Beef & Vegetable Lasagne

You can make the meat mixture a day ahead and cook the following day. As with most lasagnes, they always taste better the next day.

This recipe is low fat, low sugar and high protein.

Ingredients

• 1 zucchini, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 8 cup mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 celery stalks, sliced
• 120g fresh baby spinach leaves
• 1 onion, diced
• 5 cloves garlic, crushed
• 500g lean beef mince
• 1 cup red wine (Cab Sav or Shiraz)
• 3 cups beef stock, salt reduced
• 2 tsp. dried herbs (oregano, marjoram, Italian)
• 1 tbsp. Worcecshire sauce
• 2 cups passata or 2 cans tomatoes crushed
• 200g fresh pasta sheets (approx 4) or 8 dried
• 100g reduced fat cheese, grated
• 500g light ricotta
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 egg

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. In a large pot heat olive oil and saute onions for 5 mins on medium heat.
3. Add celery, carrot and zucchini and cook for 5 minutes. Add the beef and turn up heat slightly to brown the meat. Once nearly cooked add the mushrooms stirring until beef has cooked. Season with herbs, salt and pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Add red wine and 4 cloves garlic and cook a further couple of minutes.
4. Add stock, 1 cup passata and tomato paste bring to a simmer then turn down heat, place on lid and simmer lowest heat for 1 hour. Then take off lid add spinach leaves and simmer a further 15 mins to reduce some of the liquid.
5. Grab your lasagne dish and pour 1 cup of passata on the bottom. Cover with lasagne sheet then layer with meat sauce, lasagne sheet, meat sauce lasagne sheet etc until all gone.
6. In a mixing bowl place ricotta, 1 egg, 1 clove garlic, season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle half the cheese in the ricotta mixture and mix until all combined. Spread on top of the last lasagne sheet evenly then sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.
7. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes in oven, then take off foil and cook a further 15 minutes.
8. Serve with a side salad.