On the Menu: Lasagna

I've noticed, since we started this garden garden blog thing, that I feel guilty when I make a meal that isn't entirely composed of our vegetables.

Or when, heaven forbid, I don't have time to freeze some vegetables (let alone cook them) and they go to waste.

Tonight though, I put away those guilty feelings and made a lasagna that contained only 2 of our garden ingredients: tomatoes and thyme.

Like most things, I didn't really have a recipe for lasagna that has fake meat, some vegetables and no ricotta cheese (more on that later) so I took a few recipes and cobbled them together.

I found a recipe for bechamel sauce and, since we never have cow's milk or real butter in our fridge, turned it vegan. Here goes:

Vegan Bechamel Sauce
2 1/2 Tbs vegan margarine or butter
2 to 2.5 Tbs flour
2 cups soy milk
ground nutmeg
salt and pepper

Melt the butter over medium heat and add the flour. Stir until it is a golden color. In another pan, bring the soy milk to a boil. Pour the milk into the butter/flour mixture and stir continuously until smooth. Bring to a boil and let it cook for about 10 minutes. STIR CONTINUOUSLY until the sauce thickens. Season with salt, pepper and ground nutmeg to taste. Set aside.

Vegetarian Lasagna
1 jar of tomato sauce
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
20 olives, chopped
1 box of no-boil lasagna noodles
1 cup bechamel sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella
1 package fake ground beef
fresh cherry tomatoes
dried thyme

First, I cut the cherry tomatoes in half. I put them in a dry frying pan and cooked them over low heat for just a bit to loosen the skins.


Then I briefly sauteed the onions and bell peppers. I didn't want them too soft because I figured they'd cook some more in the lasagna.

Then, I browned the fake ground beef (which Adam says looks like worms) and added the olives.

Now its time to start assembling the lasagna. First spray the bottom and sides of the pan with non-stick spray. Then, start with a layer of sauce...just enough to cover the bottom of the pan.

Next, add a layer of the noodles. The box told me to make sure the noodles overlap so that, when all the goodies are piled on top, they don't fall through the noodle layer.


Now, add half of the bechamel sauce on top of the noodles. I sprinkled some of the dried thyme on top of this layer.

Then add half of the meat/bell pepper/onion/olive mixture. Put 1 cup of the cheese on top of that.

Add half of the tomato sauce and half of the cherry tomatoes.

Repeat all of the above steps but make sure to end with a whole pile of cheese on top.


Cook the lasagna for about 30 minutes at 375 degrees. I should have covered the lasagna but we ran out of aluminum foil so I cooked it uncovered. But, luckily, the cheese did not burn!

Side note: I made a bechamel sauce in lieu of using ricotta cheese. Apparently, in Italy, ricotta cheese is never used in a lasagna. I don't know if this is true or not and it wasn't really the reason for my substitution. The real reason is that ricotta cheese makes me want to vomit. So I avoid it, whenever possible.

On the Menu: Roasted Potatoes

Okay, enough with the politics and dead dogs. It's time to get back on track. It's time for roasted potatoes!

With a steady supply of potatoes now coming in, we decided to take advantage of a momentary lack of extreme heat and roast several of them.

With the miniature fan directed at us, we chopped up the potatoes and mixed them with some olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, oregano and thyme. (All but the olive oil, salt and pepper were harvested from our garden.)

We preheated the oven to about 425 degrees and put the potatoes in for about 25 minutes. Then we took them out of the oven, stirred them up and put them back in for about another 20-25 minutes.

Meanwhile, we took ourselves off to the relative comfort of our window-AC cooled living room and basked in the steady stream of cold air pouring over us.

When the potatoes were ready, I quickly sauteed up some spinach, bell peppers and (frozen) Lima beans for an impromptu succotash. We drizzled the potatoes with red wine vinegar and were ready to eat.

And the house smelled heavenly with the aroma of rosemary, oregano and thyme drifting around all night long.

On the Menu

Stewed collards

Fried Okra
Grilled Summer Squash

Stewed Collards

The trick to these is to wash them well and to get rid of the stems. If you do those 2 things, you cannot fail.

An easy way to cut them is to stack them up on top of each other (after washing and removing stems), roll it up and slice it in about 1/2-inch thick strips.



For this recipe, I added about a half can of vegetable stock and a dash of red pepper flakes to a small pot.


Once it came to a boil, I added the collards and stirred them until they were coated in the stock. I turned the heat down to medium-low and covered them. I only let them cook for about 10 minutes, then I added 1/4 can of stewed tomatoes.



And there you have it!

Some people cook their collards for much longer (like an hour or so) but I prefer them with a little bit of a crunch. Also, we didn't have too many so it didn't take long for them to cook down.

These collards are, of course, vegetarian but you could always add ham or bacon if you are so inclined.



Fried Okra

The "breading" for this is very simple:

1 cup yellow cornmeal

A pinch of salt
A pinch of pepper
A pinch of cayenne pepper

First, cut off the "caps" and the "tips" of your okra.


Wash them well and the boil them for about 5-8 minutes (until they are somewhat tender).


Once they've cooled, cut them into pieces and roll them around in the cornmeal "breading." The natural "sliminess" of the okra will allow the breading to stick without the need for an egg bath first.


Fry in about an inch or two of oil and enjoy!



Grilled Summer Squash



Obviously, this is pretty straightforward. Cut the squash and grill it. Yum.

We added some of the remaining stewed tomatoes and just a pinch of shredded cheddar cheese because we decided the rest of our meal was entirely too healthy.

That last step, of course, is up to you.

We ate our collards, okra and squash with a serving of wild rice that we harvested from our garden.


Now, if you believed that last bit, you haven't been paying attention. We don't have rice in our garden! Although, perhaps next year...

No, the rice is from a box.

And delicious.

Serving recommendation: Serve with tall glasses of really cold iced tea (Just plain tea. Not some fancy ylang-ylang flavored tea. And absolutely NOT Snapple tea, please.)