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23

Jan

2007

Raw Food Recipe: Lasagne

Saved in:-   Main Courses,Raw Food Recipes



raw food recipe lasagne

Ok, so I’ve received quite a few emails asking for this recipe since putting the photo on my flickr account.

I really love this dish, it’s great to take to potlucks or give to your non-raw friends and doesn’t need any expensive kitchen equipment other than a knife, a chopping board and an inexpensive food processor. A mandoline would be an advantage, and is also very cheap in terms of kitchen equipment.

Lasagne

Serves 9 large portions. Can be made in a lasagne dish, or made as individual portions on the plate.

Nut Cheese

2 cups macadamias, soaked 4 hours or more
1 cup pine nuts
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 yellow pepper
2 tablespoons fresh parsley
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water as needed

- Process all ingredients together adding as little of the water as possible until a fluffy consistency is achieved.

Walnut Meat Layer

1/2 cup walnuts, soaked 1 hour or more
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked for 1 hour or more
1 tablespoon dark/brown miso
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried sage
1 tablespoon nama shoyu
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon agave nectar

- Grind all ingredients in a food processor, leaving the mixture slightly chunky.

Tomato sauce

1 1/2 cups sun-dried tomatoes, soaked 2 hours or more
2 soft dates
2 cloves garlic
2 cups tomato, seeded and chopped
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice

- Process in a food processor until smooth.

Green pesto

2 cups tightly packed basil leaves
3/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts
1/2 cup olive oil
1teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice

- Process all ingredients, leaving plenty of chunkiness!

Spinach Layer

6 cups torn spinach
5 tablespoons dried oregano
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

- Place all ingredients in a bowl to marinade and wilt for 1 hour or longer, putting the covered bowl in a dehydrator will help this process but it’s not essential.

For the assembly

-5 medium courgettes (zucchini), cut lengthwise and marinated in 1 tablespoon of salt and 3 tablespoons olive oil for 10 minutes.
Pinch black pepper

Assembly method:

- Line the base of your dish with a layer of the courgette strips that slightly overlap.

- On top of this put down a layer of the walnut meat, then the cheese, then tomato sauce and finally the pesto on top.\

- Finish this with another layer of slightly overlapping courgette strips.

- Repeat step 2 but before adding the final layer of courgette, take your wilted spinach and create an additional layer with that.

- Placing the whole dish in the fridge for several hours will firm it all up slightly which will make it easier to cut into portions.

- Garnish individual portions with black pepper and a sprig of basil.

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  • Becky

    How much lemon juice is in the Nut Cheese layer? It’s listed twice: first as 2 Tablespoons and then again as 3 Tablespoons. I can’t wait to make this dish!!

    Thanks

  • http://therawchef.blogs.com Russell James

    Hi Becky,

    Thanks for that, I’ve adjusted the recipe to the correct quantity of 2T now.

  • http://www.rawteacher.com/debrareadman Debra

    Russell, that lasagna looks amazing!! I absolutely love your blog and am always waiting anxiously for your next update. :) Where I am in Canada, macadamia nuts are crazy expensive, would cashews or pine nuts sub okay for them in the nut cheese layer? Or would it make to big of a difference in taste? Thank you so much, your blog is such a raw inspiration! :) Debra

  • http://therawchef.blogs.com Russell James

    Hi Debra,

    Thanks for your comments.

    Cashews and pine nuts would be fine to substitute, don’t be afraid to experiment!

    Hope that helps.

  • Shannon

    I just wanted to say that I absolutely love this recipe. I made it this week. It is not only my favorite raw lasagna recipe, but the best lasagna I’ve ever tasted :-)

  • Ash

    Hi! I love this recipe, but how long would it keep in the fridge? I would want to prepare it on a weekend, and hopefully dig into it through the week..

  • http://therawchef.com Russell James

    Hi Ash, It will last a few days covered in the fridge.

  • http://therawchef.com Russell James

    Thanks Shannon, glad you love it!

  • Donna

    Hi,
    I just want to confirm that this the sundried tomatoes are the dry kind not packed in oil?
    thanks, this looks like a lot of work but it sure looks good.

  • http://therawchef.com Russell James

    Hi Donna,

    Yes, use the dry ones, but soak them to make the whole thing less salty.

    The ones in oil usually have other ingredients in there that won’t do you any good whatsoever.

    Hope that helps

  • Kay

    Wow, that was delicious. It took a while to make and it was well worth the effort!
    I’m glad I used less salt than it said though, because I still found it a bit salty.
    Tastes even better than when I used to make cooked vegan lasagne. Nice work!

  • lulah

    can this be put in dehydrator to warm a bit?

  • http://therawchef.com Russell James

    Lulah, this wouldn’t really lend itself to being warmed in the dehydrator to well as it’s so dense.

  • Christine

    OH My Gosh! this was so good, I had my friends who don’t eat raw loving it. I had some left over the next day and put it on raw crackers, wow what a treat! Thank you Russell,sure wish I lived closer to come to one of your class’

  • http://www.website-copy-writer.com ciara writer

    Thanks! I’ll be trying this asap!

  • Lisa

    Hi Russell, I am going raw slowly after attending a course with you and Karen. I am a little concerned with the amount of nuts in a few of the recipies with regard to the fat content (not bothered about weight just health). Would you care to comment on this, when you have time, i’d be interested in your opinion. Thanks!

    From Russell: Hi Lisa, for me, eating recipes with nuts isn’t something I’ll do masses of. Most of the food I create is for special occasions, so it isn’t part of my daily intake.

    I think it’s important to remember that nuts offer a different type of fat than cooked, saturated fats; but also that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to eat handfuls everyday. I definitely notice a difference when I’ve eaten too much fat, even raw fat, such as avocados…I get that fat “hangover” feeling.

    I’ve also been on the other end of the spectrum in my search for the perfect diet for me, and eaten very little fat. I found this very hard going and found myself feeling very unsatiated by anything, so it wasn’t very sustainable.

    I feel that to begin with someone may need, and be able to get away with, more nuts. But as they progress they may find themselves relying less on nuts, and even being less tolerant of the effect of even raw fat.

    Hope that helps.

  • Marie

    Amazing. Truly amazing. This is some of the best tasting food I have ever eaten. Thank you so much!

  • http://none Cheryl

    Will this recipe freeze well? Since there are so many steps, I would like to make more at one time and freeze it for later so get the most out of the time spent in the kitchen. let me know if you think that will work with this kind of dish. It looks great! Also, have you tried substituting eggplant for zucchini?

    From Russell: The whole lasange will definitely not freeze well, but you could freeze the component parts and assemble once they have defrosted, so you’re ready for serving. Never tried eggplant for that, but it would work nicely.

  • Elyce

    This was delicious, to be sure, and worth the time since we have leftovers galore. I substituted liberally and it still turned out great. And I second the comment about too much salt. I used less than called for and will use less still next time.

    I saw the other comments about too many nuts. That’s probably why my husband and I have a heavy, heavy feeling in our bellies now. Next time we’ll have about half the portion and start out with a great big salad. But truly, one week into our raw food diet, this meal was a welcome treat!

  • Debbie

    I’m a new raw fooder–just 5 days old! This is the BEST recipe a newbie could make. Quick, easy & no dehydrating required! The lasagna has so much flavour, you will not be disappointed! It looks & tastes so much like the cooked stuff that you won’t miss your old standby. Thank you for sharing it with us Mr. James.

  • http://www.heal4real.co.uk Kim

    Delicious! Thank you darling! x

  • http://lazynui.multiply.com Nui

    Hi,

    I made this last week after I tried the Chocolate cake recipe. This is the best Lasagna I ever had! It is heavy too. We had one portion for lunch and we didn’t need any food at all afterwards.

    Thanks! Hmm.. what should I try next? :D

  • Catherine B

    This is amazingly delicious… but the two of us couldn’t possibly eat the whole thing. How long do you think the left-overs will keep?

    From Russell: Hi Catherine, it will keep for 2 to 3 days in the fridge.

  • JP

    Russell, this look delicious. Do you have the nutritional values for this dish, i.e. amount of calories, cholesterol, protein, etc. per serving?

  • http://koalabrains.blogspot.com koala brains

    This dish was HEAVENLY!!!! Thank you!

  • http://koalabrains.blogspot.com koala brains

    By the way, I wrote about this recipe on my blog and borrowed the pic. If that’s a problem, please let me know and I’ll take the pic down.

  • michelle Woods

    I only have a vitamix. Going to buy a food processor which one is easy to use what model # do you like what about cuisinart? or do you recommend a different brand?

    From Russell: Love the Cuisinart, plus the [rice came down a bit a few months ago I believe. kenwood tend to last for ages, but may not be very powerful. Magimix have some good ones too, but you’ll need to get a powerful model. You really get what you pay for with food processors.

  • satra

    Your pics of the recipes looks great…can’t wait to try your recipes…do you have a recipe for raw artichokes; how to marinate the artichoke w/o boiling it; Raw/Live Foodist are saying to dehydrate food at 105 degrees (F) or below…but some recipes & cold pressed oil on the web temperature rises to 110 to 115 degrees (F)…are the enzymes destroyed at temperatures higher than 105 degrees (F)?…Thnx

    From Russell: Different enzymes are lost at different temperatures; the most fragile ones start to get lost around 120 degrees F, and it’s thought that happens only when the food stays at that temperature for a prolonged period of time. However most people set their dehydrator at 105 or up to 115 so as not to even get close to that.

  • Martha

    We made this last night. I was surprised that it came out so pretty. I loved the fresh thyme addition to the nut cheese. We do not have a mandolin but my husband improvised with a carrot peeler and was able to recreate your paper-thin slices. I substituted bazillion nuts for the macadamia nuts. It tasted fine but is there a nutritional advantage to macadamia nuts? I used white miso instead of the dark brown. Is there a reason for the dark brown miso?

    From Russell: Hi Martha, the dark miso is for a bouillon flavour – white miso is a different taste and more mild.

  • Charly

    That’s looks absolutely delicious !!!!! Does anyone have any idea how many calories a serving is ?

  • Maya

    Question to anyone who tried this recipe:

    How easy was it to cut through the lasagne?
    Do the individual slices look so pretty – are the layers distinct?
    I’m planning on making this recipe to impress a few skeptics LOL so presentation is very important for this occasion (as for the taste – I’m not worried – I know it would taste DIVINE…)
    Thanks!

    From Russell: If you want to make it to look like this then build them up individually, rather than making one whole lasagne in a pan and then cutting it up.

  • http://www.changingmaya.com Maya

    okay your lasagne is so amazingly fantastic! i made so much of it and there was still not enough!!! completely sold out ;)
    i gave everyone the link to this page (and your website) so that they can see for themselves.
    you are a true inspiration.
    your bread is in my dehydrator as i’m writing these lines; i’m so glad for your tip to dehydrate it overnight… it’s too hard to resist!
    THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!
    maya

  • Chauna

    Do you have any recommendations on what I can use in lieu of the nutritional yeast? Thanks

    From Russell: you can just leave it out

  • http://vegandietguy.com TokyoVegan

    After craving this for months, gathering all the necessary ingredients (got my hands on nama shoyu yesterday–had never heard of it although I live in Japan!), and determining substitutes (i.e. cashews for macadamias), I finally assembled it yesterday and was quite pleased with the results. My 1st question: Is it necessary to use so much salt or just personal taste? 2nd question: I used regular spinach, minus the stems (I assumed they would be tough and should not be used–is this correct?), but wondered if I am supposed to use any particular kind of spinach, i.e. salad or baby spinach? Q3: I'd love to try all your recipes, but sun-dried tomatoes are very dear here in Japan, so I'm kind of stingy with them. Can you please let me know in general when they are vital to a dish vs. nice-to-have, i.e. in sauce vs nut cheese? Last question: I hope this isn't a stupid question, because I'm new to Raw cuisine, would it be OK to freeze the leftovers?
    Gratefully yours,
    William

  • http://twitter.com/tokyovegan William Santoro

    After craving this for months, gathering all the necessary ingredients (got my hands on nama shoyu yesterday–had never heard of it although I live in Japan!), and determining substitutes (i.e. cashews for macadamias), I finally assembled it yesterday and was quite pleased with the results. My 1st question: Is it necessary to use so much salt or just personal taste? 2nd question: I used regular spinach, minus the stems (I assumed they would be tough and should not be used–is this correct?), but wondered if I am supposed to use any particular kind of spinach, i.e. salad or baby spinach? Q3: I'd love to try all your recipes, but sun-dried tomatoes are very dear here in Japan, so I'm kind of stingy with them. Can you please let me know in general when they are vital to a dish vs. nice-to-have, i.e. in sauce vs nut cheese? Last question: I hope this isn't a stupid question, because I'm new to Raw cuisine, would it be OK to freeze the leftovers?
    Gratefully yours,
    William

  • kyred

    This looks fabulous and I'll be making it for friends on Saturday! In the cheese you list 2 yellow peppers – are those yellow bell peppers?

  • http://www.therawchef.com Russell James Raw Food

    That's correct, yes – yellow bell peppers.

  • http://www.therawchef.com Russell James Raw Food

    You can certainly adjust the amount of salt. If you have baby spinach the stems can be used but if they're big thick spinach stems then removing them is best.

    Sun-dried tomatoes are necessary to provide thickness to the sauce.

    Leftovers can be frozen.