Friday

Creamy Lasagna



I love stouffer's vegetable lasagna....it is creamy,rich and oh! so unhealthy for you ;)..i have tried recipes from many books but nothing came to the richness and the ooey-gooey stuff...all the recipes asked for thawing spinach..or grated zucchini and seriously never made the cut.
It was last week when i saw madame garten of food tv who never cooks for less than a stick of butter...made a bechamel sauce for macaroni and cheese and i thought..yes! bechamel for lasagna...that will make it rich. I really do not have a dead conscience that i will use a stick of butter..i used 1 tbls of butter and the results i must say came out pretty good. Now as nags has opted the WBB ingredient as cornflakes...i ditched the bread crumb topping and moved to cornflakes lightly crushed..and i think i am going to use the same in future too.

The recipe:

Marinara Sauce:

I love things spicy and so i used a home made indian flavored marinara i had on hand..you can go ahead and use store bought....

Bechamel Sauce:

1 tbls butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup fat free milk
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper powder


Melt butter in a pan. Then add the flour and cook till the flour turns light brown..it usually forms to a ball in this phase. Slowly add the milk and whisk it well to ensure there are no lumps and cook on medium flame for a few mts..till it coats a spoon lightly. Switch of the gas...grate the nutmeg and add salt and pepper.

Filling:

2 cups spinach - packed
1/2 onion - thinly sliced
1/4 cup peas
1 cup grated carrots
2 pods garlic
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp.red chilly powder
salt - to taste

Add oil in a pan..then add cumin and garlic. When the cumin jumps..add the veggies and saute them lightly adding salt,red-chilly powder and turmeric. When all the liquid from the spinach evaporates...keep the filling aside to cool.

Balance

7 sheets of lasagna - par-boiled in plenty of salted water
1 cup mozzarella cheese
4 tbls cornflakes - crushed lightly and toasted lightly with 1 tsp. olive oil

Assembly:

1.Preheat the oven to 375 F

2. Take a shallow baking pan and ladle marinara sauce on the bottom. This ensures that you do not have to butter the pan.

3. Take a tbls of filling and place it on the lasagna roll about 2 inches away from the end and roll the sheet loosely and place the roll in the pan with the open end facing down. Do the same with all the six sheets.

4. Pour the bechamel sauce on top of the rolls making sure all the sheets are wet with it.

5. Then sprinkle the cheese on the rolls..making sure all the rolls have cheese on them and then top with the toasted cornflakes mixture.

6. Bake this for 30 mts or till the cheese bubbles and get a lil brown.

Notes:

1. This freezes well.

2. The bechamel sauce does not get thick in the pan..it should lightly coat the ladle/spoon..but when you bake it gets really yummy.

3. I made the lasagna is 2 individual baking pans...this way i made sure i was not basically hogging all the topping ;)



This is off to Nags who blogs at .For the Cook in me and who is hosting the WBB

21 comments:

Kribha said...

It looks truly delicious and yummy. That melted cheese with cornflakes on the top looks sooo good. I wish to have a big portion of that now.Lovely creation.

Sagari said...

corn flakes on lasagna thats very creative lovely crunchy topping

sra said...

Wow, for breakfast? Isn't it time-consuming? Or maybe not, if you make quite a bit and keep MWing a bit everyday

SMN said...

Hi Rajita,

Lovely lasanga..

Rajitha said...

kribha - thnks!..the cornflakes are better then the bread-crumbs

sagari - i would have never thought of it myself..but the theme kinda forced me to

sra - nahi re..it is for brunch...at my home we have that at 12:00...coz we refuse to get up before 10:00 on sunday :)

smn - thnks :)

Lissie said...

rajitha, you are so inventive! the dish looks delicious... :))

Richa said...

d-lish!
yup, all their recipes have butter and sugar measurements in cups, not tbsp ;) baked dishes (savory) in white sauce r one of my fav, chk out one of my earlier posts if u like:
http://asdearassalt.blogspot.com/2007/03/of-amrapali-and-baked-vegetables.html

Laavanya said...

I too like that Stouffers Veg Lasagna but lately, towards the end I find the creaminess getting to me (But I still polish it off). Your recipe seems like a nice balance with the addn. of marina to this. I havent made Lasagna in such a long time since my husband is not a big fan but if this freezes well that would work for me. :)

sunita said...

Yummy...mind passing me some ;-)

TBC said...

Never tried Stouffer's before and now there is no reason to. Will just make yours;-)
Bechamel sauce is white sauce/roux , right?
That is so much work though even if it is for brunch:-(


yfuhg- that's wot I had to type out to post my comment, bah!

Nupur said...

Mmm... looks delicious! I am making Ina Garten's mushroom lasagna for Thanksgiving this week, and that too calls for a highly rich creamy bechamel sauce. Have you tried the no-cook lasagna noodles? They make life just a little bit easier (I find boiling lasagna noodles quite messy).

Shweta said...

Now that looks GOOD! Gotta try it out! We are like you, have to have a good 'brunch' on the weekends! :)

amna said...

thts one yummy and sinful breakfast. thank you so much for participating :)

Namratha said...

Looks deliciously creamy and yummy Rajitha, send it over hon, otherwise you will have it from me for eating it all by yourself... :-D Fab entry :)

Latha Narasimhan said...

Lovely recipe rajitha! I am copying this into my notebook so that I can have it in front of me when I cook. Oakshmi tried once and all the sheets stuck together! :D

Rajitha said...

lissie - oh please....i'm not..(yes..go on please!! ;)

richa - chkd out urs too..looks really great

laav - i agree with u...by the end i feel horrible..i combat that by adding some hot-sauce ;)..and i hear u onnot making what ur husband does not like..it is just extra work....

sunita- sure will girl..

tbc - yes maam :) u got it right..it is white sauce..and it is not too much work serious..u can buy the marinara sauce..can use left over bhaji..the white sauce takes 4 mts..and all u gotta do is boil the lasagna...but i know what u mean..i sometimes read recipes and get tired by the time i complete reading ;)
and he he he on the word verification!!

nupur - i am with u on boiling the noodles..no cook ones..thanks for the tip..

shweta - thnks god for that..i was feeling like a complete loser !!

nags - my pleasure hon..anytime :)

namratha - arre..the minute u send me the black forest cake..this will be on the way ;)

latha- i guess she used less water..you need tons of water when u boil these guys..u should be fine then...

Bong Mom said...

I love the way your lasagna looks...though I am not abig lasagna fan

Sig said...

That sure looks yummy... adding corn flakes is very clever :) ... Happy Thanksgiving darling... I've got the holiday bug already :)

Pdk said...

Looks delicious Rajitha.. feel like grabbing some from my PC screen and devour it now!!

Rajitha said...

sandeepa - thnt is a compliment..thnks :)

sig - holiday bug huh...glad that u have shifted from being sick to getting into shopping mood ;)...well i'm trying not to get one..coz u know where i will be heading ;)..and thanks honey..happy thanksgiving to you too..so how is that packing coming along ??

priya!! girl..i/m so happy u dropped by..so how are you doing??..keep in touch :)

Seema said...

Lovely recipe.. looks creamy, cheesy & crunchy too! First time at your blog, nice collection of recipes u have.