Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

This recipe is based off of a Cookie + Kate recipe. That recipe can be found in the book Love Real Food (highly recommended). I never made the Cookie + Kate recipe correctly since I only had a 9×13 pan.

Ingredients

Roasted Vegetable

• 1.5 – 2 lb eggplant (or cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini)
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Tomato sauce

• 15 oz tomato sauce
• dash of dried basil or a couple leaves of fresh basil (chopped)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• dash of garlic (to taste), or 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, more to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Spinach-Cheese Mixture

• 24 ounces low-fat cottage cheese
• 1 table spoon olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 10 ounces (or more) spinach (optional)
• lots of fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Other ingredients

• 9 boiled lasagna noodles
• 2 cups mozzarella

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Slice the chosen vegetable in to 1/4 inch slabs. If using egg plant, remove the pieces covered entirely by skin.
3. Brush both sides of the slice vegetable in olive oil and place on the baking sheet in single layer. Add salt and pepper to taste. You might need more than one baking sheet to complete this process.
4. Roast each side for 10 minutes. The eggplant or zucchini is done when golden brown. The broccoli or cauliflower is done when it offers no resistance when poked with a fork.
5. For the sauce, in a medium bowl, mix all the ingredients for the sauce.
6. For the spinach-cheese mixture, pour all of the cottage cheese in a large bowl.
7. Then put a large skillet on medium heat. Heat olive oil for 1 minute. Add onion, cook until translucent (4 minutes). Add a dash of salt. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.
8. Add spinach to pan a bit at a time, stirring constantly until all spinach is wilted.
9. Using slotted spoon, add spinach mixture to cottage cheese. Stir. Add pepper to taste. (I prefer a lot of pepper in this mixture.) Mix well.
10. To assemble:
    1. Spread 1/2 cup tomato sauce over the bottom of the pan.
    2. Place 3 lasagna noodles on top. The will probably not overlap, but will fit side-by-side nicely.
    3. Spread half the cottage cheese mixture.
    4. Add half of the vegetable slices evenly
    5. Add half of the remaining tomato sauce and 3/4 cup of mozzarella
    6. Add 3 more noodles, then the remaining cottage cheese, then the remaining vegetable slices.
    7. Sprinkle 3/4 cup of mozzarella
    8. Add 3 more noodles, then the remaining sauce, and the remaining mozzarella
11. Place in the oven and place a piece of parchment paper on top of the lasagna to prevent the top from browning too quickly. Bake for 22 minutes. Uncover and bake for 12-15 minutes more.
12. Remove from oven. Cool for 15 minutes. Enjoy!

This dish is great reheated, it can be frozen and it works well for meal prep. The vegetables, sauce, and cheese mixture can be prepared a day in advance, as necessary.