Sunday, September 20, 2015

Family Lasagna


Vegan MoFo 2015 Day 20: Veganize an old family recipe.

If our family has a "recipe" it has to be lasagna. We had this lasagna every Christmas and Easter, many times during the year for Sunday dinner, and it was always what I requested for my birthday meal. Everyone in our family loves it, and my brothers and I all make our own versions to keep the recipe alive.

I've never seen a written recipe for it, because I don't think there is one. My paternal grandmother showed my mom how to make it when my folks were married and that was that. It's straightforward, and doesn't need much explanation, and it's also very easy to veganize.

Of course it's versatile. I often layer other vegetables into it and add other bells and whistles, but this  is our quintessential family version: just homemade sauce, ricotta filling, and either parmesan and/or mozzarella on top.

The original filling consists of ricotta, egg, grated parmesan, garlic, parsley, and salt and pepper. I make mine by blending ground almonds, extra firm tofu, lemon juice, garlic granules, salt and pepper in a food processor and then stirring in parsley leaves. As a kid, it was always my job to pick the parsley off the stems to put in the filling.


More often than not, I use nut parmesan for the topping. It's how my mom makes it--no mozzarella, just parmesan--this contains ground blanched almonds, minced garlic, and kala namak salt. 


There's a bit of rivalry between us siblings as to who makes the best version...as far as I'm concerned mine wins, if only for being vegan.


I'm bummed for having missed several MoFo prompts; I was thinking of going back and making up the ones I missed, but then I'd fall even further behind. Well done to all the MoFoers who have been posting everyday. It's difficult to do--your efforts are appreciated!

13 comments:

  1. I noticed you were absent for the past prompts, it's not easy to keep up. I tried to plan and write a few posts ahead, but for the rest of the month, I'll have to do everything from scratch.

    That lasagna looks terrific! The picture is fantastic.

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    1. Doing posts ahead of time was a smart. I intended to do that too, but alas...

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  2. Your lasagna looks amazing; I still need to try making my own ricotta and parmesan sometime! :)

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    1. Definitely give it a try; it's fun to tailor the flavor profile to your own tastes.

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  3. Don't feel bad about missing prompts. Lots of people have this year. I remember in previous years the challenge was to aim for 20 out of the month. I'll be missing some in the last week and missed some early on. That lasagne looks amazing. I've not tried tofu ricotta. I usually make a bechamel sauce from cashews and silken tofu and Nooch but would love to give this a try.

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    1. The cashew bechamel sounds good. If you try the ricotta, let us know how it goes.

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  4. That looks like an awesome lasagne.

    I've missed a couple of prompts too this year. I've been struggling!

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  5. Now this Lasagna I would definitely take to the desert island.

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  6. Lasagna is definitely one of my very top foods ever, period. I love it so much. I always enjoy trying out new vegan versions. I love the sound of the nut parm with kala namak - i'm curious to try that. I think your lasagna looks crazy good. Mmm

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