Italian vegetable Lasagna in white sauce

Italian cuisine is famous for its varieties & cheese. One such dish is Lasagna with different stuffings & with cheese as the main ingredients. Lasagna in meat is the popular version.

Vegetable lasagna would be perfect for heavy dinner/lunch too. I prefer adding a egg along with the spinach as one of the layer & those who wish to layer them with plain spinach, will taste equally good.

This is perfect during weekends, can spend more time on preparing & eating this Italian food. Either white sauce or tomato sauce can be used & I prefer white sauce which goes good with vegetable lasagna.

Ingredients :

For the white sauce :

1. Butter - 2 tbsp
2. Finely chopped garlic - 1 tsp
3. Bay leaf - 1 no
4. All purpose flour - 1 tbsp
5. Milk - 1 cup
6. Salt to taste
7. Pepper - 1/2 tsp
8. Nutmeg powder - 1/4 tsp

For the vegetable topping :

1. Oil - 1 tsp
2. Onion - 2 medium size
3. Vegetables - 1 cup (Carrot, beans, peas & ur fav)
4. Chilly powder (or) pepper powder
5. Salt to taste
6. Cinnamon stick & cloves (optional)

For the spinach topping :

1. Finely chopped spinach - 2 cups
2. Egg - 1 no (optina;)
3. Garlic finely chopped - 1 tsp
4. Oil - 1 tsp
5. Salt to taste
6. Pepper for spice (optional)
7. Lasagna pasta - 12 sheets
8. Cheese (Parmesen cheese, mozarella, ricotta cheese)

Directions to cook :

White sauce :

• @ Heat butter in the heavy bottomed pan, add bay leaf, chopped garlic & flour.
• @ Now add a cup of milk & salt to taste.
• @ Keep stiring continously, till u get the thick consistency. Finally add pepper powder and nutmeg powder & keep it aside (remove the bay leaf finally)

Vegetable topping :

• @ Heat oil in the pan, add cinnamon and cloves.
• @ Add onion & saute for few min. Add the vegetables, chilly powder and salt to taste.
• @ Once cooked, keep it aside.

Spinach topping :

• @ Heat oil in the pan, add chopped garlic followed by spinach.
• @ Then add pepper and salt to taste.
• @ Once cooked, remove them from the stove & allow it to cool.
• @ Now mix the beaten egg to it & keep it aside.

Cheese mixture :

• @ Mix all the three varieties of cheese & keep it aside.

Lasagna sheet :

• @ Cook the lasagna for 10 min in the salted boiling water.

Assembling all together :

• # In the baking pan, first arrange first 4 sheets of lasagna sheets & then spread a layer of white sauce over them.
• # Spread the vegetable mixture as a second layer over the white sauce.
  
  
• # Sprinkle the cheese as a third layer.
• # Arrange the next 4 sheets of lasagna over the cheese mixture.
• # Spread the spinach toppings over them.
• 
• # Arrange the final 4 sheets of lasgana & spread the white sauce as a next layer.
• # Finally cover them with the remaining cheese & bake them for 40 min at 180 C.

Delicious lasagna is ready to serve.

TIPS :

1. For the white sauce, can adjust the proportion of flour and milk based on the consistency required.

2. Adding cinnamon and cloves will taste good for the Indian tongue.

3. Truely, I didn't prefer adding all the 3 varieties of cheese. I just used only mozaralle cheese.