Beyond Meat Spinach Lasagna

I know I’ve got another lasagna recipe floating somewhere around on the blog, but this one. This one was a HUGE hit at a recent dinner party I threw, so you’ll forgive me if it’s somewhat of a repeat post.

I have been hoarding packages of Beyond Meat burgers ever since I discovered how cheap they were at Coscto. Because really is there anything more exciting than Coscto once you hit your mid-thirties?

Though I default to my stuffed meatballs 99% of the time (I just realized I don’t have that recipe posted, so that is totally coming soon, because they’re insane), the portions are super small and I needed bigger rations to feed all my friends. So I went ahead and threw together a few ingredients I had sitting in the fridge and pantry and sauteed up some burgers into ground beef.

I was actually kind of shocked at how well received this was by my very non-vegan friends. I thought it was good, but not as praise-worthy as it ended up being. The mixture of homemade cashew ricotta, Violife mozzarella and, of course, Miyoko’s mozzarella, was definitely a winning combination though. Other than that, it’s pretty simple! Feel free to use whatever cheeses float your boat, though I ALWAYS recommend Miyoko’s and Violife over all others.

BEYOND MEAT SPINACH LASAGNA WITH CASHEW RICOTTA

No boil lasagna noodles (I used 12, but use as many as it takes to cover three layers of a 9X13 casserole dish)

2 Beyond Meat burgers, crumbled

4-5 cups tomato basil sauce

6 cups baby spinach

2 cups Violife mozzarella

1/2 package Miyoko’s cashew mozzarella, shredded

CASHEW RICOTTA

1 1/2 cups raw cashews, soaked

1/2 cup water

Juice of one lemon

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp granulated onion

Sea salt and black pepper

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• For the Beyond Meat, crumble the burgers into a medium saucepan with avocado oil over medium heat and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring continuously until meat is browned
• Remove meat from pan and set aside
• In the same pan, add spinach, salt and pepper and cook over medium heat until spinach is wilted, then set aside
• For the cashew ricotta, blend all ingredients together in a food processor until smooth
• In a 9×13 casserole dish, pour 1/3 of the tomato sauce on the bottom
• Cover that with 1/3 of the lasagna noodles
• Spread the cashew ricotta over the noodles and then top with half the spinach mix and half the Beyond Meat mix
• Top with half of the Violife cheese
• Top with 1/3 of the sauce, then 1/3 of the noodles, then the remaining Violife
• Add final layer of noodles, the rest of the sauce and top with Miyoko’s cheese
• Cover and cook at 375 degrees for 45 minutes
• Remove foil cover and cook for an additional 10 minutes (can additionally place under broil for a minute to get optimal Miyoko’s melt!)