To celebrate our Italian theme this week here at Steemian Food Network and the Steemit Food Challenge, I’ve decided to put a little additional effort into my recipe this week! Unlike most of my cooking this one requires some foresight and preparation. Stay with me, folks! Don’t click away you lazy bums! This one is worth it! It always wows meat-eaters, vegetarians and vegans alike. It will make your lil' Sicilian grandmother proud!

Preparation!

You’ll want to start this recipe the day before you plan to eat it! Don’t worry; there isn’t much work involved.

Simply dump your cashews in some water, or your water into your cashews whichever you prefer! This water/cashew mixture will go in the fridge overnight. If you forget this step, or suddenly get a craving for vegan lasagna with cashew cheese, you can boil your cashews in water until they become soft and legume-like (legume? legumish? legumesque?)

You’ll also want to marinate the tomatoes and mushrooms and if you decide to use it, your tofu! I’m switching things up and using frozen eggplant cutlets instead of tofu.

Like most of my cooking, I’m not big on numbers and measuring things, or sticking to the recipe. Add whatever you like in your lasagna! The sky's the limit... no, actually the top of your lasagna pan is the limit.

Ingredients

Vegan “Ricotta” Cashew Cheese

2 cups, soaked raw cashews that you were smart and soaked the night before.
Lots of garlic powder, fresh garlic cloves, or minced from jar (like me, because I am lazy!)
2 glugs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 cup milk substitute
3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar (other vinegar is available)
Couple shakes of dried Italian herb blend
A bunch of fresh chives
Some black pepper
Salt to taste
Dash of Chili flakes

Marinade

Garlic! Whatever you want!
Couple of glugs of Olive Oil (It is no longer virgin if you used it in the above Cashew Cheese…)
Some balsamic vinegar or whatever you have in the pantry!
Some more dried Italian herb seasoning blend
Enough black pepper and salt
1 sprig Basil, mangled.

Things to Marinate!

Some tomatoes sliced into thin rounds
Mushrooms! I used portabella also sliced into thin rounds mushroom shapes!
Tofu? If you like that kind of thing. Guess what shape you cut those into? Thin tofu shapes!

Lasagna Fixings!

Sprinkle of non-dairy cheese, I used Daiya
2 cups fresh leafy greens (I used baby kale!)
1 box no-boil lasagna noodles
1 box of frozen eggplant cutlets (thawed them in the fridge for a few hours)
2 jars of pasta sauce (I used about 1 and 1/4 jar for a 9’X9’ pan. If you have more vegans to feed, or you want leftovers you can also cook this in a 9’X13’ pan, or if you don’t have a 9’x13’ pan you can use a 13’x9’ pan)

**Optional: fresh chives, mangled basil, spicy stuff, vegan ‘ground beef’, the world is your vegan oyster. **

Come to Cheesus

Everything you need to make a delicious vegan ricotta!

Soak your cashews overnight in water

Drain your soaked cashews. This is about 4 cups. I used two for the lasagna and set two cups aside for a surprise! Dump them right into your food processor. Add vinegar, milk substitute, olive oil and blend on high until smooth.

mmmm…. @smooth

You may need to shake it around or take off the lid and stir things down. If your ‘ricotta’ is looking too dry add some more pretend milk.

Toss your chives, salt, pepper, garlic(s), and chili flakes into the blender and blend until well incorporated. Taste it, add more of whatever is lacking!

Tah dah! You can eat this as a dip, in a sandwich, with a spoon, or in lasagna. Try not to eat all of it before the next part, please.

Lasagna Assemble!

There are no rules here! I do have one important tip: make sure you put a layer of sauce on at least every layer of noodle. Since we are using no-bake noodles we want everything to be extra juicy! Leftover marinade drippings can be used to juicify things further.

Here’s what I did:

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Fire It Up!

Bake your masterpiece (covered in foil) at 400 degrees for 40-60 minutes.