Turkey and Zucchini Lasagne
Let’s face it. Eating well isn’t something that happens purely by luck, or by accident – well, at least not in our house!
If you want to eat well you need to pro-actively do things to help you do so
Having said that, it’s certainly not hard. Especially when you get to eat food like this…
YUM!
Two things I do to make sure we eat well (which I teach plus a whole lot more in my Damn Quick Dinners Cooking Classes) are…
- Plan what we are going to eat for the week ahead
- Cook ahead, and freeze if necessary
Trust me, it’s not that hard, and during the week when you are time poor, you sure are glad you made the effort on the weekend!
Thursdays are the one night I suggest everyone has a precooked meal waiting in the fridge or freezer when they get home. Why? Well, as the week draws to an end, and we get tired, it is too easy to opt for a quick and easy (but usually unhealthy) take away meal instead of cooking. I know I would!
So here is a great recipe to make on the weekend and freeze. Plus depending on how many mouths you have to feed, you may even get two or more meals from it. I love it when this happens.
And trust me, the flavour improves as it sits, so it is better the next day anyway!
guess what I’m having for dinner tonight….I can’t wait! Noms
- 1 large brown onion, finely diced
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 500 grams turkey mince
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 cups diced pumpkin
- 2 cups sliced mushrooms
- ½ cup red lentils
- 500 gram jar pasta sauce
- 2 tablespoons Massel concentrated liquid chicken stock (or a stock cube) note: I prefer to use this instead of salt!
- ½ cup red wine, optional (or more water)
- a large handful (50 grams approx) baby spinach leaves, plus extra for a side salad
- ½ cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
- 600 grams zucchini, sliced lengthways
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, extra
- 500 grams ricotta
- ⅔ cup milk
- 80 grams feta cheese
- Heat a large saute pan over medium heat.
- When hot, add the onion and the oil and sautee for 5-6 minutes, until the onion softens and starts to brown.
- Add the turkey mince and garlic and using the spoon, break the turkey mince up. Cook for 2-3 minutes, the add the pumpkin, mushrooms, lentils, pasta sauce, fill the now empty pasta sauce jar ¾ full of water, use the water to rinse out the jar and add that to the sautee pan along with the chicken stock and red wine.
- Bring to the boil, the turn the heat down and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the pumpkin is soft.
- Turn heat off, add spinach leaves and basil and stir through.
- Meanwhile, slice zucchinis lengthways either carefully with a knife or with a mandolin
- Heat a frypan over medium heat, add a drizzle of oil and cook zucchini strips for approx 1 minute on either side, or until lightly browned. Set aside.
- Place ricotta and milk in the bowl of a food processor and puree together until smooth. The mixture should be easily spreadable without being too thin. If not, add a little extra milk. If your ricotta is quite 'wet' to begin with, just add ½ cup milk and add the remainder as needed.
- Heat oven to 180 degrees.
- Grab a large lasagne dish and line the base with approx ⅓ of the zucchini slices.
- Top with half of the turkey bolognese mix, then repeat with zucchini slices, bolognese and lastly zucchini slices.
- Cover the zucchini/top of the lasagne with the ricotta 'sauce' and crumble feta cheese evenly over the top.
- Bake in oven for 45-50 minutes, until golden on top.
- Note if the lasagne starts to brown too soon, turn the heat down a little.
- Likewise if it isn't brown enough after 50 mins, turn the heat up for the last 5 mins, but watch carefully that it doesn't burn.
- Allow to sit for at least 10 minutes before slicing.
- Or if keeping for later, allow to cool completely before slicing and packing into the fridge or freezer.
- Deeeelicious!
slice zucchini
cook zucchini
place 1/3 in bottom of lasagne tray
add spinach and basil to bolognese sauce
ready to use….
top zucchini with 1/2 of the sauce
cover with another 1/3 of the zucchini
top with the last of the bolognese and finish with zucchini. Then spread ricotta mix on top and crumble feta cheese over before baking
ta-da! It will come out looking as delicious as this!!
If you try this recipe please let me know how you go, either here, or on facebook or on instagram #healthyhomecafe
Thanks 🙂
