Vegan oil-free zucchini lasagna with lentils

The vegan oil-free zucchini lasagna with lentils does not require any pasta sheets and can be prepared without much prior knowledge.

Nutrient profile: With just under 280 kcal per portion, the recipe is a low-calorie alternative to traditional lasagne. According to GDA guidelines, one portion of this dish covers over 100% of the daily requirement of folic acid and about ¾ of that of vitamin C. The daily requirement of manganese is covered by ¾. The proportion of essential omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in this dish is negligible, even if the ratio of 4:1 is below the maximum recommended ratio of 5:1. More on this under: Vegans often eat unhealthily. Avoidable nutritional errors. The salt content is in a good range for a main course. If you prefer a particularly low-salt diet, you can also reduce the amount of salt.

Zucchini: Zucchini is versatile in terms of its use (can also be eaten raw). In addition to the classic green zucchini, yellow zucchini is also increasingly available. However, they taste almost identical, which is why you can use both forms for this dish. Zucchini is easy to digest, low in calories and rich in vitamins. Be careful with bitter-tasting zucchini. The bitter taste is caused by the poisonous bitter substances cucurbitacins. These cannot be destroyed by cooking and attack the stomach and intestinal mucosa. An increased content of bitter substances can arise, especially when grown at home (by backcrossing home-grown seeds or crossing with other pumpkin plants).

Lentils: Because of their high-quality proteins, lentils are a very good source of plant-based protein for vegans. You should be aware, however, that they only contain a relatively small amount of the essential amino acid methionine, for example, which is why combining them with rice or beans can compensate for this in some dishes. The different types of lentils, which are all round and flat, differ in size and color. The Pardina lentil, which we use in this dish, has a gray-brown shell and a yellow interior. It has been cultivated in northern Spain for more than 800 years. Here, this type of lentil is also known as brown lentil. It is often confused with plate lentils, which look similar but are larger. Pardina lentils do not need to be soaked beforehand. The cooking time is 20-30 minutes. This can be reduced to 10-15 minutes by using a pressure cooker.

This dish is perfect if you have your own zucchini in the garden and need new recipe ideas

Reduce salt and oil: We have deliberately left out oil for health reasons. You can also reduce the amount of salt as needed. You can find more information on this topic in the book we describe in detail: "Salt Sugar Fat" by Michael Moss.

Light sauce: You can use wheat flour type 550 or rice flour instead of wholemeal flour for the light sauce. If you use the latter, you will need to simmer the sauce for about 5 minutes until it thickens. You can also season the sauce with yeast flakes, 1 teaspoon of mustard and a dash of lemon juice. Alternatively, you can leave out the light sauce altogether. In that case, however, you will need a little more of the red sauce. To do this, either add additional tomato paste and water, or add tomatoes and season to taste.

Shorten the preparation time: You can also use chopped tomatoes from a can or jar instead of fresh tomatoes.

Seasoning: If you like it a little spicy, you can season the red sauce with some chili powder.

Make your own oat milk: You can find a recipe for making your own oat milk at the following link.