This amazing vegan lasagna bolognese will melt in your mouth. It’s incredibly satisfying, creamy, and full of phenomenal flavour. You won’t be able to get enough of it! The layers for this lasagna consist of my vegan bolognese sauce, béchamel sauce, cashew parmesan, and spinach lasagna sheets. In one soft bite, you get a deep, meaty, and cheesy flavour that will make your taste buds sing.
There is some elaborate work needed, to make this lasagna, but trust me, it’s so worth it! First prepare my vegan bolognese sauce. You can make it a day before and store it in the refrigerator. After you have the vegan bolognese sauce ready, prepare cashew parmesan, lasagna sheets, and béchamel sauce. Layer all ingredients in a baking dish and bake the lasagna in the oven until the top is golden brown around the edges.
This vegan lasagna bolognese is perfect to serve on occasions when more people gather and share food together. The flavour will impress even your non-vegan guests. Serve this unforgettable vegan dish at the next holiday gathering and get ready for the compliments.
Have you made this recipe? Let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear your feedback.
More delicious pasta recipes:
Vegan Lasagna Bolognese
You won't be able to get enough of this amazing vegan lasagna bolognese. Made with my homemade vegan bolognese sauce that delivers a deep flavour, creamy béchamel sauce that melts in your mouth, and delicious cashew parmesan. It's perfect for sharing and impressing even a non-vegan crowd.
Ingredients
- 1 batch vegan bolognese sauce
- 8-12 vegan spinach lasagna sheets
Cashew parmesan:
- 60 g cashews
- heaped 5 tsp nutritional yeast I used fortified with B12
- scant 1/4 tsp salt
Béchamel sauce:
- 60 g (1/4 cup) vegan butter
- 60 g (1/3 cup) all purpose flour
- 720 ml (3 cups) unsweetened cashew milk room temperature
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Instructions
Vegan bolognese sauce:
- Make vegan bolognese sauce (follow the detailed instructions on the link, but leave out the pasta and salt for cooking the pasta). You can prepare it a day before and store it in the refrigerator. One thing to pay attention to when making bolognese sauce for lasagna is how much water to leave in the sauce. If you're using lasagna sheets that don't need precooking, you can leave a bit more liquid in the sauce since the sheets will soak up that liquid during cooking. If you're using lasagna sheets that need precooking, leave much less liquid in the sauce as the sheets will not absorb it during cooking. If the sauce is too wet, the liquid will splash out from the lasagna in the oven, and the lasagna won't hold together nicely when cutting into it.
- When you're ready to make the lasagna, divide the bolognese sauce into three equal parts. This will help in making an even lasagna. If you wish, you can eyeball these quantities, but I like to measure them more precisely to avoid putting too much on one layer and too little on the next. For the end result, it's good that the layers are evenly coated.
Cashew parmesan:
- Prepare cashew parmesan by putting all the ingredients in a blender and grinding them (if you have already a big batch of cashew parmesan ready in the fridge, you will need 10 tbsp + 2 tsp or 66g for this recipe).
- Transfer the cashew parmesan into a small bowl. I like to divide the cashew parmesan into four equal parts before starting to make the béchamel sauce so that I can assemble everything quickly after the béchamel is ready to use.
Lasagna sheets:
- Prepare lasagna sheets, and if the instructions on the box say so, cook them before using. If you're using lasagna sheets that need precooking, you will need 8-9 sheets since they will expand with cooking. If you're using lasagna sheets that don't need precooking, you will need 11-12 sheets.
- If you precooked your lasagna sheets, place them on a kitchen towel to ensure they don't touch and stick together. Otherwise, it will be impossible to separate them. Make sure that they're drained of any excess water before adding them to the lasagna.
Béchamel sauce:
- Cut the vegan butter into small pieces so that it melts evenly. Place the vegan butter in a larger pot and melt it over medium heat. Stir it with a whisk to ensure it melts evenly. This should take about 1 minute and 30 seconds. Add the flour and continuously whisk for 2-3 minutes. You want the smell of raw flour to disappear, but you don't want the vegan butter and flour mixture to turn brown.
- Add a little cashew milk and whisk until no clumps remain, then add the rest of the cashew milk.
- Heat the mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the sauce reaches the desired consistency. You don't want a sauce that is too runny, as it won't layer nicely, nor too thick, as it won't spread easily over the vegan bolognese. Honestly, I end the cooking of béchamel sauce rather sooner than later since the sauce will thicken as it sits while you are assembling everything together. If the sauce becomes too thick by the time you need to top the last lasagna sheets, it will be very hard to cover them properly, resulting in hard (and not really edible) lasagna sheets when baked. I cooked it for another 3 minutes and 30 seconds after adding the first splash of cashew milk.
- Remove from the heat and add salt and nutmeg, then mix well.
- Divide the béchamel sauce into four equal parts, reserving a small amount in the pot to spread on the bottom of the baking dish.
Assemble:
- Grease a baking dish (I used one measuring approx. 24x19cm inside) and drizzle a little béchamel on the bottom, spreading it evenly.
- Place one layer of lasagna sheets on top, then add 1/3 of the vegan bolognese sauce on top of that, followed by 1/4 béchamel sauce on top of that and then 1/4 cashew parmesan. Cut smaller lasagna sheets if they don't fit perfectly just so that you cover the holes, but avoid overlapping too much, because you will feel it in the bite if two sheets are layered on top of each other. Don't layer lasagna sheets on the sides of the baking dish. The easiest way to spread bolognese sauce is to put it on the smaller broken lasagna sheets first and then spread to the whole sheets so that the smaller ones don't move. Cashew parmesan can clump together, so it's best to sprinkle it with your hands and break larger clumps apart while doing it.
- Repeat the last step two more times.
- Then place the last layer of lasagna sheets and spread the last 1/4 of béchamel sauce over it, spreading it around so that all lasagna sheets are well covered. Sprinkle the last 1/4 of cashew parmesan over it (make sure you really break larger clumps apart because the overall look will be better).
- Bake on the middle rack of the oven at 190 °C for about 40 minutes. It's done when the top starts to get golden around the edges.
- Leave it to cool for 30 minutes then cut it into 6 cubes and serve warm.
Notes
*For the vegan butter I used Naturli’ brand.
*I like to use whole nutmeg and grate it when I start making béchamel sauce.
*If you can’t find spinach lasagna sheets regular vegan lasagna sheets will do.
*The pros of using precooked lasagna sheets are that there’s less of a chance your lasagna will have hard, insufficiently cooked sheets, that the sheets will also be easier to cut when you’re assembling them, and finally that the lasagna will have fewer calories because you will need fewer sheets. The cons of using precooked lasagna sheets are that precooking adds an additional step, that you have to pay attention when putting them aside after cooking, ensuring that they don’t stick together, and finally that there’s a chance your lasagna can turn out too moist and watery.
*Nutrition facts and prep time calculated using 8 lasagna sheets that need precooking.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 servingCalories: 453kcalCarbohydrates: 45gProtein: 17gFat: 24gSaturated Fat: 6gPolyunsaturated Fat: 4gMonounsaturated Fat: 9gSodium: 936mgFiber: 6gSugar: 7g
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