This winter is kicking me hard and I guess I am not alone. The weather has been grim, it’s been raining on and on and on over here in Bristol. We’ve been thrown a few cold yet sunny days here and there, which make a massive difference to my and my cat’s mood, but these are few and far between and dark clouds and the sound of raindrops hitting our chimney have been pretty much non stop otherwise. This kind of weather calls for some comfort food in my books so today’s recipe is exactly that – vegan lasagne bolognese. It’s delicious, full of umami, not hard to put together – if a bit time consuming – and so comforting.

Vegan lasagne, like any dish of this kind, benefits from being made in advance. This gives the flavours a chance to develop and mingle and makes the finished dish so much more satisfying. I recommend making bolognese sauce and the béchamel at least a day in advance although a couple of days is even better. Below, I will walk you through the individual components and the process of making a dish like this so that you can nail even if you are new to cooking from scratch.

MORE ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS

ONION, GARLIC: Not much of an explanation needed here as these are true staples of any savoury dish, the world over. Some people add them to the pan together to speed things up, but I prefer to give the onion a head start as it takes considerably longer to cook than garlic and garlic is prone to burning when exposed to too much heat, which can render a dish bitter. Go slow and low with these two ingredients and remember to stir often, don’t worry if the pan catches a little – the next three ingredients (see next point) do a great job of deglazing the pan and the stuck in bits is where the true flavour lies…

CELERY, CARROT, FENNEL: Celery and carrot (sometimes fennel, which I personally like to add) are a part of what is known in Italian cooking soffritto. Soffritto, which also includes onion, forms a base flavour of many Italian sauces, stews and soups. It requires fairly slow cooking until translucent so don’t rush this step. I like dicing all these veg but hand as I am a bit of perfectionist, but you could speed things up if you wanted. Chop them roughly and then pulse them in a food processor until small and fairly uniformly minced.

SMOKED TOFU: I used minced smoked tofu, in combination with umami-rich mushrooms, to replace traditionally used minced meat. You can either slice the tofu and crumble it small with a fork or tear it into pieces with your hands and pulse in a food processor. I used a UK brand of smoked tofu that has already been pressed by the manufacturer. It comes in 225 g / 8 oz packet. If using unpressed tofu, buy 300 g / 10.5 oz and press before using for best results. If you cannot find smoked tofu, compensate by increasing the amount of smoked paprika or by adding a few drops of liquid smoke. This ingredient can be replaced with rehydrated soya mince, cooked Puy lentils, crumbled steamed tempeh cooked pearl barley, chopped toasted walnuts or sunflower seeds – there are a lot of options but I love the meatiness and savouriness that smoked tofu provides and if you don’t want to eat tofu because you are worried you will grow man boobs (if you are a man) or get cancer, don’t believe dairy and meat industry lies! Unless, you are allergic to it, soy is healthy! Here is some peer-reviewed science to back it up.

MUSHROOMS: Finely minced mushrooms are the second part of my mince replacement strategy 🙂 . They bring so much flavour to this dish that it would be unwise to swap them for anything else. Even if you dislike mushrooms, do give this dish a try – they are chopped so small that they won’t jump out from the medley of flavours, I promise. I used widely accessible brown chestnut (known as cremini in the US) mushrooms, but I used regular button mushrooms for one of my tests and they work just as well. Any mushrooms you enjoy will work. You can either process them in a food processor (which I prefer in this case) or dice very finely by hand.

RED WINE: Dry wine (I used red) is used to deepen the flavour of the sauce and if you worry about alcohol content know that it cooks out during cooking, or you could use non alcoholic wine instead. If that’s not a option, use veggie (or more mushroom) stock and a tablespoon of good balsamic vinegar.

MUSHROOM STOCK: Mushroom stock adds flavour to the sauce. You can either make it by immersing dry porcini mushrooms in boiling water for as long as you can or dissolving a mushroom (often also called umami) stock cube in water instead. If using procini be aware that they are often very gritty and sometimes contain little bugs (!) too. I like to drain porcini stock through a paper towel lined sieve to ensure none of these things end up in my sauce.

PLUM TOMATOES: A small amount of canned tomatoes adds body and tanginess to the sauce and improves its texture. I use peeled plum tomatoes, which I crush with a potato masher before adding to the pan to ensure even distribution throughout the sauce.

SOY SAUCE: A small amount of soy sauce adds depth of flavour to this sauce alongside some saltiness. Use wheat free tamari if making this dish gluten-free.

RED MISO PASTE: Red miso paste, which is a more assertive cousin of white miso paste. Miso is used here to add umami and savouriness to this sauce and it delivers that in spades. It could be subbed with white miso at a push, but I would recommend trying to get your hands on red miso paste if you can – nowadays it’s available not only in Asian grocery stores, but in well stocks supermarkets too. If you are making this dish gluten-free, look for miso that is based on chickpeas, brown rice, millet etc., rather than wheat.

HERBS: In terms of choice of herbs, you can use whatever combination you enjoy in a sauce like that. I went for fresh rosemary – 1 long sprig, leaves chopped finely – purely because I have it growing in my garden. I topped it up with some dried sage and oregano. You can use fresh or dry herbs, but it’s worth remembering that dry herbs (provided they are not stale) tend to be roughly 3 times more potent than fresh, meaning 1 tsp of dry herbs equals 1 tbsp of chopped fresh herbs.

LASAGNE PASTA: Unless the packet states ‘egg pasta’, most lasagne sheets are vegan these days so you will have no trouble finding them. I tend to go for no cook sheets as they are less hassle but to make sure lasagne stays moist inside after baking I immerse my sheets in cold water briefly before layering. This quenches some of pasta’s thirst.

PLANT MILK: I added a cup of oat milk to the sauce at the end as per traditional lasagne bolognese recipes and used it to make bechamel too. I like oat milk (I used Oatly barista) in this dish, but you can use any creamy, neutrally flavour plant milk instead.

OLIVE OIL: I use mild olive oil as a base for my bechamel sauce, but vegan butter or a mixture of the two works well too.

FLOUR: I use all purpose wheat flour to make a roux for my bechamel. If making this dish gluten-free, use a good gluten-free flour mix that includes starches and ideally some xantham gum.

Sauté onion and garlic in some olive oil until translucent, then add finely chopped celery, carrot and fennel – soffritto. Season and sauté until no longer opaque. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add minced mushrooms and a pinch of salt to the same pan. There is no need to wash it and if there are bits of soffritto that stuck to the pan, the moisture from the mushrooms will deglaze the pan beautifully. Cook the mushrooms on low heat until dark brown and all of the water has evaporated. Once the mushrooms are dry, add some oil, minced tofu, herbs, smoked paprika, and soy sauce. Cook a little further, stirring from time to time, to caramelise. Then sautéed vegetables back in before proceeding to the next step.

Next add in wine, crushed plum tomatoes (I crush them with a potato masher), tomato paste and miso paste diluted in mushroom stock. Mix well and allow this whole mixture to come to a gentle simmer. Simmer for about 30 minutes uncovered, until tomatoes are cooked and thickened. Finally stir in oat milk, simmer for 5 more minutes, adjust the seasoning and switch off the heat.

Once the sauce is cold, it is ready to store for up to 3 days or for you to assemble your lasagne.

Start off with a small amount of béchamel sauce and a splash of water mixed together, cover them with pasta sheets – overlapping the slightly if needed and breaking some with your hands to cover smaller gaps. I like to immerse my no cook pasta sheets in cold water before using so that the pasta does not suck too much moisture out of the sauce.

Spread a layer of bolognese sauce over the pasta and follow up by more pasta sheets. Carry on in this manner until you have 4 layers of bolognese covered by a layer of pasta.

Spread some more bolognese sauce (a smaller amount is fine) on the last layer of pasta and then pour bechamel directly on top. Spread it with a spatula and bake for 40-45 minutes, until the dish is bubbling and the top is golden brown. Allow it to set for an hour before cutting or, even better, wait to serve until the next day – lasagne’s flavours will benefit from a prolonged rest.