Nightshade free lasagna

Growing up, my sister’s and I always got to pick what we had for dinner on our birthday. My favorite thing (and it become a joke with my family) was lasagna.

When I got married, the only time I really ate lasagna was when we were out because my husband does not care too much for lasagna. Needless to say, it has been a year since I have had lasagna. Let’s be realistic – restaurants might offer a gluten free version, but not a nightshade free version.

With my birthday coming up on Sunday, I decided that I wanted lasagna at least at some point this weekend.  I have a no-tomato tomato paste. I did not have a no tomato marinara sauce. As a result I will have two recipes in this post. The first is the marinara sauce and the second is the lasagna.

MARINARA SAUCE

Ingredients
-1-14.5 ounce can of diced rutabaga with juice
-7 ounces of drained, cooked carrots (I uses canned and saved the other half of can for the lasagna)
-4 ounces mushrooms and all juice from 8 ounce can (I used the other 1/2 of mushrooms for lasagna)
– 3 ounces balsamic vinegar
-6 ounces No Tomato Tomato Paste
-4 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
– 1 clove garlic, minced
– 1 teaspoon oregano
-1 teaspoon salt
-1/4 teaspoon peppercorn ground
–  4 tablespoons of olive oil
– 1/3 cup diced oinions
– 1/2 cup beet juice (can find this at health food stores like whole foods)

Directions
– place all but last 3 ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth
– in large skillet, heat the olive oil. Saute onions for approximately 2 minutes.
– add onions and any remaining liquid and beet juice to blended mix in the food processor. Blend until smooth.
– to serve as pasta sauce, heat up in sauce pan before serving.

NIGHTSHADE GLUTEN FREE LASAGNA
Ingredients

– 1/2 pound ground turkey
– 3 tablespoons olive oil
-3/4 cup chopped onion
– 1 garlic clove
– 26 ounces nightshade free marinara sauce (described above)
– 16 ounces ricotta cheese
– 7 ounces cooked carrots, drained
– 4 ounces mushrooms drained
– 1 egg
-1/2 cup mozzarella cheese shredded (for filling)
-1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
– 1/4 teaspoon ground peppercorn
– 1-10 ounce pacakge of thawed spinach
– 9 gluten free half lasagna noodles (I used muller’s oven ready)
– 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions
– in large skillet, heat olive oil. Add ground turkey, onions, and garlic. Cook until turkey is cooked and crumbled.
– add 3 cups of marinara sauce to skillet and simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
– in bowl mix ricotta cheese, carrots, mushrooms, egg, pepper corn, 1/2 mozzarella cheese,  parsley, and spinach
– in 8 inch square pan, spray cooking spray then pour remaining marinara in bottom. Place one layer of noodles (you may haveto break one to fit)
– spread a layer of the cheese filling. Cover that with layer of meat and sauce filling.
– place another layer of noddles and cover with remaining cheese filling
– place last layer of noodles, cover with remaining meat sauce. Cover with 2 cups mozzarella cheese.
– bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 50 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and browning.

This is delicious!  As always if you have a recipe you want me to reinevent, let me know 🙂