I love lasagne but I don't eat meat or dairy so lasagne pretty quickly dropped off our menu, much to my daughter's dismay.
If you are on a healthy eating plan and have missed lasagne too, here is a lovely recipe to try this week.
This recipe was designed by Katie Layland for our blog. She has used low salicylate ingredients so it's suitable for people following The Eczema Diet program, plus it's good for vegans, vegetarians and people who need to follow a gluten-free diet as this recipe is gluten-free.
This lasagna contains healthy skin-loving foods including red cabbage, which supplies skin protective anthocyanins and nutrients that can help your liver to detoxify chemicals.
Brown lentils work to maintain regularity and a healthy digestive tract, and sweet potato is high in beta-carotene, which is essential for healthy skin.
This recipe makes 2-3 serves and is about half the size of a normal family sized lasagna, so double the ingredients if you wish to make it for the whole family (or freeze in individual serves for another meal).
Note: If you’re sensitive to cashews you could blend tofu with water, garlic powder and salt. Beans can be switched for meat for a non-vegan version.
Preparation time 30 minutes; cooking time 30-35 minutes.
Ingredients:
- 1½ cups of Cashew Nut Butter (get the recipe here)
- Caramelized Leeks (recipe)
- 2 cans of beans/legumes of your choice (in this recipe I used 1 can of brown lentils and 1 can of white beans)
- 2-3 teaspoons of garlic powder (fresh garlic can be used for extra flavour)
- 1-2 teaspoons celtic sea salt or other quality salt
- low salicylate herbs: chives and/or parsley
- ½ sweet potato, peeled and very thinly sliced lengthwise
- ½ peeled and grated carrot
- 1 cup thinly sliced red cabbage
- 1 packet of lasagna sheets (in this recipe Katie used green lentil lasagna sheets which have a lovely flavour, however other options are spelt, gluten-free or other allergy-friendly sheets)
- Rice bran oil for cooking (this is a low salicylate oil - you can use extra virgin olive oil if you don't have eczema or salicylate sensitivity)
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 170°C (340°F).
Then prepare the following sauces so you are ready to assemble the lasagne quickly:
Prepare the Cashew Nut Butter recipe. Once you make it you'll need to make it thinner so add a little more water, splash of rice bran oil, pinch of salt and ½ teaspoon of garlic powder for extra flavour. The consistency should be like white sauce traditionally used in lasagna.
Make the Caramelized Leeks recipe.
Then heat a large frying pan on medium heat, add a splash of oil and stir in 2 cans of drained and rinsed beans (they must be rinsed and drained well to remove the sauce).
Add grated carrot and mix in, then and 1-2 teaspoons of garlic powder or 2 cloves of freshly minced garlic (to taste) and stir through.
You can mash the white beans a bit while cooking and add ½ cup water to create some creaminess to the mixture.
Check the flavour and add salt to taste or add more garlic if you wish. Then add low salicylate herbs such as chopped chives or parsley for extra flavour.
When mixture is ready, assemble it in a large baking dish (lasagna pan of choice). Oil the base then add lasagna sheets to the bottom, followed by 1 layer of bean mixture, then 1 layer of thin sweet potato slices, 1 layer of shredded cabbage, 1 layer of cashew cream and repeat until ingredients are used up.
Finish with a layer of lasagna sheets and top it with cashew nut butter (which has been made thinner to resemble the consistency of white sauce).
Cover pan with foil in pre-heated oven for 35 minutes or until everything is cooked through. (You may need more time if the recipe has been doubled.)
When serving it, top the slices with chopped chives, parsley, Caramelized Leek Sauce and serve with an eczema-friendly salad or vegetables such as mashed potato.
Enjoy!
Products
At Eczema Life, we recommend nutritionist Karen Fischer's low food chemical program (The Eczema Detox) along with additive-free supplements for skin health and wellbeing. Click on the images to view more details:
