Vegetarian Zucchini Lasagna

Makes two 9”x13” deep baking dishes.

Why Lasagna?

I've been learning to make cheese so that we don't have to buy cheese from the store (since we don't know where the milk comes from that that cheese is made from - most likely sad, drugged cows). The easiest dairy products to make from milk are yogurt, ricotta cheese, and mozzarella.  I was already making yogurt, and I started making mozzarella and ricotta together because you can use byproducts from the mozzarella to make the ricotta. However, ricotta is not a cheese we used a lot before, so I've been experimenting with new ways to use it. Lasagna is one of the main dishes I know of that includes ricotta - and it also includes mozzarella. 

Why Zucchini?

Because I had lots of zucchini and summer squash lying around, but only 6 lasagna noodles.

Why Vegetarian?

Because I didn't have any flexitarian ground meat on hand (which for me is the norm).

Ingredients 

“Noodles”

1 giant zucchini and 1 giant summer squash

6 cooked lasagna noodles (3”x13” after cooked)

Sauce

2 onions, diced

1 bulb (the whole bulb!) garlic, minced

2 sticks celery

1 bell pepper, diced

Other vegetables

1 12-oz can tomato paste

2 28-oz cans diced tomatoes

2 medium tomatoes, diced

1 15-oz can drained black beans (If you haven’t put black beans in tomato sauce before, don’t worry; it won’t make it taste like chili, because the spices are tomato sauce spices. I thought it would taste weird the first time I tried putting black beans in a tomato sauce instead of ground meat, but it tasted surprisingly normal. I think I actually like it better now, because you get the smooth texture of the beans instead of worrying about getting a bit of gristle in the meat. You don’t have to drain the beans, because the juice is very good, but you might want to because it darkens the color of the sauce a lot.)

salt

ground black pepper

balsamic vinegar

oregano

¼ C chopped fresh basil

Ricotta Filling

2 eggs

2 lbs ricotta cheese (about what you make from a gallon of milk and half a gallon of whey, maybe more.)

2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

pepper

Topping

1 lb shredded mozzarella cheese (about what you make from a gallon of milk)

Directions

Prep

Preheat oven to 325F. Get out two deep 9x13 inch baking pans.

Ready “Noodles”

Slice zucchini and summer squash lengthwise into very thin slices.

Boil lasagna noodles until just soft enough to eat.

Make Sauce

Sauté onion until browned. Add in garlic, celery, and pepper. Stir in canned tomatoes, tomatoes, tomato paste, black beans, balsamic vinegar, basil, oregano, pepper, and salt to taste. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer sauce for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently.

Make Ricotta Filling

Meanwhile, stir egg, ricotta, parsley, and pepper together in a bowl until well combined.

Assemble the Lasagna

Layer, in both pans (from bottom to top), about:

1/3 of the sauce, then

1/3 of the zucchini/squash,

1/2 of the ricotta,

all the pasta noodles (3 in each pan),

1/3 of the sauce,

1/3 of the zucchini/squash,

the rest of the ricotta,

the rest of the zucchini/squash,

the rest of the sauce, and

all the mozzarella.

Cover with foil.

Bake

Bake for 45 minutes.

You can eat one lasagna that day and freeze the other one to eat later.

The one you’re eating today:

Remove foil, raise oven temperature to 350F, and bake an additional 15 minutes.

Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

The one you’re freezing for later:

Remove lasagna after 45 minutes and let cool. Keep covered in foil. Freeze.

To reheat, bake until no longer frozen in the middle (about 45 min at 350F)

Then, remove the foil and bake 15 more minutes to brown.

Pear Garbanzo Tabbouleh

Servings

This recipe makes about 2 meals for me. I eat a lot - more than most adults, but less than most teenage boys. This is meant to be a complete meal. The beans and wheat have your protein and starch (beans have more protein, wheat has more starch), the oil gives you fats (which actually is something you need to make sure you have as non-processed food flexitarian), and the rest is delicious fruits and veggies. 

Ingredients (And where I get them from)

1 cup water (from the tap - the environmentalist and human rights advocate in me is horrified by bottled water, and the civil engineer is amused that people waste their money buying it)
1 cup fine cracked wheat (from the store)
1 cup minced fresh parsley leaves (from the garden)
1/2 cup minced fresh mint leaves (garden)
1/2 cup finely chopped yellow onion (from the dumpster behind Aldi's)
1 large ripe pear, cubed (Aldi's)

1 16-oz can garbanzo beans, drained. (store)
3 tablespoons olive oil (store)
3 tablespoons lemon juice, or to taste (store or Aldi's)
1 teaspoons sea salt (store)

Directions

Cook the cracked wheat as directed on package, probably for 10-20 min with a little more water than wheat.

Combine the chopped herbs, onion, pear, and garbanzo beans. Once the cracked wheat has cooled a little, add it too. Add the oil, lemon juice, and salt. Mix well. Add to wheat mixture and mix well. 

If you leave it in the fridge for a while before eating, the flavors will blend more. On the other hand, if you eat it right away, you get to eat it right away. I usually just make enough to eat it at least twice.

Pictures

Step 1: Grow a bunch of parsley and mint (The parsley is the big, floppy, lobed leaves in the bottom center and the mint has the sharp, pointy leaves in pairs. It's popping up in all four corners [but not very close to the corner])

Also lettuce. That's filling up the center of this bed with curly greens and reds.

Step 2: Make home-made pear-garbanzo tabbouleh

Step 3: Wash and arrange beautiful lettuce on plate

Step 4: Yum!