Vegan Ratatouille Lasagna
Vegan Ratatouille Lasagna is the perfect combination of two great dishes. Topped with a creamy, vegan alfredo sauce and layered with a pasta sauce of your choosing, this dish will keep you warm as ever as we move into Autumn.
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Introduction
As the leaves change from the bright greens of summer to the warm colours of Autumn and we ditch the summer recipes for soul-warming, hearty dishes, it’s due time we had a dish that meets us halfway.
Part Summer, part Autumn - the Ratatouille Lasagna. The seasonal fusion of two dishes that’s just as colourful as the leaves on the trees. Reds, yellows, oranges, greens, and topped with a white, alfredo sauce (that represents that one day in November we get a weird amount of snow).
It’s just as tasty as it is pretty, as filling as it is easy, and as worth it as it is even better the next day. And the best part is, it’s only really got four steps:
Make the sauce
Slice the vegetables
Layer the lasagna
Cook the lasagna
Five, if you include showing it off to all of your friends or getting a second (or third) serving.
If you’ve made ratatouille before, you know how good it can be if done correctly. And if you’ve made lasagna before, you know that holds even truer. Combine them, put some soul into it, and enjoy.
The secret to this dish is to layer correctly when filling your baking dish. Pasta sauce, vegetables, lasagna sheet, Alfredo sauce, vegetable, lasagna sheet, repeat. Slice your vegetables as evenly as you can. One that’s paper thin isn’t going to cook at the same rate as a 1 cm. thick slice, so do your best to slice uniformly (but don’t fret too hard over it).
Check out the Spruce it Up section for ideas on how to take this recipe to the next level.
Before we Get Started
Prep Time: 30 Minutes
Cook Time: 45 Minutes
Total Time: 1 Hour, 15 Minutes
Yield: 5-7 Portions
Ingredients
1 Eggplant
2 Zucchini
2 Summer Squash
4 Roma Tomatoes
Lasagna Sheets
Pasta Sauce
Of your choosing.
1/2 Yellow Onion
If you don’t have yellow onions, use whatever you have on hand.
1 clove Garlic
1/2 cup Raw Cashews
2 cups Unsweetened Dairy-Free Milk
Splash of Lemon Juice
2 Tbsp. Flour
2 Tbsp. Oil
Method
Preheat your oven to 400°F.
Combine your garlic, cashews, 1/2 cup of dairy-free milk and 1/2 cup of water, and a splash of lemon juice into a blender. Add a good pinch of salt and a few cracks of black pepper. Blend until smooth.
Heat up a pot over medium heat, with a small splash of oil. Finely dice your onion, and add to the pot once it’s come to temperature. Add a pinch of salt, and stir until translucent.
Throw in your olive oil and your flour, and stir. Continue stirring until it turns a light blond colour, then add the remaining 1.5 cups of dairy-free milk. From here, using a whisk, remain stirring until you’re able to “ribbon” the sauce. As soon as you can, turn off the heat.
“Ribboning” is a fancy term for being able to lift your whisk out of the sauce and if you lightly shake the whisk over the sauce, the stuff that drips off of the whisk stays on the sauce for a half second or so before disappear.
Add the stuff from your blender into the pot, and stir to combine.
Slice your vegetables into ~1/2 cm. slices.
The eggplant will be a lot bigger than the other vegetables, so slice that one in half lengthways first before slicing thinly.
You may find that depending on the size of your dish, you won’t need all the vegetables.
On the bottom of your lasagna dish, place a good layer of pasta sauce, followed by a layer of one of the vegetables. Top with a layer of vegetables, then pour and spread some of your white sauce over top. Repeat the process of sauce, vegetable, pasta, other sauce until you’re at the top of your baking dish.
Wrap your lasagna in tin foil, and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the tinfoil, and bake for another 10-15 minutes uncovered.
Enjoy.
Spruce it Up
Top with parsley for a great freshness.
Vegan parmesan or nutritional yeast are great cheesy alternatives to regular parmesan cheese.
Check out my Vodka Sauce recipe if you want a better, cheaper version of store-bought pasta sauce.