Vegetable Lasagna with Cauliflower Ricotta

Anytime I tell James I'll make anything he wants for dinner, his response is almost always lasagna. It's one of those great dishes that can hide so many veggies and usually makes leftovers for at least a couple days. I don't know why I don't make it more often. It's not really all that time consuming and it's definitely not hard.

The beauty of a lasagna is that you can make it however you want. I usually throw in whatever vegetables I have in the fridge that need to be used up. It's never turned out bad no matter what I put in there, either. My usual lasagna recipe is a culmination of different things. One thing that I think makes it really stand out is that I always make my own sauce. It not only tastes better than store-bought, it's really simple and easy to make.

I also typically use Isa's recipe for tofu ricotta from Vegan with a Vengeance. I've tried other ways to make the "cheese" part of the lasagna, but that one is always a winner. That's why I was really excited to try the cauliflower ricotta recipe in Appetite for Reduction. I'm in love with caulipots, and I've recently discovered pureed cauliflower to be an excellent secret ingredient in creamy sauces and soups. Why wouldn't cauliflower also be awesome in lasagna?! It's like I'm discovering the wonders of the cashew all over again or something.

I decided to make the lasagna pretty much exactly like the recipe in the book. I'm loving everything in Appetite for Reduction so far so I figured it couldn't hurt to change up my usual methods a bit since I was already changing up the ricotta. One note if you're doing the same - I was using dried thyme in the red sauce, not fresh and since I was trying to multi-task a bit too much while I was cooking, I added 2 tablespoons of dried thyme. Yikes. If you're using dried, maybe go for 2 teaspoons. Fresh is always better if you can get it, though. I just forgot to pick up some thyme when I was at the market.

All in all, I think this recipe was great! I will definitely be using the cauliflower ricotta recipe again. You pretty much just roast some cauliflower then mash it together with some tofu and nutritional yeast and a few other things and wham! you have cauliflower ricotta. I think it would also be good to add in some fresh basil leaves like the VwaV recipe. I always love fresh basil in pasta dishes; it adds such a wonderfully fresh flavor.

I added some zucchini, carrots and shitake mushrooms to the spinach as well. Again, you can really add whatever veggies you want, I'm sure it'll be fantastic. Though I'd be unsure how peas would go in lasagna. It would probably still be good, but maybe a little unexpected, I guess. I also added some sliced garlic-stuffed olives to the top since I couldn't be bothered to pit any kalamata olives that day. It was a really nice addition, actually.

One more thing: At our house, no lasagna is complete without some capers sprinkled on top. I highly recommend doing the same. You'll never go without again.