Veg Lasagna Recipe Indian Style With Pancakes

Veg Lasagna Recipe Indian Style With Pancakes is an interesting and healthy twist to the regular Lasagna. A Lasagna which is loaded with protein and fibre instead of carbohydrates. It has pancakes, lots of veggies, pasta sauce and bechamel (white sauce)

This fusion dish is an easy & interesting recipe & is for all those who think that Lasagna is difficult to make or is unhealthy.

The world calls it Lasagna today but trust me, when I made it almost 15 years back then I called it Indian Ravioli. Back then, neither did I know anything about Lasagna nor about Ravioli. Then why I named it so? Actually, I had it at my friend, Deepika Mittal's place, and she called it Indian Ravioli as it was made with pancakes. I liked the recipe and even though I am not a cheese fan, but still asked her the recipe for dear hubby and kids (at that time, now grown-ups). And when I tried it, it was a hit! Since then I have been making it but somehow, in the last few years, lost its track in the mad rush of other recipes.

Today, again, while flipping pages of my diary, it reappeared in front of me and then I realised that its nothing but today's so called lasagna.

Do try it out as its a really healthy and interesting version of Lasagna. There is very little cheese, as less as 2 tablespoons, which can also be avoided completely. White sauce made with wheat flour replaces cheese very well and helps in making the lasagna creamy enough to lick it without any guilt.

A Little About Lasagna

Lasagna is a one pot meal and is really talk of the town today. Everybody is crazy for it. But What is Lasagna?
It is an Italian dish which originated in the region of Emilia-Romagna in Italy.
It is made by layering wide pasta sheets, veggies (or meat), sauces, cheese, seasoning and spices. The layers are repeated twice or thrice, covering the top with cheese. It is then baked and is thus ready to be served. Thus, the dough with which pasta is made, is used for making pasta sheets. In simple words, pasta, not in penne, spiral shape but in the shape of sheets.
These pasta sheets, commonly known as lasagna sheets, can be made at home. But since its a lot more tedious and time consuming job, many people prefer buying these from the market.
July 29th is Italy's National Lasagna Day.
In southern Italy, the dough for pasta sheets was made using semolina and water whereas in Northern Italy they used flour and eggs

Lasagna Or Lasagne?

You must be wondering what am I doing? Saying Lasagna at some places whereas Lasagne on other? Which is correct?

So, actually, both are correct. Lasagne is the plural word of Lasagna. Italians call it Lasagne whereas Americans call it Lasagna! What would you like to call it?

Why Make Lasagna With Pancakes?

The pancakes are made with a mix of lentils. So, it is a good way to feed lentils to children as well as to adults as these are rich in protein. This is especially good fpr vegetarians.
Another benefit of making Lasagna is that by making lentils pancakes, we are cutting carbohydrates and pulling in protein.

How To Make

Making lasagna is a slightly lengthy process and has different components which eventually are assembled together. The long list of ingredients will not upset you once you go through it patiently.
To make Vegetable lasagna with pancakes, you need some pancakes, a mix of sauteed veggies, white sauce and marinara or pizza sauce and some herbs. Cheese is entirely optional and can be avoided completely or loaded fully as per your taste and needs. I used a little bit just on the top. Thus this recipe has 4 main steps, namely;

Making pancakes
Preparing the filling which is basically sauteeing veggies
Making Pasta Sauce.
Making White Sauce
Assembly

Pancakes are made using lentils paste. For this, I soaked 5 types of lentils in equal proportion for about 2 hours. Thereafter, grounded them to a fine paste in the mixie. Now, in this batter, you can add spices as per your choice. Its nice to add spinach but I couldn't as that day I didn't have it. Then make thin pancakes on a skillet. You can make these pancakes in advance too and keep in the refrigerator till use.
Thereafter, chop veggies of your choice and saute it with herbs and spices till partially cooked. Saute these on high flame, stirring side by side, so that they retain the crunch and do not get soft and soggy.
Next comes the Pasta Sauce. You can use homemade or store bought pasta sauce. Again this can be made ahead.
Lastly, it is the bechamel sauce or white sauce, as it is commonly known as. All other components of this recipe can be made ahead but not this white sauce. Even if you make it ahead of time, it will thicken up so much that again you will have to spend time in correcting its consistency. Plus, the method I am going to share with you here is so simple that you will love making it fresh only as it takes less than 5 minutes. White sauce is made by cooking wheat flour with butter and then adding milk to it. But this time, i made it differently and it came out excellent.

Easy Method Of Making White Sauce

White sauce is made by cooking wheat flour with butter and then adding milk to it. But this time, i made it differently and it came out excellent.

Normally, people complain that their white sauce get lumps and is not smooth and silky. And they need to strain it or use a blender to make it lump-free. But with the method, I am sharing with you here, making white sauce is going to be the easiest and quickest affair. You will not be scared of making it any more.

So, what's this miraculous method? Simple, we first mix flour in milk. Yes, just take milk at room temperature and add flour to it. Mix it. It will easily be mixed in the milk. Now, we cook this on medium flame and soon, you will see that it thickens into a sauce-like consistency. While cooking only add butter, spices, garlic etc to it and a perfect white sauce is ready.

Now, if you are wondering that it would taste of raw flour then this is not the case. This is because, it will be baked in the oven for about 30 minutes so obviously no raw taste of flour will be left.

Why You Will Love This Recipe

A wonderful fusion dish.
Healthy recipe of lasagna
Rich in protein and fibre
Low in carbohydrates
Easy To Make
Made with Pancakes, without using Pasta Sheets
One-pot meal
An interesting way to consume lentils

Related Recipes:

Step By Step Recipe

A. Make Pancakes

Soak lentils for a minimum of two hours. I used Pigeon Peas (Tur Dal), Split and Dehusked Black Grams (White Urad Dal), Yellow Split Peas (Chana Dal), Split Green Grams (Moong Chhilka) and Split And Dehusked Brown Lentils (Lal Masoor) in equal proportions.

Drain the excess water and grind it to a smooth paste.

Add salt, green chillies, ginger paste. If possible add chopped spinach.

Heat a skillet. Put a ladle full of batter and make pancakes. Take care that pancakes are of the same size as of your baking dish, so that you can put the pancakes as it is without having to cut or fold it.

When golden brown from both the sides, remove it and similarly make 5 more pancakes.
Stack them on a wire rack till use. if you plan to make lasagna later then wrap these cooled pancakes in aluminium foil and keep in the refrigerator.

B. Make Filling

Chop veggies of your choice. I used peppers, onions and tomatoes.
Heat oil in a pan, add chopped veggies and saute on medium high flame till partially done.
Add salt, pepper, oregano, parsley and basil.
Switch off the flame and mix in some lettuce. You can use green coriander or mint as well.

C. Make White Sauce

Mix wheat flour in milk. Take care that milk is at room temperature.

Tip: First make a paste by adding little milk. Once mixed, add rest of the milk.

Cook this mix on medium flame, stirring continuously or you may scald the utensil.
Mix in butter, salt, grated garlic and nutmeg. Nutmeg, gives a very nice flavour to the white sauce, so do use it, however use it very little as it has really strong odour.
Within 4 to 5 minutes, it will start thickening. When it coats the back of the spoon then turn off the flame.
White sauce is ready.

D. Make Pasta Sauce

Make fresh or use store-bought. I had ready Pasta sauce in my refrigerator, so I used it.
You may check the recipe of homemade Pasta Sauce here.

E. Assembly

Start preheating oven. Preheat it at 200 degrees C for 10 to 15 minutes. If using microwave convection, as I did, then preheating will take just 5 minutes so start preheating accordingly.
Take a baking dish, put some pasta sauce and white sauce on the base.

Put one pancake. Top it with pizza sauce, then filling of veggies and then white sauce. Sprinkle some oregano. You may put some cheese pieces too, though i didnt.

Cover this with another pancake and repeat the layers.
Continue the same with all the pancakes.
Lastly, cover the top liberally with white sauce and grate some cheese all over.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. If the top gets brown quickly then cover it with aluminium foil or any lid.

Serve with love, lemon coriander soup optional.

FAQs

Q) What can I use instead of Pancakes?

You can use any of the following:

Boiled Pasta Sheets
Boiled Pasta
Indian Chapatis (fresh or leftover)
Tortillas
Quinoa Dosa

Q) Can I make it ahead?

Assemble everything in the baking dish and keep it in the refrigerator upto 3 to 4 hours. Then bake itvat the time of serving.

Q) Can I make this recipe gluten-free?

Yes! This recipe has wheat flour and that too only in the white sauce. So, you can skip white sauce and replace it with mayonnaise or cheese sauce, thus making this recipe gluten-free.

Q) What else can I use for filling?

I used vegetable filling. But instead of this you can use any other filling too. You can use either of the following filling:

Let's Connect!

I hope you have liked this recipe of Vegetable Lasagna Without Pasta Sheets and will surely try it out for your loved ones. When you try it out then do share it on Instagram and tag me too using #samirasrecipediary

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