Mushroom and lentil lasagne

I know there are a million veggie lasagne recipes out there but I can honestly say this one gives others I've tried a real run for their money. This one offers the texture and slightly caramelised flavour you'd get from browned minced beef.

I have made a massive lasagne! I mean truly huge! We're talking 9 very generous portions but there's a reason for this. Lasagne is fairly labour-intensive by nature so I always make lots so I can freeze the leftovers. That means I've got frozen lasagne handy that beats the pants off of the per packed ones you'd get from the supermarket.

The essential step in this recipe for texture is chopping the mushrooms. There's a lot of them and you want them a very fine dice. I should imagine you could do them in a food processor but you'd need to be careful not to over-process them or you'll end up with mush. My processor is only a mini one so I hand chopped my mushrooms. It took a while but once cooked the texture was perfect.

Also, for the veg base it's tradition to use an onion, celery and carrot but I didn't have any carrots in but I did have some parsnips. So I used one of them instead. And it worked great. Essentially you just need a slightly sweet root vegetable to counter the herbal, savoury notes of the celery and the parsnip seemed to do that perfectly well but I would leave it up to you.

Ingredients:

For the Bolognaise:
2 big family packs of supermarket mushrooms (mine cost under £3 for both), wiped clean of all muck and very finely minced
1 large onion peeled and finely chopped
3 sticks celery finely chopped
1 large parsnip finely diced
4 cloves chopped garlic
2 veggie oxo cubes
1tsp dried oregano
1tbsp Worcester sauce
Few drops of Tabasco sauce to taste
Pinch of salt to taste
1 cup dried red lentils
2 boxes of pasatta
2 cups water

For the white sauce:
50g butter
50g plain flour
500ml milk warmed (I use the microwave)
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Dried Lasagne sheets (15-20)
Grated cheese to top

Method:
1. In a dry frying pan on a high heat cook the mushrooms in batches. You need to cook them till all the water comes out of them, boils away and then they start to brown. It will look like you've got far to much mushrooms at first but once you cook them and the liquid evaporates they at least halve in volume. Once they're all cooked set them aside.

2. In a very large saucepan/stockpot, gently cook off the onion, celery, parsnip and garlic until the veg is translucent and tender. Adding a pinch of salt encourages the veg to leach there water preventing them from frying and colouring.
3. Add the mushrooms, oxo, oregano, Tabasco and Worcester sauce and stir together.
4. Add the lentils, pasatta and water, stir and bring to the boil. Simmer for 20 minutes then turn off the heat and allow the Bolognaise to cool. The lentils will continue to cook in the heat of the pan and will finish swelling and cooking in the oven.
5. For the white sauce, melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the flour. Cook over a low heat whisking constantly to prevent the mixture from burning but making sure the flour cooks out. Add the hot milk gradually, whisking constantly until thickened and add the nutmeg.
6. Pre-heat the oven to 190•C
7. To start building the lasagne, Pour a little of the Bolognaise mixture into the bottom of a very large lasagne dish (my dish only just fits in my oven).
8. Add a layer of the dried pasta sheets and top with more Bolognaise. Break the pasta sheets in half etc to fill all the gaps. Repeat until the dish is almost full.
9. After the last layer of pasta pour over the white sauce and top with the grated cheese.
10. Cover the dish with foil ensuring the foil doesn't touch the sauce or cheese.
11. Bake for 45 mins before removing the foil and return to the oven for 15 mins until the cheese is golden and bubbling.
12. Cut into 9 servings and serve with salad.