There is nothing quite like Italian cuisine. This food is richly tomatoey, covered in cheese, and full of protein. Italian is one of the most popular cuisines around the world in fact, with Italian restaurants found almost everywhere you go.
How often do you come home from a hard day’s work and make a bigos? Not often right! But Italian dishes include bolognaise, carbonara, and lasagne – all things that most of us make regularly and eat out at restaurants!
Then there’s the whole atmosphere. When you think of a romantic restaurant, you likely think of an Italian. Or how about a romantic meal out somewhere hot during the evening? Italy of course. With a nice glass of wine, and some Italian opera in the background. Maybe a view of the colosseum.
Despite this though, it’s actually also been shown that Italian food is extremely good for us. This is part of the Mediterranean diet after all, a diet known for taking time to enjoy and savor food – and for using delicious wholesome ingredients that are packed with antioxidants and healthy fats.
The only problem? Vegetarians will largely miss out due to the abundance of mince that gets used (and not to mentioned the number of steaks!). Thankfully, you can very often make vegetarian versions of your favorite dishes, and here we’re going to look at a few ways to do that. The good news? By swapping out the meat, you actually just make this even healthier and also add in a whole host of different and more interesting flavors and textures!
1. Quorn Lasagne
Perhaps the easiest and simplest way to make lasagne into vegetarian lasagne, is to just swap out the meat for Quorn!
This is of course a ground beef substitute that tastes very similar, has similar properties when it comes to cooking, and is of course vegetarian/vegan.
To make this basic lasagne, you are going to fry your Quorn along with some onion on a relatively high heat. Add in some chopped tomatoes, some tomato puree, some chopped garlic, vegetable stock, and seasoning (salt and pepper).
Keep this cooking until it is good and brown, and then ladle one thin layer into the bottom of a shallow oven-safe dish. Now you’re going to add some pieces of flat lasagne pasta. Next, spread some white sauce over the top, and then finally some parmesan. Repeat the process with an extra layer of the mince mix. Keep this going until you have reached the top, where you will sprinkle some more parmesan on top and a good amount of cheddar cheese sot that it can go nice and crispy.
Now bake in the oven uncovered and you’ll be good to go!