About the Recipe
No pasta needed here! Great family friendly recipe, packed full of veggies and kind on your waste line.
If you have a mandolin that would be grate to use here to slice the veggies.
Ingredients
1 medium brown onion
1T olive oil
3 garlic cloves
700ml tomato based pasta sauce
1T herbs such as thyme, oregano and parsley
200g mushrooms, sliced
2 400g tins of lentils, drained and rinsed
500g ricotta cheese
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper to season
1 large egg plant
2 large zucchini
100g baby spinach
grated cheese to top
Preparation
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Slice the eggplant and zucchini lengthways (a mandolin is perfect for this!). Grill the veggies for 5mins while preparing the rest.
Slice the onion and sauté in a large pot for a few minutes with the oil. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute.
Add the tomato pasta sauce (or you can make your own), herbs, mushrooms and lentils. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 5 mins or until the sauce has reduced.
In a bowl mix together the ricotta, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Set aside.
Get a deep dish and layer the different mixtures starting with the sliced veggies. Then add some spinach, the lentil mixture and top with the lentil mixture. Repeat the layers. You should get 2-3 layers depending on the size of your dish.
Top with grated cheese and bake for about 35mins. For a variation, you can use pumpkin and kumara for the veggie layers. You can also substitute beef mince for the lentils. Just fry the mince first before adding to the tomato sauce mixture.