I went to the grocery store today, as I typically do on Sundays! Got some great produce and a few snacks. I am going to a friends for dinner tonight and wanted to bring my arame cabbage side salad to share with them.
While making it I also got motivated to roast cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and even this amazing banana-squash that the produce guy recommended I try.
Everything turned out perfect!
You'll never believe this but because I'm not a big pasta person, I've NEVER EVER made a lasagna! In my whole life. Crazy right? I had this urge to make it for my sons but I wanted to be creative. I even have these brown rice noodles that I could use for it in my pantry.
So, I quickly looked over a traditional meat and cheese lasagna recipe just to see how it is all done.
I then, used just half the squash and created my own healthier, vegetarian version of lasagna. It's done now. Cooling. I'm nervous to try it but will let you all know how it turns out.
I was left with the other half of the baked squash. I also had a bunch of cooked onions left from the lasagna as well.
I put them together on the stovetop {photo below} and cooked it up until it was nice and lightly browned. I thought about eating it like that until I had a better idea:
SOUP!!!!!!!!!
And soup I made. It turned out AAMMMAAZZZINNNNG! Here's what I did.
Recipe:
3 cups banana squash, cooked {in the oven, coated in coconut oil and sea salt, at 430 degrees for 30-40 minutes}
⅓ large yellow onion, cooked in water/oil on stove until soft
3Tbls oil {olive or coconut}
½tsp fresh thyme
4 fresh basil leaves
¾c cashews soaked
1 ½c water
Sea Salt, to taste
Combine the squash and yellow onion in a saucepan, cook with the oil on medium for about 12 minutes until really soft. Add sea salt and fresh herbs and cook for another 5-7 minutes. Or until everything looks ready to eat.
Meanwhile, in a Vitamix combine water and cashew nuts. Blend on high until smooth. Using a fine strainer, strain out the juice/water into the saucepan. Blend all ingredients in the vitamix until very very smooth in texture.
Pour into dishes.
You can add veg stock if you like a thinner style soup. I like it rich and think! So great.
ENJOY!
Janice
Looks delicious, I will have to give it a try! I would love to hear how the lasagna turned out, and maybe see your recipe. I really enjoy all your recipes!
Juli Novotny
Janice - thanks for the lovely comment. The soup was actually VERY good. The lasagna was too. Since it was a first trial, I used cottage cheese as the cheese. I need to find a way to make a vegan one. I layered the brown rice noodles, hard, in a class pyrex. Then I added layers of the squash. Then layers of the cottage cheese then the layer of the noodles. And so on. I also poured this butternut squash marinara that I bought at our local health food store. It was great. My boys loved it. I didn't add greens or anything. It was mainly a test and to see if my kids liked it and to get used to making lasagna.
Janice
Wow, very creative! The cottage cheese will work for me, I am vegetarian, but not totally vegan. I would be interested in finding a good vegan alternative though. I think I have seen people make a cheese with pine nuts as a ricotta cheese substitute in Italian dishes, but I have never tried it. Thank you for your reply!
Molly Park
I am sooo trying this. Can't wait!
Chicken Recipes
Thanks for providing this information. Its really useful.
Chicken Recipes