Wow, third week in January! We almost made it. Let the healthy eating and resolutions continue! For at least another week. 🙂 I recently bought the KitchenAid attachment for the vegetable sheeter. So fun. I decided I would make sweet potato noodles for my dairy free lasagna. I have made this lasagna before with eggplant and it’s delicious, but with my new sheeter, it creates these beautiful thin lasagna like “noodles” out of the sweet potato. Perfect for layering! This lasagna feels like you are indulging, so hearty and delicious with familiar, comforting flavors. You can still feel good about yourself after that second serving, heck after that third serving!
It has been soooo cold in Chicago. Weeks of bitter below zero temps! You just want to stay in on the couch, under the covers and eat warm, filling foods! This weather makes it hard to get up early and make it to that a.m. workout class! I feel like Jack in The Shining! Minus the murderous rage and wielding ax. But the cabin fever, snowed in, Jack. All work and no play make Diane a very dull girl. You know, a little stir crazy. There is hope on the horizon though! I go to Cabo in a few weeks to thaw out and celebrate a good friend’s, ahem, 40th birthday! It will be here before I know it and I can get a nice reprieve from the frigid winter months. Not to rub it in or anything.
You don’t have to worry about throwing your beach diet off with this lasagna though! It will keep you full and satisfied without erasing any of the hard work we put in, in the first couple weeks of January. This lasagna will last you a few days too. I ate it for dinner for like a week! Don’t be alarmed after you are done layering, it does weigh a ton! But won’t weigh you down!!
So, try this sweet potato lasagna to help get you through the cold. Hey, it will be spring before we know it and I will be lounging on a beach in mere weeks! Stay strong y’all and eat lasagna!
Enjoy!
- Ingredients
- 1 medium to large sweet potato
- 2 organic spicy Italian turkey sausage links, casing removed
- 2 cups sliced mushrooms
- 3 cups marinara sauce (homemade or good quality jarred)
- 1 to 2 tsp. dried Italian spices
- Crushed red pepper flakes to taste
- 1 clove of garlic minced
- ½ a cup Diaya dairy free shredded mozzarella
- For the Cashew Ricotta and Bechamel
- 2½ cups raw cashews
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp. nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp. onion powder
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- Salt and pepper to taste
- For the cashew ricotta:
- Soak the cashews overnight in water or you can boil for 10 minutes.
- Place the cashews in food processor (blender if you don’t have) with the 1 to 2 tbsp. of water.
- Blend the cashews and water together until the cashews are broken down.
- Add the lemon and remaining ingredients and blend until combined. Adjust seasoning to taste. Do not blend until completely smooth. Blend until you reach a ricotta like texture.
- Remove two cups at this point and set aside in a bowl. Add the Italian spices and crushed red pepper to the "ricotta" mixture and stir to combine.
- Add a little more water to the remaining cashew cheese in the food processor. Blend until you have a creamy smooth texture. Add more salt and pepper to taste. This is your “béchamel” sauce.
- Assemble the lasagna:
- Pre-heat oven to 375. Spray an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
- Start by removing turkey sausage from the casing, heat a little olive oil in a skillet.
- Break the turkey sausage into pieces and cook until browned and no longer pink in spots. Using a slotted spoon remove from heat and allow to cool on plate with paper towel.
- Next, add the mushrooms in the hot skillet, add salt and pepper and sauté until tender, about 5 to 7 minutes.
- Add chopped garlic and sauté for another minute or two with the mushrooms. Remove mushrooms from heat and place on plate with the sausage.
- Heat your marinara sauce if not using homemade.
- Using your vegetable sheeter, make your sweet potato sheets. If you don’t have vegetable sheeter, slice as thin as possible, will be thicker than if you use a sheeter, but will still be good. Take a ladle of your marinara and spread around bottom of your prepared pan.
- Take the sweet potato sheets (how many fit, slightly overlapping) and lay over the sauce in the pan to act as your noodle.
- Next ladle another spoon full of sauce over sweet potato.
- Then take ⅓ of your cashew ricotta and spread evenly over the sweet potato.
- Next take about half of your sausage and mushroom mixture over your ricotta. Top with a little more sauce.
- Take more sweet potato sheets and layer over the mixture. Repeat process until ingredients are gone.
- Top the last layer with the remaining sweet potato sheets.
- Spoon marinara over the top of the sweet potato sheets and then spread your cashew béchamel over top in an even layer
- At this point you can add dairy/soy free “mozzarella”, I use Daiya or you can leave as is.
- Loosely cover pan with tinfoil, careful not to touch the “cheese mixture”.
- Place in pre-heated oven on the middle rack. Bake for about 35 minutes. Remove tin-foil and bake another 10 to 15 minutes.
- Lastly, turn the broiler to high and broil the top for about 5 minutes until top is bubbly. Careful with this step and watch so you don’t burn.
- Remove from oven and let sit at room temp for about 10 to 15 minutes to allow lasagna to set.
- Dig in!
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