snow | Real Food Lover

Snowed-in. Good excuse to make Butternut and spinach lasagne.

Christmas has had me confused: am I vegan or carnivore? This light vegetably vegetarian dish is a compromise.

And..it does NOT require a white sauce!

As I had been planning to make the dish for a week, I had the main ingredients:

In my pic, lined up for their photoshoot, from left to right:

1 organic butternut squash, 1 packet of frozen organic spinach, 1 organic milk and 3 sheets of lasagne pasta. You need mozzarella for topping.

I got the recipe from a free promotional recipe booklet from Olive Magazine two years ago (when I had advised Hardeep Singh Kholi on going organic).

Here is the beautiful butternut squash cut in half.

I used the whole squash for the recipe and produced just over the 500g required.

I cut the squash into manageable pieces with a small sharp knife, peeled the skin using a potato peeler and scooped out the seeds.

Love the way the butternut squash is so orange.

You fry 1 onion in a large frying pan then add the 500g cut-up squash. I cut-them up smaller when I realised they had to fry.

The recipe said fry until tender and slightly brown round edges but I put the lid on – answered a few emails – and in 15 minutes it had gone very soft indeed, but not brown.

Then add 100 mls of milk (or plant milk, vegan-me).

The BEST things about this recipe are:

no need for a white sauce
500g of squash and 150g of (frozen) spinach makes it LIGHT and vegetably.

So you cook the 3 lasagne sheets in boiling water for 3 minutes then drain.

Then layer: one sheet of pasta, followed by half of the cooked squash and half the warmed spinach.

Another sheet of lasagne pasta, then rest of squash and spinach.

Finish with the third lasagne sheet and tear a 125g ball of mozzarella over it.

(I used Buffalo Mozzarella from Laverstoke Farm, the organic farm ‘university’ owned and run by ex-racing car driver, Jody Scheckter. 20% off in Better Food organic supermarket just before New Year).

Put the dish under a heated grill until it bubbles and browns.

I photographed it against the snow.

No food-stylist, I! Look at the food splashes…not very stylish.

But definitely delicious.

For more squash recipes, including recipes for carnivores and vegetarians, nutritional information and how to grow squash from seed, see the book I co-authored, Make More of Squash. Aad on the right of this post offers 20% discount…