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Book, Dairy Free, Dinners, Favourites, Gluten Free, Grain Free, Health, Nut Free, Paleo, Sauces, Thermomix, Wholefood
Grain-Free Lasagne
Lasagne is a comfort food that pretty much everyone adores. You’ll notice that when someone changes their diet to eat gluten free, grain free, dairy free, vegetarian, vegan, paleo, GAPS, keto… whatever it is… they madly search for a substitute for their beloved lasagne!! Right?
I have to laugh when I think about how my lasagne has changed over the years to mirror my health journey… It went something like this:
– 1994: Regular homemade lasagne, sauce made with milk and white flour, lots of cheese, a packet of dried tomato soup added to the bolognese sauce for flavour, and wheat-based lasagne sheets.
– 1996: A spinach layer is added to my lasagne to make it ‘healthy’. And the white sauce is made with soy milk. (I was so proud of that spinach-soy lasagne!😝)
– 2000: No more wheat pasta – lasagne now made with homemade organic spelt lasagne sheets. (I milled my own flour with an ancient stone-grinder, mixed the dough by hand, and the kids helped roll the pasta through the pasta maker). Sauce flavoured with fresh herbs, tomato paste, a little honey and vinegar… no more packet mixes! And sometimes it’s a meat-free lasagne with lentils instead of mince.
– 2004: Thermomix arrives in our home – pasta dough is made from either spelt or buckwheat (milled and made into a dough in thermie), with lots more veggies in the bolognese sauce (finely chopped and cooked in thermie).
– 2005: No more soy milk (phew!), now the white sauce is made with homemade rice or almond milk in thermie, and thickened with cornflour or arrowroot. Cheese on top.
– 2006: Lasagne becomes completely gluten free and dairy free. Either homemade buckwheat pasta, or store-bought gluten-free pasta (because… four small children!!). No cheese on top but some savoury yeast flakes added to the white sauce to make it ‘cheesey’.
[Time passes…]
– 2014: We begin GAPS to heal our gut issues, so no starchy foods for three years… I swap pasta for thin slices of steamed pumpkin, and the white sauce is made from activated almond milk, and thickened with gelatine instead of starch.
– 2017: We can now handle some dairy (yay for GAPS!!), so the cheese is back on top (wooooo, it’s been years!!)
– 2018: We have reached the epitome of our lasagne journey!!! (Ha ha!) Whole food starches are back in moderation as part of the diet, and we have discovered the most delicious grain-free pasta EVER, made from the Grain-Free Dough from our Life-Changing Food cookbook!
*** Happy dance, happy dance!!! ***
Ha ha, can you relate to our lasagne journey?😁
All about our Grain-Free Dough/Pastry…
As you may have noticed on social media during the last year, thousands of people are absolutely loving our grain-free dough recipe. This recipe is one that Fouad developed for his Sydney restaurant, Chic Pea – and he kindly shared it with us all in Life-Changing Food. It has been a hit from day one of our cookbook release – the first recipe from the book to go crazy on Facebook was the sausage roll recipe made with this dough!
Recently a friend of ours made the Paleo/sweet potato version of the dough, rolled it really thin, and used it instead of pasta in her lasagne – and raved about the results. We tried it, tested it on some friends, and they all raved too! So we’ve decided to share our lasagne recipe with you all. We hope you enjoy it. And please share with us your own variations to make it keto, vegetarian, egg-free, or whatever you come up with!
Jo xx
Note: You’ll need the recipe for the dough from our Life-Changing Food cookbook for this lasagne recipe, OR you can buy it pre-made (see below), or use your preferred lasagne sheets.
Buy our Grain-Free Dough/Pastry Pre-Made!
This dough is our go-to when we want buns, flat bread, pies, sausage rolls, pizza bases, pastry… and lasagne noodles! And the exciting news is, you can now buy it as a pre-made, grain-free pastry – rolled out and frozen – from Primal Alternative! Woooooooooo!!!! So on those days where you just don’t have time to make dough/pastry, you may be able to buy it locally instead. (Check out the stockists here on the Primal Alternative website.)
Free eBook: You can find more recipes using this dough/pastry in our downloadable Grain-Free Pastry ebook!
Print
Bolognese Sauce
Grain-Free Lasagna
Ingredients
Units
Bolognese Sauce
1 small brown onion
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 handful of fresh basil leaves
2 sprigs of fresh oregano, leaves only (or 1tsp of dried oregano)
1/2 tsp fresh rosemary leaves (or 1/2 tsp dried rosemary)
50g ghee or olive oil, plus extra to grease the dish
400g vine-ripened tomatoes, halved
100g carrots, quartered
100g celery stalk, quartered
80g zucchini, quartered
80g red capsicum
350g minced beef (or lamb, turkey or chicken)
80g sliced mushrooms
100g tomato paste
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp honey
1 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
pepper to taste
White Sauce
500g almond milk (or milk of choice)
2 eggs
30g ghee or coconut oil
1 tsp dried onion flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp honey
1 tsp herb salt or fine sea salt
40g tapioca starch
Pasta
500g pre-made Grain-Free Pastry from Primal Alternative (1 batch); or 500g Grain-Free Dough from Life-Changing Food cookbook (plain or paleo version)
Optional
100g cheddar cheese, grated
50g parmesan cheese, grated
Also Needed
Approx. 30 x 18cm baking dish (2L capacity)
Baking paper
Tapioca starch for dusting dough
Rolling pin
Instructions
1. Place onion, garlic and herbs into Thermomix bowl and chop 3 sec/speed 5.
2. Add tomatoes, carrots, celery, zucchini and capsicum and chop 8 sec/ speed 5.
3. Add ghee or olive oil, mince, mushrooms, tomato paste, vinegar, honey, salt and pepper to the TM bowl. Use a spatula to stir the ingredients and break up the mince. Cook 25 mins/Varoma/rev/speed soft.
White Sauce
1. Place all the white sauce ingredients into TM bowl and cook 7 min/90C/speed 4.
Assembling and Baking
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease the baking dish with ghee or olive oil. Set the dish aside.
2. Divide the pastry into 3 equal portions (approx 160g each) and roll into balls. Place one portion onto a large piece of baking paper, and dust generously with tapioca, turning it over to dust both sides. Flatten with hands to form a rectangle, then place another large piece of baking paper over the top of the dough and roll out to a rectangle approx. 30 x 18cm. Remove the top piece of baking paper. Trim the edges of the pastry to make it the same size as the dish.
3. Spread a small amount of bolognese sauce into the bottom of the baking dish, to barely cover the base of the dish.
4. Turn the pastry on the paper over to cover the base of the dish, then remove the remaining piece of baking paper.
5. Spread half of the bolognese sauce over the pastry. Drizzle with 1/3 of the white sauce.
6. Repeat with a second layer of pastry following the instructions above for rolling out, and remove the paper. Spread over the remaining half of the bolognese sauce and drizzle with 1/3 of the white sauce.
7. Place the third layer of the pastry into the dish, remove the paper, then top with the remaining white sauce. Sprinkle over the grated cheese, if using.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 180C, until bubbling and golden brown. Rest for 10 minutes before cutting into pieces and serving.
Tips for Conventional Method
Bolognese sauce: Chop or grate vegetables, place all ingredients into a large saucepan, and cook on stove top over medium heat for about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally to keep it from sticking, and add a little water if needed.
White sauce: Place all the ingredients into a saucepan and cook over medium-high heat. When the sauce begins to simmer, reduce to medium-low, and whisk while cooking until thickened and smooth.
Storage: Store in the fridge for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
This recipe is so delicious. I had some leftover sauce which we had with pasta and zoodles!
Yay Melissa!! Thanks for your feedback! 🙂 xx
I’m back in 2014….how to you make white sauce out of almond milk and gelatin? 3 year old on GAPS type diet with food allergies but he can handle gelatin and almonds.
Hi Teresa! 🙂 Just follow the white sauce recipe as part of this recipe and replace the tapioca starch with 2 Tbsp gelatine powder. xx
Hi,
Could you make this lasagne using cooked slices of sweet potato in place of the pasta?
Yes, for sure! It would be delicious! 🙂
I think I am the last person on the planet to try your amazing Lasagne Jojo!!! I haven’t had Lasagne for years due to pasta dodging! I am so excited to make this a very special family dinner tonight for my parents who are flying in from the UK. I absolutely love your Lasagne Chronology!! I can sooooo relate! What a great recipe and how versatile is the Grain-Free Pastry – so cool to be able to get it pre made by Primal Alternative! Wahooo!! Love, H xx (Founder of Primal Alternative hehe!! 🙂 )
Hi Jo… do you have a vego suggestion?
Regards
Linda
I suggest using this lentil bolognese sauce instead of the mince. You could add some of the extra things like veggies and sundried tomato and olives. https://quirkycooking.com.au/2009/01/lentil-bolognese/
Enjoy!
One word – YUM!
I thought tapioca was taboo for gaps people!! If so what’s the alternative please???
Thankyou
Yes it is, but not all the recipes on my blog are GAPS recipes – we did GAPS 5 years ago and now are on whole foods with some starches. If you are in my GAPS program there is a GAPS lasagne in there where I use thin slices of pumpkin for the ‘pasta’ 🙂
Absolutely loved this recipe. Can’t wait to make it again & we definitely highly recommend it!! Just wondering if anyone has tried making it without eggs & if you have what did you use instead?
Thanks so much Jo for a delicious & healthy alternative.
Looks yum! I’ve been doing lots of gut healing the last few years, but not full-on GAPS. Have you heard of adults healing from peanut allergies?
I haven’t heard of adults healing from peanut allergies, but I think it could happen! If kids can heal from not allergies I don’t see why adults can’t. Worth a try anyway.