A winter warmer like no other, our recipe for vegan lasagne with vegan white sauce (Bechamel) will serve you up a plate of cosiness and comfort for the cold winter nights ahead.
This recipe is guaranteed to impress even the most avid meat-eaters in your life. It’s comforting, filling, satisfying and full of flavour!
Usually, Bechamel consists of butter, flour and dairy milk, but our vegan bechamel sauce recipe contains no dairy products. Instead, we’re going to replace the butter with olive oil and the dairy milk with vegan milk. Any unflavoured vegan milk will work, but we find unflavoured oat milk and unflavoured soya milk works the best and make this sauce just as rich and creamy as dairy milk – perfect for lasagne!
Make this easy vegan recipe and let us know what you think! Make sure to tag @mcqueensdairies in your photo and add the hashtag #McqueensMakes in your caption!
Vegan Lasagne with Vegan White Sauce (Bechamel)
Ingredients
For the filling
- 4 tsp olive oil
- 1 white onion finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- 500 grams meat-free vegan mince
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 800 grams chopped tomatoes 2x 400g tins
- 1 tbsp dried mixed herbs
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 8-10 sheets no pre-cooking required lasagne sheets
For the white sauce (Bechamel)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 25 grams plain flour
- 600 ml oat milk (oat milk or soy milk works best for this recipe)
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 100 grams dairy-free cheese alternative grated
Instructions
Make the filling
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan oven) mark 6.
- Heat 2tsp oil in a large pan over medium and fry the onion, with a pinch of salt, for 10min, until beginning to soften.
- Add remaining 2tsp oil, the garlic and mince and fry for 10min.
- Stir in the tomato purée; cook for 1min
- Add the tomatoes, mixed herbs, sugar, 200ml water and seasoning.
- Simmer for 10min to reduce.
- Remove from heat and set aside.
Making the white sauce (Bechamel)
- Heat your frying pan on medium heat and melt the olive oil.
- Turn down the heat to low, whisk in the flour and cook for 1min.
- Remove the pan from the heat and gradually whisk in the oat milk and stir constantly until combined. This will help make it super smooth and creamy.
- Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened (it will need to simmer).
- Remove from heat and stir in the nutritional yeast, nutmeg the cheese alternative.
- Taste & season with salt and pepper.
Tips
- Use hot milk. This helps the roux dissolve into the milk better
- Add the milk slowly and stir constantly. This will help make it super smooth and creamy.
- Add a little more oat milk for a thinner sauce or add a little less oat milk for a thicker sauce.
- Cook it on low heat (never high!)
Assemble your vegan lasagne
- Spread half the tomato filling in the base of a deep 2-litre ovenproof serving dish.
- Lay over half of the pasta sheets in a single layer to cover.
- Top with half the white sauce. Repeat layering once more, ending with white sauce.
- Sprinkle over the remaining cheese alternative.
- Cook in the oven for 50min, until bubbling at the edges and golden on top.
- Voila! A creamy vegan lasagne with vegan white sauce!
