Friday, February 27, 2015

Paleo, grain free, dairy free lasagne

Cashew and Leek white sauce:
(Thanks Christine for the recipe).
Cut up the Leek (mostly white and a bit of the green).
Put it in a pot with 1 cup cashew nuts (I used 2 cups when making 2 or 3 big lasagne).
Top with water to just above the ingredients.
Bring to the boil. Add sea salt (liberally) and white pepper.
Boil for 10 minutes.
Blend (I used my vitamix). I also added a bit (1/2 - 1 tsp) of Xanthan Gum to help thicken the sauce as I put a bit of extra water in - wanting enough for 3 dishes.
Cashew cheese:
1 1/2 cups cashews (soaked and then rinsed when ready to use)
1/2 cup water
3 Tbs nutritional yeast
1 Tbs lemon juice
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp garlic
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
(This was enough to spread over the top of 3 lasagne.)
Lasagne:
Slice zucchini and either fry in a pan or grill in the oven. We found it quicker to just put all the slices on two trays in the oven and rotate the trays. This helps remove some of the moisture.
I use foil pans lined with baking paper. The pans don't stay totally clean (some juice did leak past the paper) but they are easy to clean and last much longer. It also makes it easier to make up 3 and freeze 2 of them.
I din't have very deep dishes and not a lot of zucchini, so our layers were: Mince, white sauce, zucchini, mince, white sauce and then topped with cheese.
The cheese may taste very strong (I wondered if it was too much yeast) and you may wonder as I did if it was worth adding with already having the cashew sauce. It works so well though and is worth the extra bit of work. The "cheese" grills nicely and once it's cooked adds a lovely flavour to the dish.
Bake till nicely browned and enjoy.

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