My First Gluten Free & Dairy Free Lasagna.. with Cashew Ricotta

I had so many fresh tomatoes in the garden this year and I made a bunch of delicious sauce.  After a couple glasses of red wine I looked at all my jars of tomatoe sauce and got brave!  I decided to not overthink it and just attempt lasagna!  Lasagna is one of those things that I have been a bit overwhelemed by since I've had to go dairy free too.  But the wine and I figured why the hell not?!  What's the worst that could happen?


I honestly couldn't tell you what was really in my tomato sauce... garlic, garden fresh tomatoes, garden fresh basil and oregano, onion... who really knows.... it's not important..

I could use any old tomato sauce.  Hell I could even get lazy and use a jar (gasp)!

What I didn't know how to handle was the cheese... that's what was important...



Cashew Ricotta Cheese

1 1/2 C Raw Cashews
1/2 C Water
Juice of 1 Lemon
1 Garlic Clove
dash of Onion Powder
1 T Nutritional Yeast
sea salt & pepper- to taste

Soak the cashews for at least two hours in a covered bowl of warm water, covering the cashews with the water.  Drain the water and place the cashews in a blender (hello vitamix!) with the remaining ingredients.  Blend until nice and creamy- you will probably have to keep scraping down the sides.  Taste and adjust the flavor.



Click the picture for the original recipe from The Simple Veganista

This looks just like ricotta cheese.  Tasting it you could tell it really wasn't, but it was close.  I figured once it's mixed in with the yummy tomato sauce, meat and noodles you wouldn't even notice the difference.


After this was figured out the lasagna came together easily....

Gluten Free & Dairy Free Lasagna

1 lb ground beef
1 red onion
4 garlic cloves
2 C chopped spinach leaves- just because I like to sneak greens in wherever I can!
1 jar of homemade tomatoe sauce- I'll pay attention next time I make it and share a recipe!
fresh herbs- whatever you like
1 batch of cashew ricotta
1 package of gf lasagna noodles- I used tinkyada

I just browned the meat with the onion and garlic.  When it was done I added the spinach in to cook it down.  Then I added the tomato sauce and let it simmer while I made the noodles.  Cook the noodles according to the package instructions.  Layer the noodles, meat sauce, and ricotta in a 9 by 13 dish however you like.  I baked it at like 350 for 40 minutes covered with foil.  Then uncovered it and baked it another 5-10 minutes.  I threw some nutritional yeast and more fresh herbs on the top to garnish it.

This was the happiest lasagna has ever made me.... there may have even been tears! :)