Gluten free, vegan and FODMAP friendly ‘mince’ lasagne
Serves 6-8 people
Ingredients
For the ‘mince’:
- 2-3 medium carrots finely chopped or grated
- 500 g tofu frozen the night before
- 2-3 tablespoons Tamari or gluten free dark soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons miso paste check that it’s gluten free
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup (250ml) red wine or 1/2 water and 1/2 wine, although it won’t be as flavourful
- 2 x 400g tins of plain tomatoes no added flavours (see notes)
Optional additions to the vegan mince:
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- 2 teaspoons dried sage
- 1-2 teaspoons dried rosemary
For the ‘cheese’ sauce
- 100g vegan butter or 100ml olive oil
- 50g gluten free cornflour (the starchy stuff, it might be called cornstarch where you live)
- 4-5 cups (1000-1250ml) plant based milk
- 2-3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon light miso (I used shiro) Optional, but adds cheesy umami
- fine salt to taste
To finish:
- 2 packets (400g) gluten free lasagne sheets
- Basil and spinach optional
- Vegan cheese, freshly grated
Instructions
To make the ‘mince’
- Add the olive oil to a large heavy bottomed saucepan over a medium heat. Once warmed, add the chopped carrot, and cook for about 15 minutes, or until it begins to shrivel and is starting to brown. This will be quicker if you use grated carrot. While you're waiting, drain the tofu and tear it into small mince like pieces.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the tamari, light brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, miso, tomato paste and any spices you're using.
- Add the tofu crumbles to the pan and stir to combine. Pour over the tamari mixture and stir again until the tofu is coated.
- Add the red wine to the pan and stir well, collecting all the little browned bits at the bottom.
- Next, add the tinned tomatoes and stir thoroughly. Continue cooking for 10-15 minutes or until the mince is thick and bubbling. Taste and adjust for seasoning. Add the water as you see fit (your mince can be a little thinner than usual here) and then set aside.
To make the white sauce:
- While the mince is cooking, melt the vegan butter in a large saucepan. Once melted, add the cornflour and whisk to combine until a paste forms.
- Add the soy milk or plant based milk of choice. Once the mixture is smooth, add the nutritional yeast, miso and salt, adjusting for taste as you go.
- Cook the white sauce for 10-15 minutes, until it is thick and spoonable.
To assemble:
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius or 356 Fahrenheit. Layer sheets of lasagne on the bottom of the baking dish. I used six and they fit perfectly, but this will depend on your dish size.
- Follow this with half the ‘mince’ mixture, before adding another layer of pasta. Quickly follow this up with the white sauce (gluten free lasagne is quite dry and tends to curl up if you don’t put something wet on top quickly.)
- Lay more pasta on top of the white sauce, and quickly follow with the remaining mince. You can add another layer of pasta if you like, but because of the curling thing I like to spoon the white sauce right on top of the second layer of mince, and omit the last layer of pasta entirely.
- Place the lasagne on a tray (to catch any overflow) and place in the oven for 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown. You might need to switch the oven to grill for this. You can serve warm, serve the next day, or freeze for meals during the week.
Notes
- 100g of tinned tomatoes is considered a FODMAP friendly serve. This lasagne serves 6-8. If you have an issue with tomatoes, you will need this lasagne to serve 8. If you don't want to do that (who could blame you) use 600g tinned tomato, an extra carrot to make up some bulk, and water to make up the liquid content.
- You can also use my low FODMAP Nomato sauce recipe to replace some or all of the tinned tomato. One batch of Nomato sauce makes approximately 1.2kg, which is equivalent to 3 x 400g cans of tinned tomato.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!