Ricotta & Spaghetti Squash Lasagna Bake

Hmm... the bakes and warming bowls that the cooler months bring - oh how "warm hug" like they are. This recipe fits into the mentioned category perfectly, being a host of familiar, yet strikingly wonderful flavours and fascinating textures. Having scene the ol' spaghetti squash hop around the recipe blog sphere for some time now, I have been dying to get my hands on one. Yet, like more things in Melbs, it was a while before I landed my eyes on one of them, let alone found a price tag that wasn't jaw dropping (and not in a nice way). So it's been a journey (a first world one at that) for my taste-buds to be blessed with the presence of spaghetti-like strands of wonder, yet it was so worth the wait. While I definitely plan on using this crazy veg in a host of ways, for now I am rather pleased with this bake that is triple tested and omni-family approved. Enjoy!

Ingredients

  • 1 large spaghetti squash
  • 375 block of firm tofu
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • leaves from 1 bunch of basil
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 2 tsp minced garlic
  • 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 1 tbsp dried oregano
  • salt & pepper
  • 100g fresh spinach
  • 1 x 700g jar of passata
  • 1 x 250g box of GF or wholemeal lasagna sheets
  • 2 tbsp vegan Parmesan

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C fan-forced.
  2. Grab your spaghetti squash, and using a large sharp knife cut it into quarters (from top to bottom, and then around the middle). Place face down on a lined baking tray and cook in the pre-heated oven for 45 minutes or until tender.
  3. Meanwhile, prepare your ricotta by placing next eight ingredients (down to the salt & pepper) into a blender, or food processor if that's what you have, blending until smooth and it's adopted a green hue. Grab a plastic zip-lock bag and fill it with the "cheese" and set aside until needed, cutting a 2 cm whole in one of the bottom corners.
  4. When the squash is cooked, begin to build up your bake. Grab a large lasagna dish and start with a layer of passatta 1/4 of spaghetti squash (obtained through raking a fork through the flesh). Put down a layer of spinach with some passatta, then more pasta sheets, a layer of 1/3 of the ricotta, passatta and another 1/4 of the spaghetti squash, then building up the layers from there as you please, using up the filling ingredients. Make sure your final layer however includes at least a 1/4 of the squash, passatta and thick blobs or squirts (see video) or the ricotta.
  5. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes with a sheet of foil across the top, then an additional 10 minutes without.
  6. Sprinkle with the vegan Parmesan and serve. For best results, let sit for 10 minutes before devouring. It's so delicious, I promise you!

*RECIPE VIDEO FOUND HERE