Dairy Free Lasagna

Yup, you heard that right.  Dairy free lasagna.  No, this is not an April Fool's Day joke, I'm being serious.

Quarantine cooking has really challenged me to think about food differently.  My husband and I used to grocery shop/cook separately most days, but in quarantine, we're eating all our meals together.  Since he's lactose intolerant, I've had to adjust to a (mostly) cheeseless life.  This recipe stemmed from the fact that we made lasagna a few weeks ago with almond cheese and then had almost none left for this week's.  What to do without the faux cheese?  Honestly, it came to me in a dream.  Buttery, herby bread crumb topping.  People put it on top of mac and cheese, so why not on top of lasagna?  Honestly, it tasted better than the almond cheese in the end.  So here's the recipe:

Servings: 6
Cook time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients:
2, 28 oz cans of San Marzano tomatoes (or any canned tomato)
1 pound ground beef - I use 85% lean because I like some fat for flavor
1 pound sweet Italian pork sausage, de-cased
6 oz baby spinach, fresh (or 1 bag frozen spinach)
9-12 Lasagna noodles - I prefer the no boil kind from Trader Joe's
2 tbs oil of your choosing - olive or avocado work best
4 cloves garlic
4 tbs dried basil
1 tbs dried oregano
1 tbs dried thyme
1 tsp cumin
Salt & Pepper to taste


For the Bread Crumb Topping
4 slices of bread or 1.5 cups breadcrumbs
1 tbs garlic herb butter

Optional:
1 bag frozen peas or 2 cups fresh peas
Shredded faux or real mozzarella cheese
Ricotta (if you're into that dairy stuff)
Cayenne Pepper and Paprika - if you're going for a spicy sauce

Now let's get started! First things first, put on some music and pour yourself a drink (I opted for a White Claw).

1. Heat a dutch oven on medium-high heat with your choice of oil.
2. Add your meats and crush them with your wooden spoon until the pieces are small.  You don't want big chunks in your lasagna!  Add salt & pepper and cook meats until browned on the outside, but still pink on the inside.
3. Add 2 cloves of minced garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes.
4. Add canned tomatoes, remaining garlic, cumin, dried herbs, and a generous amount of salt and pepper.  I seriously mean be generous with the salt and pepper.  Yes, I know you already added salt & pepper to the meats, but this is a big pot of sauce and needs to be seasoned generously.
5. Turn heat down to medium low and simmer for 30-45 minutes, tasting and seasoning as necessary.
6. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
7. While the sauce simmers, you can get started making everything else.  If you have breadcrumbs, you can skip steps 7, 10 and 11!  If you're making your own breadcrumbs, place 4 pieces of your choice of bread in the oven while it preheats and set a timer for 10 minutes.
8. Roughly chop your spinach (or defrost if frozen) and toss into a saute pan with a little oil.
9. Saute the spinach until wilted and set aside.
10. When your 10 minute timer goes off for your bread, take it out of the oven and coat one side generously with your garlic, herb butter.  Place back in the oven for 10 more minutes or until golden brown and dry. Dry is the key here, especially since you've added butter.  If your bread isn't dry, it won't crumble properly in the food processor.
11. Take your dried bread from the oven and pulse in the food processor until it reaches the desired consistency.
12. By this time your sauce should be ready.  Taste one more time and then assemble.  I always coat the bottom of my 9x13" Pyrex baking dish with a little bit of the juice from the sauce to keep the noodles in place.  Then layer with noodles, sauce, more noodles, spinach (and any cheese if you choose), more noodles, sauce, noodles, sauce, top with bread crumbs.
13. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown on top and noodles are cooked through.  Helpful tip: I placed the lasagna on the bottom rack of the oven for the last 10 minutes with a rack directly above the top, which helped the breadcrumbs crisp up nicely.  
14. Sit back, relax, and enjoy!

Main Ingredients:

I love to use a mix of Italian sausage and ground beef because it adds a complexity of flavor to the dish.

 I know, it's not exactly pretty, but the meat is browning and I've mashed it up into small(ish) pieces.

Now it's time to get saucey!  See the amount of dried herbs I've added?  I can't stress enough how important it is to season generously.  I've included general measurements in the recipe above and honestly, that was super hard for me.  I always use recipes as guidelines, but I almost never measure things out.  I always go by look and taste, which I think is the most important.  Also, don't be afraid to get a little crazy with it!  Add in a little something extra if you feel like it.  I add cumin to just about everything because it adds a nice earthy flavor, but it's not in any lasagna recipe I've ever seen.  Don't be afraid to think outside the box a little bit.

This time around I decided to add peas to my sauce, so I microwaved some frozen peas and added them to the sauce just before building.  I try to get mostly liquid on the bottom of my lasgana, but don't kill yourself over this.  If you get some chunks, you get some chunks.  It's all going the same place in the end.

Keep building!

Once you've added a layer of meat over your first round of noodles, add a 2nd layer of noodles.  This is where you can add your spinach, ricotta, almond mozzarella, etc.

Once you've finished building the meat and noodle layers, sprinkle the top generously with your bread crumbs and then top with a couple last cracks of salt and pepper.

Into the oven she goes for 30-45 minutes.  Don't be afraid to check on her while she bakes to make sure the bread crumbs get golden brow, but not burnt.

The end result:

An unconventional, yet tasty lasagna full of flavor, veggies, and meats.  Time to dig in and enjoy!