As those Autumn nights draw in I crave comfort food more than ever. My waistline however is not so thrilled at the idea of a big ol' carb fest so us curvy girls have to get creative!
I get a lot of ideas from a great blog called skinnytaste.com. Gina's food is amazing, full of flavour but lower in carbs and saturated fats - winner! The only downside for us Brits is that it's all in American measures (cups, oz etc.) and some of the ingredients she regularly uses aren't available over here.
I've found that with a few UK tweeks (not twerks, oh Miley....), you can get very tasty results.
I did my own version of her Zucchini Lasagna recently. Looks pretty good, huh? And not a complex carb in sight, woop!
Here's my translated ingredients list:
- 500g Extra Lean Beef Mince
- 2-3 cloves of garlic (crushed), it depends on your preference (and company!)
- 1/2 an onion
- 1 tsp olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
- 3 medium courgettes (sliced on a mandoline, see below)
- 425g ricotta cheese
- 200g mozzarella cheese (grated-I used this one specifically for cooking and less than half the amount in the original recipe)
- 25g Fresh Parmesan (grated)
- 1 large egg
I started by prepping my courgettes. It was my first time with a mandoline and I was scared to rush in case I lost a finger! It was actually really easy to slice these up. I got my mandoline for £7.99 from TK Maxx (where else?!) and sliced my courgettes lengthways using the thicker cut setting. You could maybe do this with a vegetable peeler but I'm not sure if you would get thick enough slices.
Then I skipped a step - naughty, naughty. Gina recommends lightly salting and setting aside your courgette slices for 10 minutes as this reduces the amount of water in the courgettes. After the 10 minutes you blot off all the salt and excess moisture with a paper towel. I didn't bother because, well...I'm lazy.
Anyway, next step is to griddle pan or grill your courgette slices. About a minute per side should do the trick. Work in batches and place on a paper towel when they're cooked to catch any extra moisture.
Now my "faux-pasta" was ready to go I could focus on the sauce.
In a large pan I fried my onion (I used red because it's what I had to hand), in the olive oil. Then I added the garlic and mince.
Once the mince was browned I added the tomatoes, basil and salt & pepper. I then left it to simmer on low for about 30 mins. DO NOT add extra water. Sorry for being all shouty, but you want your sauce dry (I know, this goes against every fibre in my being too). The courgettes do the exact opposite of pasta in this dish. They give out water, where lasagne sheets soak up moisture, hence dry, dry, dry!!!
In a bowl mix the ricotta cheese, parmesan and egg. This essentially forms your traditional "bechamel/white sauce" sans flour so it's great for anyone with a wheat/gluten intolerance.
I added another sprinkle of basil to my sauce at the end of it's cooking because I had it to hand (you don't need to do this). And then came the assembly.
Again, I pretty much free-styled this! Really it's up to you how you like your lasagne-layers. But here's the general rule I followed.
Start with meat sauce, then a layer of courgettes, followed by white sauce and a sprinkle of mozzarella.
Repeat until all your ingredients are used up, (I think I had 3 layers of courgettes in total). You have to finish with white sauce and mozzarella on top.
Size of dish? Big. Mine was 10"x10" square, Gina uses 9"x12" (so mine was slightly smaller volume-wise).
When you're all layered-up, bake in the middle of a preheated oven (180 degree fan) for 45 mins.
Another disclaimer - Gina covers hers with tin foil for 45 mins of cooking time and then finishes with 15 mins uncovered at the end. I didn't because we're not "cooking" any lasagne sheets, really you just want everything to come together and brown-off the top. I think 45 mins uncovered is long enough for that process, up to you though!
And voila! Here's the result.
I served ours with a big tomato and avocado salad on the side. And this dish easily serves 8 with a side salad.
Looks pretty good huh? Go on, get your cook on!
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