Meatless Meals, Vol 1: Parmesan and Root Vegetable Lasagna

In keeping with my goals for this year, I am posting the first Meatless Meal of 2010. Hubby and I might end up having more than one Meatless Meal a week (as we've found some recipes we are really excited about trying), but our goal is to, at minimum, have atleast one meal sans meet a week.

Tonight, we'll be having the following recipe. I came across this in one of my Cooking Light magazines. It jumped out at me several months ago, but I never got around to trying it. It requires roasting the vegetables, which sounds so delicious. And, since it's from Cooking Light, i know that the recipe will be healthy. Score! With our Meatless Meal adventure underway, I thought it'd be the perfect Kick-Off Recipe.

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Meatless Meals

Parmesan and Root Vegetable Lasagna
(photo courtesy of Cooking Light magazine)

6 cups (1/2-inch) cubed peeled butternut squash (about 2 1/2 pounds)
2 1/4 cups (1/2-inch) cubed peeled sweet potato (about 1 pound)
2 cups coarsely chopped onion, divided
1 tablespoon olive oil
Cooking spray
4 cups 1% low-fat milk
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 bay leaf
1.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1/3 cup)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
9 packaged no-boil lasagna noodles
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 450°.

2. Combine squash, potato, 1 cup chopped onion, and oil in a roasting pan coated with cooking spray, tossing to coat vegetables. Bake at 450° for 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring once; set aside.

3. Combine remaining 1 cup onion, milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, and bay leaf in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a simmer. Remove from heat; let stand 15 minutes. Strain milk mixture through a fine sieve over a bowl; discard solids. Return milk mixture to pan. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Add flour, salt, and pepper to milk mixture, stirring with a whisk. Cook over medium heat 10 minutes or until thick, stirring frequently with a whisk. Remove from heat; stir in Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

4. Preheat oven to 375°.

5. Spread 1/2 cup milk mixture in bottom of a 13 x 9–inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 3 noodles over milk mixture; top with half of squash mixture, 1/2 cup mozzarella, and 1 cup milk mixture. Repeat layer with noodles, squash mixture, mozzarella, and milk mixture. Top with remaining 3 noodles. Spread remaining milk mixture over noodles, and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella. Cover with foil coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375° for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 20 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes.


Nutritional Information
Calories:322 (24% from fat) , Fat:8.4g (sat 3.9g,mono 2.2g,poly 0.5g) , Protein:16.6g , Carbohydrate:45.8g
Fiber:4.6g, Cholesterol:19mg , Iron:2.1mg , Sodium:471mg , Calcium:422mg

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Yum! I roasted the squash, onions and sweet potatos yesterday. It smelled DIVINE. I'll be putting it all together tonight for dinner - so I'll stop back tomorrow with a report on how it goes. If you try this recipe, let me know your thoughts on it!

Do you have a good Meatless Meal recipe? Pass it along! I would love to try it and post it for the rest of the community!

Happy Eating!