Vegan Vegetable Lasagna with Tomato Sauce

👨‍🍳 Method

For the Tomato sauce

1. 1
   Preheat the oven to 180°C (355°F).

   ⚙ Preheating the OvenOven

   💡Put things in the oven only once it's reached temperature, after the heating light has gone off: an oven that hasn't reached temperature changes baking times, and the bake burns outside or stays underbaked.
2. 2
   Heat the olive oil in a wide pan over medium heat.

   ⚙ Pan-fryingStoveFrying pan
3. 3
   Add the onion and fry 4 minutes, stirring now and then, until the onion is soft and translucent and starts to turn golden at the edges. If it browns too fast, lower the heat.

   ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove

   💡Add by cooking time: what needs long (onion, carrot, meat) goes in first, and what burns fast (garlic, dry spices) goes in last, only until fragrant.
4. 4
   Add the garlic and fry about 30 seconds to 1 minute, just until fragrant. Don't let the garlic brown.

   ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove

   💡Garlic burns quickly and turns bitter. Add it only after the onion has softened, over medium heat, and add the next ingredient as soon as it smells fragrant.
5. 5
   Add the pepper, zucchini, eggplant and tomatoes and fry about 8 minutes, stirring, until they soften.

   ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove
6. 6
   Add and stir about a minute, until fragrant.

   ⚙ SimmeringStove

   💡A gentle simmer, not a boil: a hard boil dries the food out and clouds it, a slow simmer cooks it evenly.

For the Béchamel

1. 7
   Heat the olive oil in a pot over medium heat, add the flour and stir 1–2 minutes, until a smooth roux forms and starts to bubble.

   StovePot
2. 8
   Gradually add the milk, whisking constantly, and cook 5 minutes, until the sauce is thick and coats the back of a spoon.

   StoveWhisk

   💡Add the milk slowly, whisking constantly, so no lumps form. For lasagna, the common ratio is about 7 g flour per 100 ml milk (4 tablespoons flour to 2 cups): more flour gives a thick béchamel, for moussaka; less flour gives a soft béchamel, for a sauce.

To assemble

1. 9
   Layer in a baking pan: the tomato sauce, the lasagna sheets and béchamel, and repeat the layers 3 times. Finish with a layer of béchamel.

   Baking pan
2. 10
   Bake 40–45 minutes, until the lasagna turns golden.

   ⚙ BakingOvenBaking pan

   💡Check by the cue (until…), not just the clock: every oven bakes a little differently.
3. 11
   Leave the lasagna out of the oven 10 minutes, and only then cut.