Roasted Asparagus Lasagna
Servings: 1 9x13 pan
Ingredients
- 1 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces – Kent thinks the skinny ones are the best & I agree!
- 1-2 cups more “primavara”-type vegetables if you'd like: carrots, broccoli, peppers, cherry tomatoes-halved, chopped spinach or kale, etc.
- 1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms, if you like them
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 4 Tablespoons butter, pastured butter is best
- 6 Tablespoons all-purpose flour, I use organic
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, add more to your taste preference
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper, again, add more to your taste preference
- 3 cups milk – and if it's not Lent, for even better nutrition and more flavor, you can substitute some homemade chicken stock from the freezer for part of the milk
- 1 cup thinly sliced red onion
- 4-6 + garlic cloves, I like a lot – more gives it better flavor or dried garlic
- 12 ounces Lasagna noodles, cooked and drained--or use the no-boil kind
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella
- 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 cups optional: cooked, chopped chicken-- you could use leftover chicken from a previous meal, so easy!
Instructions
- Note that this makes 1-9×13, but I always make extra for the freezer or for a friend.
- Place asparagus and mushrooms (also chicken if you're using it, and/or the primavara veggies, but not tomatoes--add those later) in a shallow baking dish or roasting pan. Drizzle with 1 Tablespoon oil, toss to coat. Bake at 450* for 8-10 minutes or until vegetables are browned a little and a little tender; set aside. Reduce heat to 350*. (I also sometimes just lightly steam asparagus & broccoli and skip the roasting step.)
- In large saucepan melt butter, saute onion and garlic until soft. Stir in flour, salt & pepper until smooth. Cook for 2 minutes. Very gradually stir in milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Taste test to make sure it tastes really good--you'll probably need more salt and pepper. (You could also add some garlic powder for more flavor too.) Remove from heat; stir in roasted asparagus, mushrooms (and chicken), and other veggies.
- Grease a 9×13 baking dish with a stick of cold butter. Start layering: noodles, a third of asparagus mixture, a third of the white sauce, repeat twice. Sprinkle both cheeses on top. (You can also layer everything the way I show you in the video, you can't screw this recipe up!)
- Cover loosely (so foil doesn't touch the cheese) and bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Uncover; bake 10-15 minutes longer or until heated through and the cheese is golden brown. Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting.
- By the way, this lasagna can easily be made the day before and kept in the frig until you're ready to pop it in the oven. See notes below about how we served this for a crowd.
Notes
When Kent & I had our bible study friends over for dinner recently, we wanted to make the meal extra special, so this is what we did: we served this dish with a homemade Tomato Bisque. We'd had something similar when we were in Chicago once and wanted to see if we could pull it off. It was easy...
Start by making another white sauce the same way as in the above recipe. As it thickens, add a jar of organic tomatoes and a jar of organic tomato paste and use your hand blender to get it all smooth. Add about 1/8 of a cup of organic cane sugar and keep stirring. Add salt, pepper & garlic and keep taste-testing (with a clean spoon of course!) and playing with it until it's so good you can't stop. We served it on the side in little shot glasses so they could either dip a fork-full of their lasagna in it, or pour it over the top.