Vegan Lasagna With Lots of Vegetables

I made this last week although it is probably is one of my more time-consuming items.  I used "real" (the terminology for non-gluten-free) pasta, but I personally think it is just as good with a brown rice lasagna noodle.  I put the dish together in a few steps.

cashew basil cream

First thing in the morning, I sautéed onions until they were sweet and caramelized and prepared the cashew cream layer to use instead of cheese.  The cashew layer was simply about 1 to 2 cups of fresh basil, 1 cup of cashews, 1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast and a little water.  I blended it all in the Vitamix for great smooth texture.  Then, I stuck in it the refrigerator. 

In the afternoon, I boiled the noodles and made the sauce quickly (I added olives and capers to 1/2 the sauce and half was only plain crushed tomatoes straight from the glass jar with a little fresh basil). I put olive oil on the very bottom of my lasagna pan, then a layer of noodles, then onions, spinach and artichoke hearts (the artichoke hearts were Seggiano roasted in live oil and very flavorful). Then, more noodles and the cashew cream all in one thick layer. I continued alternating layers of just sauce (carefully placed so the olives and capers would stay on one side so no one averse to them would get one unexpectedly and have a fit) with thick layers of onions, artichoke hearts and spinach. I used a lot of sauce to keep the whole thing moist.  Then topped it with noodles (because I made too many) and olive oil because I was out of sauce and we don't use cheese. I baked it for a while (maybe 45 minutes) on 300 and then turned it up to 400 degrees to finish it off and serve it nice and hot.

Some of my pickier children said this was the best thing I had made in a while. Since compliments are pretty hard to come by here, I will settle for that one which came from the same child who has been very happy with my vegetable tacos the last few weeks.

Fresh spinach and roasted artichoke hearts