Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

I found myself craving some comfort fall food today...but it was hard to think in those terms when it was so sunny and warm! So...I took inventory of our garden, and the stock in our fridge from Saturday's market...and thought up this lovely dish! The term 'roasted' often scares me away from recipes, because I know it involves an extra step, and I often think that I just don't have time for that. Today however, I proved myself wrong. I learned that 'roasting' does involve an extra step, but it's really not all that much extra work! The flavour is the reward...and flavour is always worth the time!

Now, although this is a vegetarian dish, you could certainly add ground beef or turkey to the sauce. You could also easily make this a vegan dish...I just love my cheese though:) This is however a 'light on cheese' recipe compared to some. We find that a bit of ricotta in the layers...and then some fresh parmesan on top does the trick for us! LOTS of flavour....you won't even miss all the melted goop that you usually find inbetween!

So while our boys were napping, I gathered all the vegetables, washed them up, and sliced them so they were ready to go. I used carrots, beets, zucchini, vidalia onion, red pepper and garlic. This was just what we had on hand...I can definitely think of some others that would make a wonderful addition!




Then I realized that I might as well roast them already too, and get that step out of the way! I simply tossed them lightly in olive oil, sprinkled pepper on top...and roasted them at 425 for about 30 minutes. It was actually kind of nice to have them done and cooled ahead of time...made them easier to work with.



Don't they look amazing? Look at all that yummy goodness! I was so tempted to just grab a fork and dig in! See those fingers in the top corner? That's Noah..gotta love that a 2 1/2 year old finds sneaking roasted beets to be a real treat!

While they were roasting, I remembered that I had frozen some homemade pasta sauce (tomatoes from the garden, chopped and simmered with basil and garlic..simple enough!) last week...so I pulled out a bag to use for the lasagna.



Then it was time to assemble. I always use brown rice lasagna noodles....they can be tricky to find, but they taste awesome and they cook up so well...you'd never notice the difference!



Started layering...sauce, noodles, ricotta, roasted veggies,



fresh spinach,



sauce, noodles,



etc until the pan was filled to the top.



Now bake in the oven at 425 for about an hour...keep checking the noodles for 'doneness'...rice noodles aren't so yummy if they are over-cooked:)



Need this meal in a hurry? Use good quality jarred tomato sauce, and jarred roasted peppers.

ENJOY...we sure did! Pair this with a nice Okanagan red wine...and you've got a gourmet dinner on your hands!

I got "two thumbs up" tonight over this dinner...now I think I'll go pull a couple of those Chocolate Zucchini Muffins out of the freezer for dessert!