Ying & Yang Living Food: Tofu Lasagna with Spinach and Mushroom

By Sun Cho

Ingredients:

* Oven ready lasagna pasta, which you do not have to boil, can go straight into oven * Tofu (2 cubes) * Button mushrooms (10 ounces, sliced thinly) * Spinach (1 large bundle, can also use frozen spinach) * Onion (1/2 of a large one or 1 full small one, diced) * Parsley (1/4 cup) * Cilantro (1/4 cup) * Marinara sauce (1-2 jars depending on how much sauce you like) * Grapeseed or canola oil or any light oil (6 tablespoons) * Olive oil (4 tablespoons) * Salt * Pepper

Directions:

Prepare Filling for Lasagna:

1) In a hot pan with 3 tablespoons of grapeseed or canola oil, sautee the onion until it gets soft. Set aside. Add 3 tablespoons of oil again into hot pan, and sautee mushroom until it gets soft. Set aside. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to each vegetable while sauteeing.

2) In boiling water, cook spinach until wilted (like 30 seconds). Drain and squeeze all the excess water with hands. Cut spinach into smaller pieces, and set aside. (If using frozen spinach, then thaw out spinach and then squeeze excess water out, again cut into small pieces).

3) Cube tofu into small pieces to create more surface area on the tofu. Put tofu into a linen kitchen cloth, and squeeze all the excess water out. Put small amounts of tofu into the linen cloth so it will be easier to squeeze water out.

4) Chop up fresh cilantro and parsley. Set aside.

5) In a large bowl, combine onion, mushroom, spinach, parsley, cilantro, and olive oil into the tofu. Olive oil should prevent the tofu from becoming dry when it cooks in the oven. Add 1 tablespoon of salt and 1/2 tablespoon of pepper. Combine all the ingredients well.

Assembling Lasagna:

1) In a 13 X 9 baking pan, cover bottom of pan with vegetable oil, so pasta does not stick to pan.

2) Lay the first sheet of oven ready pasta flat down and pour marinara sauce, spreading it thin over the pasta. Scoop the tofu and vegetable filling and lay over the marinara sauce, spreading it thin. Drizzle olive oil, so tofu filling can stay moist when it cooks in oven. Repeat this process until you have 3 layers of filling and the top has a layer of pasta. Pour more marinara sauce over pasta and drizzle of olive oil to finish. Cover pan with cooking foil.

3) Bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes.

4) Just before serving, sprinkle a little more olive oil and drizzle more marinara sauce over the lasagna.

Serves 8-10

About the Author:

Sun Cho is the Founder of Ying & Yang Living, a healthy lifestyle resource that provides Asian living tips in food, home, garden, health, fitness, fashion, beauty, and Asian wisdoms for your mind and soul. For all our free Asian living tips, visit Ying & Yang Living website.