Pasta-less Lasagne
A delicious, light pasta-less lasagne. Leek plays the star role here instead of pasta, sandwiched between layers of rich, meaty sauce with the sweet, earthy flavour of beetroot and all topped off with a smooth béchamel sauce, cheddar, and feta cheese.
Ingredients
For the meat sauce400g minced Beef
- 1 large Onion
- 3 cloves Garlic
- 140 g Tomato concentrate ~4 tbsps
- 2 cans 800g crushed Tomatoes
- 2 large boiled Beetroots, grated
- 200 ml Water
- ~6 tbsps Olive Oil
- 1 tsp dried Oregano
- 1 tsp tried Thyme
- 1 tsp Salt
For the béchamel sauce50g Butter
- 4 tbsp Plain Flour
- 0.6 litres Milk
For the layers2 large Leeks, with ends and tops cut off.
For the topping200g Hard Cheese, such as Cheddar, grated
- 100 g Feta Cheese crumbled
Instructions
- In a large pan, start off by heating the olive oil for the meat sauce. Finely chop the onion and garlic and sauté in the hot oil until starting to turn translucent. Add in the minced beef. Mix well and continue cooking until the meat is cooked through and browning.
- Add in the crushed tomatoes, tomato concentrate, water and grated beetroot and mix well before finally adding in the oregano, thyme, and salt and stirring in.
- Cook the sauce on a medium heat, stirring from time to time, until it has reduced down a little and thickened up.
- In another pan, melt the butter for the béchamel sauce and then add in the flour. Whisk together and cook the flour and butter together until a light caramel in colour before adding in the milk a bit at a time until you have a velvety sauce. You may need a bit more, or a bit less milk depending on how thick (or thin) you like your sauce.
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and then slit the leeks down their lengths and peel off the first 6 or so outside layers (the leaves will get thicker towards the centre). Wash the leaves thoroughly and line the bottom of a lasagne dish with 2 or 3 or them.
- Place some sauce into the dish and spread out before topping with some béchamel sauce and some more leek. Add some more sauce, béchamel, and leek layers, and keep on going until finally finishing off with a layer of leek and pouring the rest of the béchamel sauce on top.
- Sprinkle over the grated cheese and crumbled feta and then place into the preheated oven. Bake for about 30 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and the feta is starting to brown slightly. Serve, and enjoy!
Notes
Many people will make their lasagne and only add béchamel on the very top. I personally prefer to have it distributed throughout, but if you like it on top only you can easily omit adding it on top of each meat sauce layer, and simply scale down the béchamel ingredients by half.