Charles Clayton

Hello,

Congrats Charles for the lovely blog!

I'm Italian and a vegetarian cook and I'd like to share some input with you all here - feel free to question it or ignore it but I can't resist sharing!

For vegetarian lasagna (more commonly lasagne, plural, in Italy), I personally prefer the white sauce version - or at least a half red / half white sauce version. I find red-sauce-only lasagne to be somewhat harsh on the stomach - moreover it doesn't really taste too italian to me.
I definitely have nothing against no-white-sauce lasagne, it's just a matter of personal taste and my lifetime in Italy...

I've made quite a few sucessful holiday-version veg lasagne with the following directions. It's easier and faster than it looks.
Vegan: make your white sauce with flour, oil and veg broth (you can use yeast extract, some soy sauce, anything you want to make your broth taste more proteiny). You'll find hundreds of recipes online for white sauce - I can tell you I use 30 grams of flour and 30 grams of oil for each half liter of broth, if you're good with metric conversions... Lacto-ovo-vegetarians can use the traditional recipe with flour, milk and butter (obviously organic and ethically produced). Make a pint of it for 4-6 servings, you can always use any leftovers for something else.
Chop up and stir-fry your veggies (see options below) on the side. Don't cook them all the way. Your cooked veggies should be about the same in volume as the white sauce. Don't try to cook your white sauce and veggies at the same time, the sauce will demand all of your attention for a few minutes.
Layer pre-boiled lasagne noodles (as Charles said), white sauce (try going 3 mm or 1/8 inch thick with it) and veggies. You can add tofu if you wish.
Stack up 4-5 layers and bake for 20-30 minutes.

Here are some tested choices of veggies&herbs (I kept very basic and safe with herbs and spices here, feel free to get creative, but be careful unless you have experience): endive, onion & walnuts / red radicchio, onion & walnuts / artichoke hearts, peppermint, parsley & garlic / asparagus & green onion / mixed veggies (like in Charles' version above) / porcini mushrooms and garlic, optional walnuts / grilled eggplant, garlic, tomato and basil / grilled zucchini, garlic, parsley and mushrooms / spinach, garlic & marjoram /baked pumpkin and onion / leek (alone or in substitution of onion)
In my opinion, only the eggplant and the mixed veggies options could benefit from the addition of tomato sauce- stick to white for the rest.
Vegans who eat vegan cheese: I'm not too familiar with vegan cheese, but you can experiment adding some.
Lacto-ovo-vegetarians: go ahead and add some cream cheese or blue cheese or some reasonable cheese of your choice (Italians would be very strict about this, but I've travelled a lot and broadened my views...), and/or some grated parmesan in each layer, if you wish. cheese should not substitute white sauce though.

If you do eat seitan (wheat meat) or that very processed stuff called soy/veggie meat, you can easily make a vegan or vegetarian dish that is remarkably similar to the most traditional "lasagne alla bolognese". Seitan will make this healthier but less tasty and further away from the "bolognese".
Layer pre-boiled "lasagne noodles", then white sauce, then veg ragù sauce (veg ragù: crumble some soy meat such as veggie burgers or veggie meatballs, or chop some seitan finely, and quickly boil this veggie meat/seitan with some marinara sauce - about 2/3 "meat", 1/3 tomato sauce). You'll need about 1 pint of each sauce for 4-6 servings.
Make 4-5 layers and bake.
My vegan friends, just skip that sprinkle of parmesan that should go on top of each layer.
Anyone googling "seitan" and wanting to try it out? (I heard it's not popular in the US). Please be aware that it's almost pure gluten, in case you or some of your guests are celiac.

Enjoy!

By the way, If you want to make a difference with this dish, and if you have time - it's always been a Sunday dish after all - make your own noodles from scratch: 400 g of flour, 4 eggs, a rolling pin or pasta machine, a pinch of salt, strength and patience. You'll get flat noodles, but I've only seen the wavy ones in the US! Try to get your noodles about 1 millimeter thin.
Vegan lasagna noodles? Buy them ready made! Such a hassle to make them eggless!
For egg-users, go wild and try using whole wheat flour, spelt flour, buckwheat flour etc, next time you make your pasta from scratch!