Eggplant Lasagna

After having access to conventional oven, i always wanted to try new recipes which we could only eat at restaurants, the quantity being one-third of what i would make at home for the same cost or probably less. Being outside India, other important reason for not preferring restaurant for these new cuisines is the vegetarian part of it. I don't believe if they can make a complete vegetarian version of any dish excluding egg or fish and that's another motivating factor for me to try out new recipes at home.

Coming to Lasagna, my dear hubby had tasted it somewhere when he went out for lunch and that's when he started telling me to try that out at home. He was very sure i will like the taste. The next thing we did was to get the ready-made 'Wholemeal Lasagna sheets'. My interest plunged when i started researching recipes for 'Vegetarian Lasagna' and that's when the lasagna sheets went to a corner of my grocery shelf and i just ignored it then. Everytime when i cleaned the shelf and set things right, this one gets a quick attention and disappeared from my mind at the same speed...:))

Okay, one day i decided to try this completely eggless and see how its gonna turn out....One thing i was sure by that time , was that the veggies to be used is absolutely our choice. So i went on making the veggie sauce, cut the eggplant into small cubes and kept my grated cheddar cheese ready to be assembled together....

Final step was to pre-heat the oven and during the time it was getting heated, i arranged lasagna sheets/Veggie sauce/eggplant/Cheese, layer by layer and kept it ready. Once the oven is preheated, i baked the lasagna and the result -- in one word --- just AWESOME...!!

yeaaahhh, i made a completely veggie version with no egg layer in between and it was sooo yummy....most importantly well received by kids.....:))

For weight watchers, this is a not-so-frequent recipe to be tried and which requires a lot-of-workout later due to the amount of cheese being added.

Ingredients:

Wholemeal Lasagna sheets - 6 (broad ones)

Cheddar Cheese or any cheese of your choice - shredded

Vegetables (Onion, Red Capsicum,Green Capsicum, Zucchini,Eggplant) - cut into small cubes - about 2 cups heaped

Tomato - 5 or 6 juicy and riped ones

Garlic - 3 pods minced

Dry Italian herbs - 2 tbsp

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil

Method:

Veggie sauce:

1. Make a puree of the tomatoes or use 2 cans of ready-made tomato puree.

2. Heat olive oil, add onion & garlic and saute them till golden brown. Sprinkle required amount of salt.

3. Now add the vegetables one by one saute them till they get half cooked. Do not add the eggplant.

4. Now add the tomato puree, italian herbs, pepper powder and allow the sauce to get cooked. Simmer the flame.

5. Once the sauce comes to the right consistency (it should not be too watery or too thick) switch off the flame and keep it aside and allow it to cool.

Assembling Lasagna:

Pre-heat the oven to 180°

1. Grease the baking tray (i used cake pan) with olive oil.

2. Make a thin layer of veggie sauce first. 

3. Spread a layer of Lasagna sheets on top.

4. Spread a layer of veggie sauce.

5. Spread a layer of eggplant/Spinach/basil/pumpkin.

6. Spread a layer of cheese (be liberal in this step as this makes the lasagna very tasty).

7. Repeat steps 3 to 6 till the baking tray is full.

8. Make sure the top most layer is cheese.

9. Cover the baking tray with aluminium foil and feed it into the oven for 20 mins.

10.Remove the foil and bake it again for 10 mins.

11. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 mins.

Now the lasagna is ready to be served. Cut the lasagna into squares and serve it hot.

Give a try and let me know your comments. :)

Veg Spaghetti Masala

My dear husband used to tell me to try making a dish with spaghetti, but somehow i was not sure how it might turn out and how my family might accept it. Finally i decided to try it and see how it tastes. Its almost the same recipe as i do for noodles, with some slight variations here and there. 

The final outcome was too good and my kids liked the dish. Now i have got the courage to try out other pastas also.

References:

Tarla Dalal mam's notes.

Items required:

Spaghetti - Required amount.

Onion - 1, chopped

Tomato - 2

Capsicum - 1 cup (chopped)

Mustard powder - 1 tsp

Grated mozarilla cheese - for garnish.

For Grinding:

Garlic - 3 pods

Ginger - a small piece

Red chilly - According to taste

Pre-requisites before starting to cook:

1. Boil water and once the water starts to boil, switch off the flame and put the spaghetti into it. Let it cook for few mins. Once the spaghetti becomes tender, remove from stove, drain the water and keep it aside.

                                      

                                      

2. Grind all the items given for grinding and keep it aside.

                                     

3. Boil water in a bowl. Once the water starts to boil, switch off the flame and put 2 tomatoes in it. Remove after 5 mins, peel the skin off and keep it aside.

                                    

Method:

1. Heat oil in a kadai and saute the onion once the oil is heated nicely.

2. Add the grind paste of ginger, garlic and red chilly to the saute onion once the onion becomes golden browm in colour. 

3. Add the capsicum (bell pepper) pieces now and saute all of them well for few mins. Sprinkle the required amount of salt and 1 tsp of mustard powder to it.

4. Add the peeled and smashed tomatoes to it now. Mix them thoroughly. Now add the cooked spaghetti and mix them well.

5. Remove from flame and transfer it to a serving bowl. Grate some mozzarella cheese and spread them on top of the cooked masala spaghetti.

Serve hot :)

Try this and let me know your comments.