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Here is a “Meat Free Monday” kind of meal. Certainly not the lowest in calories – but truly delicious and full of goodness! Just a word of warning – it does take quite a lot of effort but it is worth it in the end. In other words its not a quick and easy dinner – so save it for a special occasion!

Ingredients:

• 2 tins lentils
• 2 tins chopped tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 1 large punnet brown mushrooms chopped
• 1 cup frozen peas
• Basil leaves
• 2 large aubergines – sliced into thick-ish slices
• Lasagne sheets
• Mrs. Balls’ chutney
• Grated cheese (I use mature cheddar)
• White sauce: 2 tbsp butter 2-3tbsp
• Cake flour
• 500ml Milk

Method:

1. Roast the aubergines in the oven. Add a dash of olive oil and salt to them and roast them until soft and cooked (then remove from the oven)
2. Chop the mushrooms and fry them in a dash of olive oil (and a dash of white wine)- if you are feeling rebellious
3. Put the frozen peas in a bowl and pour boiling water over them to defrost
4. Pick the basil leaves off the stalks – you don’t want to add stalks to the lasagne
5. In the same pan that you did the mushrooms – take the mushrooms out of the pan though. Fry the onion until soft then add the lentils and the chopped tomatoes. Cook this up adding a dash of Mrs. Balls’ chutney, salt and pepper. I also sometimes add a dash of soya sauce to make it more flavoursome!
6. Make the white sauce:

• Heat the butter until runny
• Add the flour (about 2-3 tbsp) and with a whisk, mix the 2 together – it will look crumbly
• Then add about 500ml milk and continue to stir until the sauce gets thick. Add some black pepper and salt.

Now to put it all together:

1. In a big lasagne dish – add the first layer of the lentil mix
2. On top of that add a layer of mushrooms (you are going to do 2 layers of mushrooms so only use half of them for this layer)
3. Then add a layer of lasagne
4. Then add another later of lentils with a layer of peas on top of the lentils and then a ‘layer’ of basil leaves – spread them out but keep them quite close together
5. Then add a layer of lasagne
6. Then another layer of lentils, a layer of mushrooms and peas (you can add a few more basil leaves as well – but not too many, basil can be a strong flavour)
7. Then add the last layer of lasagne – if you have any lentil mix left over, please add that now or just add the aubergine layer on top of the lasagna sheets.
8. Pour your white sauce over the aubergines
9. Sprinkle some grated cheese over the top

Bake the lasagna at 180° for about 1 hour. The top should look golden brown. Check with a folk that it is cooked all the way through. Serve with a big green leafy salad and ENJOY! Serves 8