It's gluten free day. Yes that's right. I know for many Hivers, it's gluten free life. Sue me okay. I like gluten sometimes or when I want but I do take breaks. Ultimately I think that consuming a gluten free diet is the best. I also think that mostly raw organic fruits vegetables is the best. I used to go through these phases and I felt great during those times. I am now not living up to my standards. I won't punish myself. The state of the world is punishment enough.
Meanwhile I made a delicious dinner from markdown produce from the supermarket. I found some eggplant (aubergine) and mushrooms for a dollar each. A pint of mushrooms would usually be 3 dollars and an aubergine around 3 dollars. These were slightly blemished but perfect inside.
The markdown bin the other day had a spaghetti squash and yellow peppers which I made use of as well. The yellow peppers were added to green lentils to make a meat substitute.
Eggplant lasagna
1 sliced eggplant
1 onion
1 bell pepper
3 cloves garlic
2 cups cooked lentils
Cream sauce
2 cups cooked squash
1 cup soaked cashews
Juice of half lemon
Salt to taste
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)
Cook the lentils first then saute with onions and garlic. Add salt and pepper to taste. For the cream sauce, blend cooked squash, cashews and lemon juice nutritional yeast and salt until smooth.
The squash would be combined with cashews to make a cream sauce for in between. Normally this squash is stringy hence the name Spaghetti squash. But this wasn't so I was able to blend it with cashews and make a smooth sauce.
Tomato mushroom sauce
2 pints chopped mushrooms
1 onion chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
1 large can tomatoes Or fresh
1 bunch fresh basil
A few dashes of Franks red hot sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon sweetener if tomatoes are too tart
1 teaspoon oregano
Olive oil to cook onions and garlic
Cook onions and garlic mushrooms and basil. Add tomatoes and cook down to reduce the liquid simmering for at least forty minutes to an hour stirring.
I prefer to blend the sauce at the end but you could keep it chunky if you prefer.
I didn't have a suitable pan for my little toaster oven where I bake, so I used a loaf pan which was deep enough to put several layers. I started layering with eggplant.
After the eggplant layer I added the lentil mixture.
I suppose it didn't matter what I put first but I chose to put the cream sauce after the lentil layer.
When I couldn't put anymore in the pan, I made sure the top layer was eggplant. It was covered with the tomato mushroom sauce. It was baked for around 30 minutes then taken out to sit for 10 minutes.
I was able to cut it and keep in in tact. It was placed on more sauce that I spooned into the bottom of the plate.
I was worried that it wouldn't hold together but the cream sauce was the perfect glue in place of cheese. I don't consume dairy and could have used dairy free cheese but I am not a fan of most store bought vegan cheeses. I don't mind the occasional store bought vegan cream cheese that I add something to.
I like a squeeze of fresh lemon on eggplant dishes but probably wouldn't be something most would do.
Even without the pasta I was surprised at how satisfying this was. I thought Marc would want some bread to soak up the sauce but he didn't need it.
Thanks for dropping by and have a great day.
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