Lasagne - packed full of goodness (and cheese!)

Lasagne is a dish that I always loved and once I stated changing my diet and eating healthy was something that I thought would be off the menu from then on.  Once I became more confident in the kitchen and much more adapt at the whole cooking malarkey, I attempted many different ways of making a 'healthy' lasagne with the main challenge of how to create a white sauce in a more nutritious way.

I've embarked on several different versions (involving all sorts of ingredients from cottage cheese to quark to fat free fromage frais with eggs thrown in the mix) to varying degrees of success - however, about a year or so ago, I tried a new recipe and its become a firm favourite in our house and its now my 'set recipe' for whenever we fancy lasagne.

Ingredients

Red sauce

- 500g of lean mince (or quorn mince)
- 2 tins of chopped tomatoes
- 2 onions
- 2 carrots
- 1 courgette
- Half a punnet of mushrooms
- 1 stick of celery
- 2 peppers
- 2 cloves of garlic
- a splash of Worcestershire sauce
- a tsp of chilli powder (optional)
- a Tesco red wine stock cube
- a tsp of mixed herbs
- a beef stock cube (or vegetable)

White sauce

- half of a medium cauliflower
- 6 level tsp of Bisto Cheese Sauce granules
- 400ml of boiling water

- Lasagne sheets
- 160g mozzarella 

Method

1) Start your red sauce by finely chopping all of your vegetables - I use my electric mini chopper to chop really finely (and if you have a member of the family who's not that keen on vegetables, this means they won't even notice them!)

2) Add your mince to a large saucepan over a low heat with the garlic, chilli powder and mixed herbs and cook through breaking it up.

3) Add all of your chopped vegetables to the pan and allow to cook gently for about 15 minutes (stirring often).  Put your oven on at this point to preheat - 190/gas mark 5.

4) Dissolve the stock cube in a splash of boiling water and add to the pan along with the chopped tomates, red wine stock pot and Worcestershire sauce.  Simmer for about 30 minutes stirring often.

5)  Whilst the red sauce is simmering, add your cauliflower (broken into florets) to a pan of boiling water and simmer until soft.

6) Add 6 tsp of Bisto cheese sauce granules to a large jug and add in the boiling water - stir until thickened and set aside for now.

7) Once the cauliflower is soft, drain it and add to the jug of the cheese sauce and blend using a stick blender until smooth.

8) Its Assembly time!
Remove the red sauce from the heat and get all your elements ready.

9) Layering, I do the following:
- a layer of red sauce
- a layer of lasagne sheets
- a layer of cauliflower cheese sauce
- a small sprinkle of mozzarella
-repeat
- end with a layer of red sauce and top with the majority of the mozzarella.

10) Carefully put your lasagne in the oven for about 30-40 minutes  

This made 5 good size portions (or 6 medium sized portions) and just a small pack of mince was used as the red sauce is probably 75% vegetables in the end.

I serve with salad and homemade garlic bread (which may be a feature of another blog post in the near future!)

You can't taste the cauliflower in the white sauce at all (and my husband doesn't actually have a clue that is how I make it - though that may change after writing this!) and its another way to add more vegetables to a meal.  Cauliflower is really good for us - its packed full of fibre and contains so many nutrients including Vitamins C, K and B6 as well as antioxidants helping to prevent inflammation.

It takes a bit of time to make (and generates quite a bit of washing up) but its really worth the effort if, like me, you thought lasagne was off the healthy eating menu!

If you'd like to receive notifications of when I publish my blog posts, please email me at georginalivinghealthy@protonmail.com and I can you inform you when posts go live.