Paneer Veg Lasagna

This yummy lasagna was our dinner a couple of days ago. My book club ladies are all quite the bakers! So in the midst of reading books, we are constantly on a bake off and swapping recipes. During one of our WhatsApp chatting sessions, my beautiful friend Maria passed me this great tried and tested Veggie Lasagna recipe. This recipe was originally from allrecipes.com, but I totally Indianised it! 

There was way too much cheese in the recipe, so I used up some paneer and veggies and whipped up this cheesy Paneer Veg Lasagna.

So go get your lasagna noodles and start layering! Add whatever veggies you like and don’t forget to sauce it up!

Paneer Veg Lasagna

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Lasagna Noodles – 9 sheets (I used San Remo Instant Lasagna)

Spinach Leaves – 1 bunch (finely chopped)

Capsicum – 1 big size (finely chopped)

Carrots – 1/2 cup (grated)

Paneer – 200 gms (crumbled)

Mozzarella Cheese – 1+ 1/4 cup (grated)

Egg – 1 (optional)

Chilli flakes – 2 teaspoons

Salt and ground pepper – to taste

Pasta Sauce – 3 cups (I used Prego Traditional pasta sauce)

Parmesan Cheese – 1/4 Cup (grated)

Directions:

• Rub little olive oil on the inside of a 9” baking pan/casserole dish. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
• Cook the spinach in a pan of water for 8-10 minutes and drain.
• In a bowl, lightly beat the egg and add 1 cup of the shredded mozzarella cheese, spinach, capsicum, carrots and paneer. Add the salt, pepper and chilli flakes and mix well.
• In the greased casserole dish, first spoon a layer of the pasta sauce and spread to cover the bottom of the casserole dish. Top with 3 strips of lasagne noodle. On top of this, spread a layer of the paneer mixture followed by a layer of pasta sauce.
• Repeat the above layering steps for two more times using up the 9 lasagne noodles and end with a layer of pasta sauce. Be sure to coat the lasagne noodles with enough pasta sauce to help cook the noodles.
• Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese and the parmesan cheese on top. Cover the casserole with aluminium foil.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Then remove the aluminium foil and continue baking for another 15-20 minutes until lasagne is bubbling and lightly browned on the top.
• Remove from oven and let it stand for 5 minutes. Cut into 4 or 6 portions and serve warm.

Spinach Pulav - with Brown Basmathi Rice

I got some brown basmathi rice a few weeks back. And I have been waiting to try it, so finally made some pulav for lunch. I didn’t have any coriander at hand, so decided to use fresh baby spinach and some capsicums to make this easy and tasty pulav.

Ingredients:

• Brown Basmathi Rice - 1 and 1/4 cups (soak for 10 min)
• Spinach – ¾ of a bunch,  chopped with the stems cut off
• Onion – 1, cut lengthwise
• Capsicum -1,  diced lenghtwise
• Carrots -1 diced  into cubes
• Potato - 1 dices in cubes 
• Salt – 3-4tespoons

Grind together:

• Garlic: 8 cloves
• Dry red chilli - 9
• Ginger-1/2 inch piece
• Spinach - handful

Directions:

• Heat 3 tablespoons oil/ghee in a pressure cooker.
• Fry some cardamom, cinnamon stick, cloves and some bay leaf.
• Then add the onions, carrots, capsicum, potato, peas.
• Drain the soaked rice, and add to the cooker along with the veggies, and fry well.
• Add ground paste, and fry for a few minutes. 
• Now add the spinach leaves and salt.
• Add 1 and 3/4 cups water. (Ratio 1 cup rice=1 ½ cups water)
• Close the cooker, after the first whistke, pressure cook for 12 min in low flame.
• Open the cooker, and mix the rice gently. Serve with yogurt raita.