Sassy Sweet Potatoes

Short and sweet tonight!

For dinner we made a recipe from our new "Forks Over Knives" cookbook called Raise the Roof Sweet Potato Lasagna.  While I will admit this was a good recipe, I definitely have some adjustments to make the next time we make it...which will be again soon!  This is another one of those recipes that I seriously recommend you take the time to try...go ahead, give your kitchen some love, spend some time in it!  This lasagna has tofu in it, and if you are on the fence about trying tofu, this would be a great recipe to get you accustomed to the taste and texture.  As I have mentioned before, tofu takes on the taste of whatever you are cooking it with, seriously, please don't be afraid of it!  And, just for your own reassurance, once you eat tofu, you will not suddenly be turned into some tree hugger yuppie sort, I promise!  

Raise the Roof Sweet Potato Lasagna

1 onion, chopped

1 small head of garlic, cloves chopped or pressed

8 oz. fresh sliced mushrooms

1 head of broccoli, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 bell peppers, chopped

1 can corn; rinsed and drained

1 package firm tofu

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

1 tsp rosemary

2 jars pasta sauce (little or no added oil)

2 boxes whole grain lasagna noodles

16 oz. frozen spinach; thawed and drained

2 sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed (I did this about an hour before I was ready to start dinner)

6 Roma tomatoes, sliced thin

1 cup raw cashews, ground

* preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Water saute the onion and garlic on high heat for 3 minutes in a wok or nonstick pan.  Add the mushrooms and cook until the onions are limp and the mushrooms give up their liquid.  Remove them to a large bowl with a slotted spoon.  Water saute the broccoli and carrots for 5 minutes and then add to the mushroom bowl.  Saute the peppers and corn until soft then add them to the vegetable and mushroom bowl.  Drain the tofu by wrapping it in paper towels to absorb the excess water.  Break the tofu up and mix it in the vegetable and mushroom bowl.  

* cover the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan with a layer of the pasta sauce.  Add a layer of noodles.  Cover the noodles with the sauce, this way the noodles cook in the oven saving time and energy.  Spread the vegetable mixture over the noodles.  Add another layer of lasagna noodles over the vegetable mixture and cover with pasta sauce.  Spoon the spinach mixture over the top of the noodles and then spread the mashed sweet potatoes over the spinach.  Add the final layer of lasagna noodles and cover with pasta sauce.  Cover the lasagna with thinly sliced Roma tomatoes.

* cover with foil and bake in the oven for 45 minutes.  Remove the foil; sprinkle with the cashews; and return to the oven to bake for an additional 15 minutes.

OK...MY ADJUSTMENTS FOR NEXT TIME!

Well, we have a nut allergy in the house so we skipped the whole ground cashew thing, although I am pretty sure it tastes darn good.  The recipe has you use UNCOOKED lasagna noodles that you layer with pasta sauce, and this is supposed to cook them; instead we ended up with chewy lasagna noodles in the middle and crunchy burned lasagna noodles at the edges.  Take the extra 15 minutes and boil the lasagna noodles so they are nice and soft, just as lasagna should be!  The recipe calls for two boxes of lasagna noodles, I think you can get buy with one box.  In total, I used 15 or 16 noodles.  Save yourself a bit of extra prep time and use frozen onions.  I used frozen onions and already minced garlic from a glass jar.  I have NO clue what water sauteing is, and it did not go very well for me, I will just use extra virgin olive oil next time to saute all the vegetables.  I also did not think the broccoli got softened enough for my liking, so next time we make this I will steam the broccoli instead of sauteing it...a bit of extra work and an extra pan to clean, but well worth it, I think.  I was also not a huge fan of corn in my lasagna, so will probably omit this next time, and I may even sneak in a bit of cheese!  And, just in case you get confused by lasagna layers like I do, here is a break down; sauce, noodles, vegetable mixture, noodles, sauce, spinach, mashed sweet potatoes, noodles, sauce, roma tomatoes.  

The kids were not totally keen on dinner tonight, so I bribed them with Veggie Straws to get them to eat at least some of my lasagna goodness!  Papa nothing needed no bribing whatsoever and had three plates of it!  All in all, pretty tasty, can't wait to tweak it to my liking!