoons of prepared pesto instead of the garlic powder, dried basil,and Italian Seasoning. Just double check to see that the pesto is free of Parmesan Cheese.
You can also omit the sausage for a vegetarian lasagna- vegan if you use an egg-free lasagna noodle.