Lasagne for veggie lovers

When I lived in New York I thought it would be nice to make lasagne for dinner one day, which was obviously a great idea. The only problem was that I didn´t know how to make lasagne nor did I have minced meat lying around, so as any good housewife would, I called my mother asking for recipes.

My mother, being as she is, cheerfully told me that making lasagne is really simple, you make a red sauce and a white sauce and layer them with lasagne plates, the only "rule" being to put white sauce on each side of the pasta. "Fair enough", I stated, and then asked how to make the white sauce.

"However you want!" was her helpful answer, and when pressed she said I could either make the classic one with milk and flour, or I could make a cheese sauce. Since cheese sounds much more gourmet, I decided that would be the better choice. For me and my gourmet fiancé, that is.

At the time I promised to upload that recipe for my vegetarian friends but never did. But that didn´t stop me from making it again, and that time I wrote down everything that went into each sauce, so at long-last, you have my recipe for vegetarian lasagne at your disposal. Apart from onion and garlic, all the vegetables can be substituted for some other veggies and it doesn´t really matter what sort of tomatoes you use. If you are entertaining guests that don´t eat onions, confirm that they are not allergic but just picky eaters, and then go ahead and chop all the onions into very small pieces before cooking.

Enough small talk, the recipe already!

Red sauce:
5 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon ginger
4-5 large onions
2 stalks celery
cayenne pepper & oregano to taste
1 cauliflower
2 red peppers (paprika)
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 small can tomatoe paste
4 tomatoes
oregano and black pepper to taste

White sauce:
5 gloves garlic
1/5th of an onion
1/2 a bunch of chives
1 Mexico-cheese (this is probably only available in Iceland so just use a cheese you like and a chili pepper instead or substitute this completely with blue-cheese)
1 pot "cooking cream", that is low-fat cream
1 tsp jam
1/2 small cheddar
75 cl milk

The top layer:
The rest of the cheddar (or whatever cheese you like).

Instructions:

Start with the red sauce: Fry the garlic, ginger, onions, and celery with cayenne and oregano - then when the onion turns a bit see-through add the rest after chopping it up:

Now make the white sauce: Again you fry the different types of onions first, then chop up the rest and add it to the pot which is cooking on a low heat.

Turn on the oven & layer them:

(Oil), white sauce, pasta, white sauce, red sauce, white sauce, pasta, white sauce, red sauce, white sauce, pasta, white sauce, cheese!
Leave in the oven for 45-60 minutes at 180 degrees celsius (depending on how cooked you like your pasta).

When I made this I had a very special guest of honour; our godson Hugi who was eating solid food at a dinnerparty for the first time!