Vegan Pumpkin Lasagna
You already know that we highly enjoy cooking seasonal: asparagus everything in spring, berries in summer, and as soon as the first leaves fall from the trees, we could eat pumpkin for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Lasagna is one of our all-time favorites, and it's also a great dish to be adjusted according to the seasons. In addition to our classic classic vegan lasagna, our soy-free version with lentils and spinach and rainbow lasagna, we now have another cozy recipe for you: vegan pumpkin lasagne!
The preparation is quite similar to a classic lasagna, and you definitely won't need to miss out on lasagna sheets, vegan béchamel sauce, and tomato sauce. However, instead of using a plant-based substitute for minced meat, we add a layer of fresh spinach and pumpkin. By slicing the pumpkin, it keeps a nice bite also after baking instead of getting mushy. The lasagna is topped with vegan cheese, but this is an optional step, and you could also omit it.
All needed ingredients for this vegan pumpkin lasagna can be found at the German supermarket EDEKA: from lasagna plates, to the organic Hokkaido pumpkin, vegan red wine and agave syrup. In addition, regionality and seasonality are two aspects that are just as important for EDEKA: the Hokkaido pumpkin and spinach come from organic cultivation in Germany. EDEKA has a huge selection of vegan products, which makes it possible even to find ingredients that are not too common. e.g., nutritional yeast, vegan cheese, plus all kinds of plant-based milk. We're always very happy about this because we can rely on finding all ingredients we need there even if we're not in Berlin but travel to smaller cities.
Vegan Pumpkin Lasagna
Ingredients
For the vegetable and top layers:
- 1 Hokkaido pumpkin (e.g. by EDEKA Bio)
- 100 g (3.5 oz) spinach
- dry lasagna sheets (e.g. by EDEKA)
- 150 g (5.5. oz) vegan shredded cheese
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 tbsp water
For the tomato sauce:
- 1 onion
- 1 garlic clove
- 4 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp agave syrup (e.g. by EDEKA Bio)
- 0.5 tsp dried basil
- 0.5 tsp dried oregano
- 0.25 tsp cayenne pepper
- 0.5 tsp paprika
- 50 ml (0.25 cup) vegan red wine
- 500 g (18 oz) canned crushed tomatoes (e.g. by EDEKA)
- vegetable oil for frying
- salt
- pepper
For the Béchamel sauce:
- 3 tbsp vegan butter
- 3 tbsp flour
- 250 ml (1 cup) plant-based milk
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- salt
- pepper
- nutmeg
Instructions
Vegetables
- Wash, halve, and deseed a Hokkaido pumpkin. Remove the stalks and cut the pumpkin into slices of approx. 0,5-1cm / 0.2-0.4 inches.
- Wash spinach and let it drain in a sieve.
Tomato sauce
Peel and finely dice onion and garlic. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Fry onion and garlic for approx. 4-5 minutes. Add tomato paste and agave syrup and keep frying for approx. 3 minutes. Add dried basil, oregano, cayenne pepper, and paprika and keep frying for approx. 1 minute.
Deglaze with vegan red wine and let it simmer and reduce for approx. 5 minutes before adding the canned chopped tomatoes. Season the tomato sauce with salt and pepper to taste. Let it simmer on low heat until the Béchamel sauce is done.
Béchamel sauce
For the Béchamel sauce, melt vegan butter in a small pot. Stir in flour and let it cook over low heat for approx. 1 minute.
Add plant-based milk little by little and keep stirring all the time to make sure that there are no lumps. Season the sauce with nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper to taste. In case the sauce thickens too much, add some more plant-based milk.
Assembling
- Preheat oven to 180°C/355°F and grease a baking dish with vegan butter or oil.
- Start with a thin layer of vegan Béchamel sauce and layer dry lasagna sheets on top. Spread tomato sauce on top, then add a layer of fresh spinach, pumpkin, and spread more vegan Béchamel sauce on top.
- Again, add dry lasagna sheets to cover the sauce, then repeat the same layering again and again until all ingredients are used up. The last layer (the one on top) should be Béchamel sauce. If desired, add some more pumpkin slices on top of it for the looks.
- Mix vegan shredded cheese with oil and water in a small bowl, then sprinkle it on top of the lasagna.
- Bake pumpkin lasagna at 180°C/355°F for approx. 40 minutes, or until the pasta sheets are done, and al dente and the crust on top is golden brown. Remove from the oven but let the lasagna cool down for approx. 10 minutes before cutting and serving.
