Ingredients
1 can salt reduced tomatoes
1 jar of sieved tomatoes (passata)
3 sticks celery chopped
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 large chopped onion
tspn chilli powder
tspn paprika
300ml salt reduced stock (I use Massel brand)
1 eggplant – sliced thinly
1 small sweet potato (partly cooked) and sliced very thinly.
500 grams minced beef (organic / free range)
Small tub Low Fat Ricotta Cheese (I used just over half the tub)
1 large capsicum – chopped
1 zucchini – chopped
Very small amount of grated cheese (for the top of the lasagna) – remember it melts and covers a larger area, so you don’t need much at all. I used half a cup and the baking dish I used is huge.
1 dried bay leaf
Small amount of basil
Small amount of thyme
Method
1. Whack a bit of olive oil in a large pan, then add the onion, garlic, celery, zucchini, capsicum. When the onion is starting to brown place all the veggies in a bowl and place to the side.
2. Now spray the pan with cooking spray and cook the minced beef.
3. **Then add the can tomatoes, sieved tomatoes, bay leaf, stock, basil, thyme, chilli powder and paprika and some cracked pepper into the cooked beef.
4. Then put the veggies back in and let it simmer until the mixture thickens.
5. While that thickens, place the eggplant on a tray, spray with cooking spray and season with some cracked pepper and a small amount of natural sea salt and then place under the grill. When grilled, place aside.
6. Preheat the oven at 180 C. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray. Put a small amount of the liquid from the beef / veggie / tomato from the pan on the base of the dish. Then line it with the eggplant. Then spoon some of the beef / veggie / tomato onto the eggplant. Then some of the slices of sweet potato. Then spoon a small amount of ricotta cheese onto that. Then back to the eggplant and beef / veggie / tomato mixture, sweet potato, ricotta cheese and so on until you’ve run out of mixture. 🙂 Then sprinkle a small amount of low fat grated cheese – you don’t need much at all – on the top and bung it into the oven – with no lid on the baking dish. I cooked this for around 40 mins.
** OPTION: if you can’t be bothered making the tomato sauce, just purchase a couple of large jars of Organic Pasta sauce and pour that in with the beef.
*** If you don’t want to use beef, use beans instead. I’ve made this with red kidney beans in the past as well.
[wlsp_jvftbasecontentvaluablebanners]
