Lasagna in 3 Loaf Pans

Lasagna in 3 Loaf Pans (Feeds 6-9)

Lasagna

• Servings: 6-9
• Prep Time: 30
• Cook Time: 50
• Difficulty: 2
• Rating: 5
• Print

Ingredients

• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• ¼ cup flour
• 1 ½ cups cold water
• ½ cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
-1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 tsp Italian seasonings
• 16 oz chopped frozen spinach
• 1 lb tofu, crumbled
• (3) 15-18oz jars of pasta sauce, or (2) 24 oz jars of pasta sauce (can be different varieties)
• 1 pkg no-boil lasagna noodles
• Optional – Other vegetables for layering (at least partially cooked)
• Optional – 1 pkg grated vegan cheese for topping

Directions

preheat oven to 350’
1. Make filling: Heat oil in pan. Sautee onion and garlic until fragrant. Sprinkle flour over onion and garlic. Slowly stir in cold water to make a roux. Stir in nutritional yeast, salt & pepper. Stir in frozen spinach. Turn to low and cover a few minutes until spinach is at least mostly thawed. Mix in the tofu. Season to taste.
2. Assemble the lasagnas: Spread 1/3 cup of sauce on the bottom of each greased loaf pan. Add 1 noodle to each loaf pan (break off wnd to fit into pan). Spread ½ cup of filling inti each loaf pan. Continue to layer sauce-noodle-filling until finished. After last noodle layer, pour any remaining sauce over the noodle. Cover with cheese if using.
3. Bake the lasagna: These are a good size to freeze or refrigerate until necessary or give to friends to bake. If frozen, add extra time to baking (15 min), if refrigerated, add a few minutes extra to baking. Bake covered in foil for 45 minutes, remove foil, and bake an additional ten minutes. Rest 10 minutes before cutting.

Each loaf feeds 2 really hungry folks or 3 regular hungry folks.

• I used a combination of Trader Joe’s Vegan Bolognese sauce and HEB Marinara sauce. I used slices of Follow Your Heart Mozzarella on the top, but grated would be better, although it really doesn’t need it.

Battered, Southern-Fried Tofu

One of my many variations, this one seems to be juuuuuuust right.
Also, people that are truly Southern-bred may already know this, but I discovered the key to effortless battering: keep one hand wet and one hand dry.

2# hard tofu, each cut into 16 “fingers”
Oil for deep frying

Dry Mixture:
1 cup flour
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika

Wet Mixture:
3 Tbsp yellow mustard
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water

–Heat the deep fry oil to 375′.
–In one bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. In another bowl, mix together the wet ingredients.
–With one hand, coat the tofu in the wet mixture and then drop it in the flour mixture. With the other hand, cover the tofu with the flour mixture, retrieve it, and put it on a plate. This keeps one hand dry and your flour mixture from getting all gummy.
–When the oil is hot, fry a pound of battered tofu at a time (or whatever works with your pot / deep fryer) for about 6 minutes.
–Let drain on a towel and enjoy!

Southern Fried Tofu

Tofu, cut into 8 ‘fingers’ per block – thawed frozen tofu is the easiest to work with, because it has more structural integrity. The dredging and flour mixture is enough for about 2# of tofu.

Dredging Mixture
2 Tbsp 3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp soy milk
1 tsp yellow mustard

Flour Mixture
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup cornmeal
1 tsp paprika
1/2 heaping tsp Goya Adobo
1/2 tsp poultry seasonings
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp baking powder

Oil for deep frying

Mix the various mixtures. Dredge tofu in soy sauce mixture, then coat in flour mixture. Deep fry at 375′ (aka, really hot) for 6-7 minutes, in batches, making sure that all the tofus are completely submerged in the oil, until they are darkish brown and crispy. Drain on paper towels and newspaper or layers of dish towels. Serve immediately or serve cold.

TVP-Gluten Meatballs

This is based on Vegan Dad’s Italian Meatballs, but with TVP instead of tempeh and other changes. The recipe comes together really easily with a food processor.

Yield: 36 meatballs. Easily doubled, and should freeze well, best made ahead.

1 cup dry TVP granules
7/8 cups boiling water
1 onion, quartered
4 cloves garlic, pressed
1/4 cup loosely chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp ground flax seed
Dry Mixture:

• 2 tsp fennel seed
• 1 tsp sage
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp Goya Adobo
• 1 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup tapioca starch (instant oatmeal or bread crumbs could substitute)
• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1/2 cup vital wheat gluten

Wet Mixture:

• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp A1-style steak sauce
• 1/4 tsp liquid smoke
• 1 tsp sesame oil

2 Tbsp olive oil for baking pan
(A sauce for simmering or marinating)

Rehydrate the TVP by pouring the boiling water over it and letting it sit for at least 10 minutes. While the TVP is rehydrating, get started on the other stuff.
Put all of the veggies and flax seed in the food processor and pulse until combined. Add in the dry mixture and pulse until completely pulverized. Add in the rehydrated TVP and wet mixture and process until well combined.

Preheat oven to 350′. Pour the olive oil in the baking pan. Form the mixture into 36 small balls. Shake pretty rambunctiously until all the balls have a thin layer of olive oil all around them. Bake for about one hour, shaking every 15 minutes, until balls are firm, cooked through and browned all over. If using in a sauce, refrigerate or freeze to firm up before covering or simmering with sauce.

tofu scrambler

There are millions of recipes for scrambler out there, but this is how I do it:

chopped onion
chopped garlic
oil
1 block firm/extra firm NOT silken tofu
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp Goya Adobo (or salt or garlic salt)
2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp oregano
soy sauce to taste
pepper to taste
additions – spinach, other veggies, tortillas, etc.

saute onions and garlic in oil. Drain the water from the tofu and gently squeeze out some of the water. Crumble the tofu into the pan. Add the yeast, spices, soy sauce and additions, and saute until heated through and veggies are cooked. Adjust seasonings to your liking.

01-27-11: Lately I’ve also been messing around with either adding chickpea flour, cubing the tofu really small instead of smashing it, or just frying cubed tofu up with chickpea flour, paprika, chili powder, nutritional yeast and soy sauce. But that’s not really a scrambler recipe, now is it?