Spinach & mushroom lasagne

I love lasagne, but I often end up making either a classic style using vegetarian mince or a tomato based cheesy veggie one. So I thought I’d experiment and make it different this time using spinach and mushroom in a creamy sauce. I used a ‘cheats’ white sauce made from crème fraîche and parmesan, so its super quick and easy to whip up. Like all lasagnes this one is best eaten on the day, but if you have leftovers they’ll still make a pretty good lunch!

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 450g spinach

• 1 large red onion, thin half moons

• 300g mushrooms, sliced

• 1 clove garlic, grated

• 400ml crème fraîche

• ½ tbsp Dijon mustard

• ½ vegetable stock cube

• 200ml water

• 1 tsp sea salt

• A good grind of black pepper

• 250g fresh lasagne sheets

• 100g parmesan, finely grated

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180ºc.

• Heat a knob of butter and ½ tbsp of olive oil in a large pan and gently wilt the spinach. If you’re using frozen then either defrost n the fridge overnight or steam for around 8 minutes.

• Put the spinach in a bowl and set to one side. Add ½ tbsp of oil to the pan and fry the onions for 10 minutes on low until softened.

• Next add the mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes, then stir in the garlic and fry for 30 seconds more.

• Add 300ml crème fraîche, mustard, ½ stock cube and 200ml of water, warming through gently.

• Then add the salt and pepper, stirring well.

• Mix the remaining 100ml crème fraîche with 20ml water and 20g of parmesan

• Assemble the lasagne (I used a 20x26cm oven proof dish) by starting with a layer of the spinach mix, a sprinkle of parmesan (approx 1-2 tsp) and then cover with pasta sheets, repeat until the top layer.

• Cover the top layer of pasta with the crème fraîche and parmesan mix, finish by sprinkling over the rest of the parmesan, you may need a little more to do this depending on how much you use in the layering.

• Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. If the top needs to brown a bit more then place under a hot grill - I use pieces of tin foil to cover over any already browned parts, so only the pale bits are browned.