Vegetarian Mexican Lasagna (Eggless)

My first attempt at lasagna was a huge success and considering how easy it was, its not surprise that I was looking forward to making it again. This time, I decided to mix it up a little and make mexican lasagna (with lasagna noodles not tortillas) and it was another big hit =)

But unfortunately I didnt get a chance to take any pictures before it was eaten up. I decreased the cheese this time and you couldn't tell the difference.

Hearty Healthy Vegetable Lasagna
makes 2 square 1.6L dishes, which is enough for atleast 8 people.

Ingredients

• 12 lasagna noodles (I used no-bake noodles)
  
• 1.5 green bell peppers, chopped (or 1 cup chopped)
  
• 1 large carrot, chopped (or 1 cup chopped)
• 3/4 cup onions
• 3/4 cup corn
  
• 1/2 cup sliced black olives (increase or decrease per preference)
  
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 400 grams paneer, crumbled (or ricotta cheese)
• 200 grams shredded cheddar cheese
• 2.5 cups of salsa, pureed

Directions

1. If using lasagna noodles that need to be cooked, cook the lasagna noodles in a large pot of boiling water until al dente. Rinse with cold water, and drain.
2. In a large saucepan, cook green peppers, onions, carrots and corn in oil. Stir in 1.5 cups of of pureed salsa and remove from heat. This is our vegetable salsa "sauce".
3. Crumble paneer and mix with olives.
   
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Cover bottom of baking dish with pureed salsa (without vegetables) . Place 2 lasagna noodles on bottom, layer with 1/4 each of vegetable salsa sauce and paneer mix. Top with pureed salsa. Repeat lasagna noodle, vegetable salsa sauce, paneer mix and pureed salsa layers. Cover with 2 lasagna noodles. Top with pureed salsa and 1/4 of cheddar cheese. Garnish with sliced olives. Repeat with second tray.
   
5. Cover tray with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 10 more minutes. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Pineapple Free Vegan Carrot Cake (Eggless)

It's carrot season in India so we have these wonderfully sweet carrots readily available. For a long time I have been thinking to bake my a carrot cake and today, I had a lot of carrots that needed to be used up so thought why not. Unfortunately all the recipes I came across needed eggs and/or pineapple juice and I had neither. So I looked around some more, mixed and matched to come up with this Pineapple Free - Vegan - Eggless Carrot Cake made in typical fashion with whole wheat flour. It was so moist and delicious to eat. You could see the pieces of carrots. Did not need any frosting. Definitely a keeper.

(Pineapple free) Vegan Carrot Cake
makes 1 - 9in bundt cake + 6 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour (can used all purpose)
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp applesauce (unsweetened)
  
• 1/4 cup oil (used saffrola)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  
• 1 1/2 cups grated carrots
  

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Butter and flour bundt pan thoroughly.
  
• Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
• Add the sugars to applesauce, vanilla and oil. Blend well.
• Mix in the flour mixture. [It may seem a bit dry here, but don't worry] Stir in carrots and mix well.
  
• Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until surface of cake bounces back upon touch. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Vegetable Lasagna (without riccotta and eggless)

A good vegetarian lasagna is hard to come by, even in restaurants, unless they are the family owned Italian restaurants - but they often don't have vegetarian lasagnas. In Ahmedabad, its even more difficult.

My fridge was stocked with vegetables and the inspiration struck to attempt my first homemade lasagna and the results were quite tasty. I read a bunch of recipes and came up with this. You can make it healthy by reducing the cheese in half (which I would do next time). And don't worry, the paneer turned out to be a really good substitute for ricotta (which is not available in India).

Note: I did get some ingredients from our local import store, namely the lasagna noodles, pasta sauce and canned artichoke hearts. You can use whatever pasta sauce you like, it plays a large role in taste, so select well. If fresh artichokes are available, I would recommend it. The artichokes really thickened the vegetable filling.



Hearty Healthy Vegetable Lasagna
makes 2 square 1.6L dishes, which is enough for atleast 8 people.

Ingredients

• 12 lasagna noodles (I used no-bake noodles)
  
• 1.5 green bell peppers, chopped (or 1 cup chopped)
  
• 1 large carrot, chopped (or 1 cup chopped)
• 4 drained artichoke hearts, chopped
  
• 3/4 cup onions, chopped
  
• 1 3/4 cup spinach, chopped
• 1 tablespoon garlic paste (or 3-4 garlic cloves, minced)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (optional)
  
• 1 teaspoon red chili powder (optional)
  
• 500 grams paneer (or ricotta cheese)
• 350 grams shredded mozzarella cheese* (i used "cheeza")
  
• 2 10 oz jars of pasta sauce**

* If you want to make it healthier, you can use less than 200 grams of cheese. Just use enough to cover the very top and do not use in the layers. Paneer is quite sufficient within the lasagna to give cheesy taste.
** Feel free to make your own pasta sauce. If you have wine, I would recommend the sauce from this chicken parmigiana recipe (no, you don't need chicken for the sauce) from Pioneer Woman.

Directions

1. If using lasagna noodles that need to be cooked, cook the lasagna noodles in a large pot of boiling water until al dente. Rinse with cold water, and drain.
2. In a large saucepan, cook green peppers, carrots, onion, and garlic in oil. Add artichokes when almost cooked. Stir in 1 jar of pasta sauce. Add pepper and chili powder and stir well. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes. This is our vegetable sauce.
   
3. Crumble paneer and mix in spinach.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Cover bottom of baking dish with pasta sauce from jar. Place 2 lasagna noodles on bottom, layer with 1/4 each of vegetable sauce and paneer mix. Top with 1/8 mozzarella cheese and some pasta sauce from jar. Repeat lasagna noodle, vegetable sauce, paneer mix, mozzarella and pasta sauce layers. Cover with 2 lasagna noodles. Top with pasta sauce from jar and 1/4 of mozzarella cheese. Repeat with second tray.
   
5. Cover tray with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 10 more minutes. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

"Hot" Carrot Gazpacho aka Hearty Carrot Soup

Well, its not quite gazpacho soup, but it def tastes like it in terms of texture. I had it warm, but I have no doubts that cold it would basically be carrot gazpacho... but but but gazpacho technically is a raw, chilled tomato based soup. In fact, my encounter with gazpacho has been during a raw dinner.



This is carrot based and is not raw, but they taste similar so "hot" carrot gazpacho soup =). I used the recipe found here. We don't get celery here, so I upped the carrot by 1/2.

I don't have a steamer, so I put the potato and carrots in a strainer on top of a boiling pot of water. Took about 10 minutes to get soft enough for food processor.

I used a tad bit of olive oil to soften the onions along with 1 teaspoon of garlic paste.

At the end, crushed 9 black peppers and garnished with coriander.

The soup is quite thick, hence me calling it gazpacho. Quite filling and healthy. It has a full vegetable feel to it. The garlic and pepper really are there for slight accent. It is not savory soup full of spice flavour of course, as there aren't many spices. Next time, I would add some basil and/or coriander when blending. You can also add some chili flakes to a little kick.

Carrot Souffle

I bake when I am in the mood to bake (which generally happens around 10 or 11pm) or if its someone's birthday or special occasion. I try to pick stuff that doesn't take hours otherwise I would be more consumed with the baking than practice or other work and of course, practice takes priority.

I had an itch to bake or cook over the last two days, but was warned against it, given the hours that were spent on the birthday cake(s) the previous week. I was going back and forth about whether or not to bake and one big con was that I didn't have much saltfree butter, no milk and not much flour - yep that really limited what I could do and I didn't have the time to go get stuff. BUT I did have a bunch of carrots. While searching for a carrot soup recipe, I found a carrot souffle recipe. Modifying looking at other recipes, here is what I did. It turned out to be a great dessert, not too sweet and great with ice cream. It was a great dessert for new year's eve dinner.

Great thing about this is that you can do the main stuff in the morning or night before. An hour or two before dinner, add the flour, eggs and baking powder and bake it for an hour. I boiled and pureed in the afternoon and kept it in the fridge for about 3 hours. You can keep it in the fridge overnight.

I took pictures.. or so I thought. I didn't have the memory card in my dslr.. oops

Carrot Souffle

Ingredients

• 500grams carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour (maida)
• 1 egg + 1 egg white (or 1.5 eggs), beaten
• 2 - 3 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened - i only had around 2.5 tbsp

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. In a large pot of boiling water, cook the carrots until very tender. Drain and add to mixer.
3. Puree carrots with butter, vanilla extract and sugar. [Careful mixer will be hot if its a metal one like mine]. Transfer to bowl, allow to cool slightly and refrigerate.
4. Mix in the flour, eggs, and baking powder. Transfer to a 1 quart baking dish.
5. Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until top is golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

[Note: this is not a picture of my souffle - mine was consumed before it could be photographed. But the texture and look was the same =)]