The Hangry Hillbilly

My husband loves Italian food. So, I make a lot of pasta! One of his favorites is lasagna and when I cut out dairy products I had to figure out a way to make the ricotta cheese layer of the lasagna. I mean, let's face it....it's ain't lasagna without that layer! So, I was making some eggless egg salad one day and a little lightbulb went off in my head....Hey, I can use tofu for the ricotta. Little did I know this was no new idea. Apparently, vegans have been making fake ricotta out of tofu for a long time, but I'm still going to give myself a little pat on the back for thinking of it anyway even if it wasn't exactly an original idea. This lasagna recipe is what I call my Quickie Lasagna because it goes together really fast and uses jar sauce which is a real time saver. It's a favorite in my house and I hope you will enjoy it as well.

Vegan Quickie Lasagna

1 to 1 1/2 jars of your favorite pasta sauce (I use Newman's)
Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Whole Grain Lasagna Noodles (uncooked)
2T Italian spice mix
1T Nutritional Yeast
14 oz package Extra firm tofu
Soy crumbles fake ground beef
Baby Bella Mushrooms
Daiya Mozzarella cheese


Get Cookin'

Preheat oven 350 degrees

Saute the mushrooms in a pan in a little olive oil for a few minutes, add the soy crumbles and about 1/2 cup pasta sauce. Cook until crumbles are no longer frozen and simmer while you make the tofu mixture.

In a bowl, place the drained tofu, Italian spice mix, and Nutritional yeast together and mix with a fork until it resembles ricotta cheese.

In a lasagna pan, spoon about 1/4 cup sauce in bottom of pan and spread it out. Layer uncooked noodles on top of sauce, then place soy crumble mix on top of noodles, pour pasta sauce over soy crumble mixture (about 1 cup), then place another layer of noodles, then tofu mixture, top with final layer of noodles. Pour remaining pasta sauce over top. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes.

Remove from oven, sprinkle Daiya Mozzarella cheese over top, return to oven until cheese melts. Remove from oven and ENJOY!