Who doesn’t love lasagna? Who doesn’t love Mac-n-Cheese? Put the two together….can you say Vegan Heaven? Or as the famous food connoisseur, Homer Simpson, puts it “Aaaarrrrrrhhhh!”

I made this special for my oldest daughter, the diva extraordinaire. She lives with her mother in Cleveland and she’s always complaining about the extravagant meals we make and she doesn’t get to share. Then she proceeds to complain I don’t put any pictures of her on our website. So, now I’m making food and trying to take pictures of her.

And, as any typical teenager…she complains about no pictures, but doesn’t want to take pictures. Never satisfied. True Diva! But you know what, this recipe made her and it’ll make you very happy!

The assembly of this is a cinch, but you’ll need to do some prep work first. You’ll need the following recipes:

Creamy Soy Cheese – 1 and 1/2 times the recipe. Add an additional 1/2 tablespoon of Sea Salt. You want the cheese salty because it will be flavoring the bland pasta.
Tofu Ricotta – 1 recipe
Ste Martaen Marinara Sauce – 1/2 recipe

Our Veggies:

1 red pepper, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
1 bulb garlic, diced
12 oz sundried tomatoes (the kind packed in olive oil), diced
1/2 lb fresh spinach, washed

You’ll also need one package of Tofurky Italian Sausage links. Slice them up and put to the side.

All prep work is done, time to start cookin! Cook 1 pound of elbow macaroni until just before al dente. You want it a little firmer because it will finish cooking while in the oven. Other than that, it’ll get all mushy. Also, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large pot saute your veggies (all but spinach) on medium high with 1 and 1/2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

After 5 minutes, add your Tofurky slices and saute and additional 5 minutes.

Add the cooked pasta to your saute veggies and mix.

Add Creamy Soy Cheese to the mix until everything is real creamy and moist. At this point you have Sundried Tomato Mac-n-Cheese. You can cook this by itself for 30 minutes at 350 degrees for a great tasting Mac-n-Cheese dish. But we’re taking this a few steps further.

Time to turn up the yumminess!

Ladle some Ste Martaen Marinara sauce in the bottom of a 11″ x 15″ casserole dish. Cover the bottom of the dish completely.

Add a layer of the Sundried Tomato Mac-n-cheese.

Add a layer of fresh spinach.

Next, add a layer of the Tofu Ricotta.

Top with some more Marinara sauce.

And, another layer of the Sundried Tomato Mac-n-Cheese.

Finish it up by covering the top with the rest of the Creamy Soy Cheese.

Put in your 350 degree preheated oven and bake for 40 minutes.

Wow, that looks awesome! Let the Lasagna glory sit for about 7 minutes then dig in!

Layers of comforty goodness!

Our parting shot. Time to eat. My taste buds are happy…very happy .

I went on my Lasagna binge the end of last year and created this recipe along the way. It’s a pretty quick formula and adds great flavor to many dishes.

This is what you will need:

1 block extra firm tofu
1 recipe Creamy Soy Cheese (with some adjustments)

That’s it…basically.

Putting it together, let’s start with the creamy cheese base.

Follow the Creamy Soy Cheese recipe with these adjustments to the ingredient list:
1. Increase lemon to juice of 1 whole lemon

2. Add 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons of dried Basil

3. Add 1 Tablespoon of Dried Parsley

4. Increase salt to 2 tsp. This will make the mix a little salty, but you’re adding it to flavorless tofu, so it will even out.

And no jalapeno! Finish processing the cheese according to the recipe and put to the side.

In a large mixing bowl, crumble a block of extra firm tofu. Use a masher to break up the crumbles into smaller pieces.

Add about half of the Basil infused creamy soy cheese and mix.

Keep adding the cheese mixture until the ricotta is a cottage cheesy consistency. You do not want it too runny or liquidy.

And there you have it! Use for lasagna, stuffed shells, manicotti or as a dip. Be careful though, your children or love ones may get forceful when asking for seconds.

Abba, give me some more! Don’t think I don’t know how to use these. Gilbert Arenas taught me how!

See what you did Arenas? It’s all fun and games until the youth get inspired by you. Note to self, don’t make Tofu Ricotta while the children watch the Wizards play.

Nothing like a dish that incorporates the goodness of faux meat, pasta, vegan cheese and tomatoes. Complete happiness in every bite. We are starting our 6 Weeks, 6 Lasagna’s with a bang. This lasagna is power packed with taste and body. There will be 3 types of faux meat and two types of vegan cheese; and who can resist our own special marinara sauce.

You’ll need to prepare the following basics:
2 recipes Creamy Soy Cheese – *add 1/4 cup Dried Parsley to each recipe
1 recipe Ste Martaen Marinara Sauce

Our 3 faux meats are:
1 package Upton’s Naturals Ground Beef Style Seitan
1 package Upton’s Naturals Italian Sausage Style Seitan
1 package Tofurky Italian Sausage

Most of you have most likely heard of Tofurky. In Chicago, there’s a great vegan owned company Upton’s Naturals. They are not national yet, but as good as their products are, look for them soon. Check out their website and order you some faux meat excellence. The seitan products we are using are already pre-crumbled and taste outstanding. They are better than any of the national brands I have tried.

For the Upton’s Naturals “meats” you’ll need to sauté each one separately in 1 ½ tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil until evenly browned. It should only take about 5 minutes for each. Once browned, remove from heat and empty into a small bowls.

For the Tofurky Italian Sausage, slice in ¼ inch pieces and also sauté until browned in 1 ½ tablespoons EVOO. Remove once browned a put aside in separate bowl.

There we have it, all 3 browned and ready for duty.

While browning your faux meats, boil your lasagna noodles according to directions. You want to cook them to just before al dente. You want the noodles to be pliable, but not thoroughly cooked. They will finish cooking with the sauce once baked.

Assembly time!!
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a 9×13 cassorole dish, cover the bottom with the Ste Martaen Marinara sauce.

Add a layer of lasagna noodles. Lay your strips side by side lengthwise overlapping each row.

Add your sauteed Upton’s Naturals Ground Beef-Style seitan.

Cover with marinara sauce.

Pour on a layer of Creamy Soy Cheese.

With a spatula, spread out the Creamy Soy Cheese in an even layer.

Add another layer of lasagna noodles.

Add the Upton’s Naturals Italian Sausage-Style seitan.

Cover with marinara sauce.

Pour on some more Creamy Soy Cheese and spread out.

Now add your Tofurky Italian Sausage pieces.

Shred 1/4 pound of Ste Martaen Vegan Muenster Style Cheese evenly over the top.

Ready to bake. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Oh. My. God. That looks good.

I know this will be hard, but let the lasagna cool for 10 minutes, then go ahead and cut a piece. As Kevin from Delicious Cafe said: “The combination of the creaminess of the cheese and the faux meats is mouth watering. I ate a piece and I couldn’t resist going back for more.” I couldn’t have said it better myself! Enjoy!

Creamy Vegan Soy Cheese Tutorial

For the vegan soy cheese you will need a good blender. I prefer a Vita-Mix (who doesn’t), but any good blender will do.

Add 2 cups of soy milk

Next, get your ducks in a row:

What we have:

• 3/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
• 1 tablespoon granulated garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 1/4 of a lemon
• To take the cheese to another taste dimension & you like a little spice in your life like me, add 1 jalapeno

Add these ingredients into the blender with 1/2 tsp of sea salt:

Now, the fun part…pour 1 cup of vegetable oil in a separate cup and keep at the ready. As you blend the milk and ingredients together, you will slowly pour the oil in. Watch, as I demonstrate…

Get Ready!

Start blending milk and ingredients. Start on a low speed and increase to high. Note: For this demonstration, the lid is off the blender. I do not recommend this for you…I’d hate to see all this yummy cheese on your cabinets and your finest kitchen outfit! Most blenders have a two part lid. Start with your complete lid on and then remove the center piece before you add the oil.

Two part blender lid

Center piece removed

You will pour oil through this center opening

I started my blending with the lid on and took off for this demonstration.

Ingredients mixed, all in harmony

Now that the milk, nutritional yeast and others are all happily liquefied, let’s add the 1 cup of vegetable oil. Begin pouring the oil SLOWLY in the center funnel.

Remember, pour the oil slowly, slowly, slowly and watch the magic…

Looking good...keep going

Almost there...keep on target

Center is closing...little bit longer

Yes, victory is ours!

Great job, the center funnel has closed and voilah! You have creamy soy cheese!!

You can use this style of cheese as a dip, mixed w/ noodles for great mac & cheese, or pour on top of your homemade pizza.

Vegan pizza w/ creamy soy cheese and 3 pepper tomato sauce

You heard right…PIZZA!  I became Vegan about 16 years ago and I can still remember my last non-vegan meal…delicious, heavenly, there-is-nothing-quite like-it pizza!  At the time I was basically vegetarian and ate a little bit of fish.  I had spent the better part of the year before waning myself off of meat…first pork and beef, then chicken, then fish.  I came to the conclusion that veganism was the next step for me.  Mind you, I was still in college and like most college students, living off of pocket change.  Pocket change was good when your diet consisted of beer and ’25 cent hamburger thursdays’ at a local McDonald’s.  Yes, 25 cent hamburgers…with $5, I could eat for the week.

It wasn’t a difficult decision for me to quit meat, but I the realization that eating only veggies was more expensive than eating meat was (and still is) shocking.  So, as a financially challenged college student, trying to eat healthier was going to be difficult at best.  However, I have never been scared of a challenge and jumping in creek without a paddle (as many of my friends know) seems to be my forte.

Decision made…time for my last meal.  Beef, pork, chicken, fish…all easy for me to give up.  Cheese, oooh, that gooey, salty, so deliciously diverse wonder dairy product.  Now that is a lot to ask for.  But to be vegan…no dairy products…no cheese…sadness… sweet, sweet sadness.  I planned my last meal.  It was a Thursday night, I ordered a veggie pizza on whole wheat crust from Gumby’s Pizza.  Let me tell you, I can still recall sitting on my couch, pizza on the coffee table, and slowly, lovingly eating a whole pie.  Cheese was the bomb.

OK, back to the present.  Over the years, I have tried several recipes for pizza.  There is no vegan cheese that will replace the meltability of dairy cheese (Did I just say ‘meltability’ – Merriam Webster, you can add that, no charge).  Many have tried…Follow Your Heart, Teese and new kid on the block Daiya…but it will never be the same.  Plus, in order to replicate the high fat content of dairy cheese the vegan knock offs tend to be very oily once heated/melted.  The closest you can get is taste and texture, where I feel our Ste Martaen line has excelled.

With that being said, I’ll get to the point and share this recipe with you.  In this recipe we’ll use a creamy soy cheese and a 3 pepper & vegan sausage tomato sauce. This homemade soy cheese is a blended/whipped cheese that I feel works best for vegan pizza because it stays moist and packs flavor.  So first or second, follow the Creamy Soy Cheese link and get that together (make one recipe).

Now (or first), put your sauce together. You can buy pre-made sauce from the store, I guess but you’ll be much happier if you make our 3 Pepper & Vegan Sausage tomato sauce. Follow the link, you won’t be disappointed (make one recipe). Let’s get started…

Cheese is done & the sauce is simmering: pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees…Let’s assemble this Pizza!

VEGAN PIZZA  w/ Creamy Soy Cheese & 3 Pepper Sausage Tomato Sauce

For the crust, I use the god-send of all pre-made crusts.

I get this 20″ flatbread from Al Khayyam grocery and bakery on the North side of Chicago (They don’t have a website, so I linked their Yelp profile).  I call it flatbread, but it is really like a hybrid between Middle Eastern pita and Greek flatbread.  All I know, they bake it fresh daily and it makes the perfect pizza crust.  I think it is was better than the pre-made crusts you can get anywhere and way easier than trying to make dough yourself (although I am determined to master it one day).  If you are not in the Chicago area, it’s worth the trip to get some.  But, I would suggest researching your local Middle Eastern bakeries to see if they produce something similar…you will not be disappointed.  Now, if push comes to shove and you can’t find something similar, buy some pre-made dough…the pizza will still be dynamic!

To the crust, add a tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle with granulated garlic powder.  Rub the entire crust to thoroughly cover with oil and garlic.

Next, add about 3 ladles of sauce (that’s about 12 ounces) to coat generously.  Remember, this is your pizza, you can always add more or less.  I divide the 3 Pepper sauce recipe evenly between two 20″ crusts.

That’s looking good.  Now heavily dollop the Soy Cheese all over the pizza.

A lot of dollop’ll do ya!!  Now, use a rubber spatula or the back of a wooden spoon to spread the cheese evenly around the pizza.

Your show now.  Top with whatever your heart contents.  Today, I’m going simple…some diced plum tomatoes and pickled jalapeno slices.

Now, place on a pizza stone (for you pizza aficionados) or on a large baking sheet (like me).  Bake as follows:

• 5 min – soft crust
• 7 min – soft inner crust, crispy outer crust (my favorite)
• 10 min – crispy crust

Remove from oven and place on your hard stone or ceramic counter top or on a large baking board.

Now slice 4 times into 8 slices and EAT!!!  By now, everyone is hovering around so feed your family and enjoy!

Get started, enjoy!

Vegan dreams do come true!

Your first bite will be a welcome reward for all you work.  And the family will love you that much more…

We love you!! More pizza?

Buon Appetito!!!  Enjoy your Vegan Pizza!!!

Mmmmmm, now that's good pizza!

Nahum St. Martin