Raise-the-Roof Sweet Potato-Vegetable Lasagna

"Amazing" is what I wrote on the recipe page, p. 202. This is my daughter's favorite, and I made it for her as her last meal before leaving to study abroad. It has also become a Thanksgiving dinner tradition with family all helping to chop the many veggies. It's gluten-free if you use brown-rice pasta noodles. You can double the recipe or halve it (see photo towards end with dish sizes). And the left-overs are extra-yummy. :) There is more prep-work for this meal, that's why I save it for special occasions. It's so worth it, though! If you make the smallest version, the prep-work isn't too much. Bonus: you don't need to pre-cook the noodles.

Have you seen the life-saving documentary, Forks Over Knives? Fire-fighter and athlete Rip Esselstyn is in it showing how a whole-foods plant-based (wfpb) diet improved the health of his fellow firefighters and can be flavorful at the same time. This recipe is from his book, The Engine 2 Diet. I've been enjoying many of his recipes. His father is Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., famous heart surgeon who shifted his focus to reversing and preventing heart disease, proving heart disease need not exist at all when following a wfpb diet.

Ingredients: (conversions not verified by my kitchen scale, yet)

1 medium sweet potato or yam, cooked and mashed

8 oz (127 g) frozen spinach, thawed, drained/squeezed (see photo towards bottom)

8 oz  (127 g) firm tofu, pressed, diced

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 head garlic, all cloves pressed or chopped

4 oz (113 g) mushrooms sliced

1/2 head of broccoli, chopped (I should have seen how many cups that is. See photo)

1 medium carrot, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1/2 can [4about 5 oz (142 g) worth] corn, drained (can save liquid for cooking veggies)

1/4 tsp (1.2 g) cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp (2.3 g) basil

1/2 tsp (2.3 g) oregano

1/2 tsp (2.3 g) rosemary

1.5-2 jars pasta sauce [each jar at least 25.5 oz (722 g, 780 mL)] (may not need a full 2)

1 package (12 oz, 340 g) of whole-grain lasagna noodles (can use brown-rice noodles for gf)

1/2 c (113 g) raw cashews, ground (via blender, processor, or crushed in bag with hammer)

9 x 13 inch (23 cm x 33 cm) oven-safe dish

Aluminum foil to cover

L-R/T-B: yam/sweet potato, drained spinach, pressed and
diced tofu, onions, garlic, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli,
corn, red bell pepper, spices, ground cashews.
Not pictured: whole grain or brown-rice lasagna noodles,
jars of pasta sauce.

Directions:

-Do-ahead: Make sure the sweet potato is cooked (boil whole until soft, about 30 min, when knife can easily be inserted) and mashed, the frozen spinach is thawed and liquid squeezed out,* and the tofu is pressed and diced. *I tried fresh spinach, but the water content made the lasagna extra runny once cooked.

-Pre-heat oven to 400 F (200 C, gas mark 6)

-Sauté the onion, garlic, and mushrooms until onions are limp and mushrooms give up liquid, then place them in large bowl (reserve any mushroom liquid in the sauté pan)

-Sauté broccoli and carrot for 5 min. Add to same bowl.

-Sauté pepper and corn until just beginning to soften. Add to bowl.

-Add the tofu and spice to bowl. Gently stir and combine.

To assemble: (see the following 3 photos)

-Cover bottom of 9x13 in. dish with a layer a sauce. Add a layer of noodles, then cover the noodles with another layer of sauce. The liquid from the sauce will cook the noodles in the oven.

-Spread the veggies over the sauced noodles, add a layer of noodles then more sauce.

-Add the spinach on top (I have to use my fingers to pull it apart)

-Cover the spinach with the mashed sweet potato (plop it on then spread thin)

-Add another layer of sauce, then noodles, then sauce. Make sure the top layer of sauce covers the noodles so the noodles soften. The original recipe calls for one 25 oz jar, but that just didn't seem enough. That's why I list 1.5 to 2 jars of sauce in the ingredients. You may not need the full 2.

-Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes

-Remove foil, add cashews, return to oven for 10 min.

-Remove from oven and let sit for 15 min before serving

Put thawed frozen-spinach in a cloth and squeeze
out liquid. Discard liquid.

8x8 in. (20x20 cm) cook 35 min/10 min
9x13 in. (23x33 cm) cook 40 min/10 min
11.5x17 in. (29x43 cm) cook 45 min/15 min

💚Happy Thanksliving! 💚

Chocolate Cream Pie

Dairy free!! And so, so yummy! I credit PinchOfYum.com for this recipe. I modified it according to the size of tofu-block available (I provided 3 different recipes based on size of tofu block. The most-common one is first, then there are photos of the other two below).

Protein estimate for entire pie: 55 g
Fiber estimate: 66 g

Note: Needs time to chill (don't we all! lol)

A few words about the ingredients:
-Don't let the word "tofu" discourage you. It works so well in this recipe.
-Dairy-free chocolate chips can be found in the baking section of a typical grocery store as well as in bulk at our Good Earth store. "Cocoa butter" will be the ingredient instead of milk.
-Almond butter has a better flavor than peanut butter in this recipe, in our opinion (we tried pb).

(An 8-cup blender and double-boiler are most-helpful but not absolutely required.)

Recipe: (conversions verified by my kitchen scale)
16 oz  (454 g)  silken tofu
16 oz  (454 g)  dairy-free chocolate chips (almost 2 2/3 C)
1/2 c + 2 2/3 T  (160 g)  almond butter
1/2 c + 2 2/3 T (175 mL) almond chocolate milk

9" pie crust

Directions:
-Melt chocolate gently in a double boiler (water boiling in bottom pot, chocolate in top pot)
-Blend tofu, chocolate almond milk, and almond butter until smooth.
-Add the melted chocolate to the blender. Blend until smooth.
-Pour into pie crust
-Chill for 12-24 hours

Double boiler

I had a little extra that I didn't think the pie crust would hold.
The kids were happy to gobble it up.

 

Something else I didn't know: Dairy calves are forbidden from drinking their mother's milk. I naively used to believe that somehow dairy cows made enough milk to share with us humans. Newborn calves are taken from their mothers within 24-48 hours. If female, the calf will be put in a tiny pen and fed supplemental food. If male, he will be either immediately slaughtered and disposed of or kept alive for a couple months then sold and slaughtered as veal. When dairy cows collapse from the exhaustion of multiple consecutive artificially-produced pregnancies, they are dragged off and slaughtered for ground beef. "The dairy industry is the meat industry."

Good News: We don't need cow-milk to survive. In fact, we are supposed to be weened. We can obtain all of our nutrients from plant sources, which provide better calcium absorption and superior protein over casein. More good news: There are many yummy plant-based cheeses, yogurts, ice-creams, and milks... and tastebuds do change!