Veggie Lasagna

The first thing to do is bring water to a rolling boil in a deep pot. Liberally salt the water and add the pasta.

Next, finely dice the onions. Spray a non-stick pan with cooking spray and add the onions, allowing them to cook on medium heat.

Next, julienne the carrots so you have little matchstick pieces. I have this really nifty tool that looks like a peeler, but juliennes instead.

While this is going on, take a pot, fill it with water, and bring to a boil. Once the water is boiling, drop the broccoli and blanch for about 2 minutes. You don’t want to cook it longer than that because the veggies will continue to cook after the lasagna is assembled, and no one likes mushy veggies. Take the broccoli out of the pot and cut into small pieces.

In the pan with the onions, add the spinach and allow it to cook well. After it has shrunk down and released most of its liquid, drain and add the other veggies.

Now would be a good time to preheat your oven to 350 degrees. You might need to add a little more cooking spray to the veggies so they don’t stick.

Take your zester and grate about 2 or 3 cloves of garlic into the vegetable mix. Continue to cook for about 3 minutes and then set aside.

In a saucepan, add the butter and flour and make a roux. Add the milk and cream and whisk well.

Once the sauce is incorporated well, grate the remaining garlic clove and nutmeg and blend. To this, add the Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper and allow the sauce to thicken. Turn off the heat. Periodically, check on the noodles and drain once they’re al dente. Maybe leave them a little firmer than al dente since they’ll continue to cook in the oven.

Now you’re ready to assemble. Place a ladle of the sauce to the bottom of your pan, and begin to line with the lasagna noodles. Next take a liberal amount of veggies and spread evenly over this mix. Add a light layer of mozzarella and a little more sauce. Next, add another layer of noodles and continue assembling. You should end with a layer of noodles on top, to which you’ll add a little sauce.

The thing I love about this lasagna is that the veggies still have a little bite to them. Cooking veggies too much removes a lot of the valuable antioxidants and minerals from them. If you like, you can even skip the blanching process altogether. I just blanch the broccoli because it’s quite fibrous, but it certainly wouldn’t be the end of the world if you just threw the pieces in raw and allowed them to cook in the oven.

In a Ziploc bag, add the Ritz crackers and crush with a rolling pin. Add them to a pan and spray with a little Pam.

Add these crumbs to the top of your lasagna and bake for about 30 minutes.