Vegetarian Lasagna: a dish for you and your baby

As Archie approaches his first "official number" in years, the big 1... I am feeling more confident about the foods he can have, and that he can have what we are eating.

In an attempt to cook a meal we could all eat, I made a massive vegetarian lasagna the other day and was really pleased with it. Veggie lasagna is a firm favourite of Archie's when I have given him baby food from a jar (I know some Mums will be horrified that I did such a thing but I frankly don't give a damn). Anyway, I wanted to try and reproduce a family version at home, cutting out any additional salt that I may have previously put in for flavour..

This does make a massive lasagna, which is perfect for feeding parents for 1 meal and then making several smaller portions/meals for your little one.

A couple of additional, but important notes, don't give this to young babies, I would suggest this is more suitable for 10 months plus. I also whizzed the portions for my son through a food processer so that they would be easier for him to chew and swallow. This made for a nice textured and tasty meal while reducing any choking risks.  

Ingredients (feel free to use whatever veg you want though).
Red sauce:
2 carrots
1 onion
3 gloves of garlic
3 sticks of celery
1 large pepper
1 courgette
Handful of olives
1 whole broccoli
500g of Pasata
1 tablespoon of tomato puree
1 teaspoon of pesto
Sprinkling of pepper
1 tablespoon of butter

White Sauce:
25g of butter
25g of plain flour
600ml of milk

Sheets of Lasagna
Handful of mature cheddar cheese.

Method:
We need to make the red sauce first...
Firstly peel, top and tail and cut the ends off any of the vegetables that you need to... i.e. peel the carrot and cut off the ends, cut the trunk off the broccoli, aka apply common sense ;)
I then put everything through my food processor using the slicing extension, so all the vegetables ended up being in thin slices. (Lazy, but quick).
Then put the butter into a large frying pan, along with all the veggies and cook for around 10 minutes. Until the vegetables have started to soften.
Now add in the pesto, pepper, pasata and tomato puree, mix well then leave to simmer for a further 10 minutes.



While that is simmering make the white sauce...
Firstly melt the butter in a pan then add the white flour. Mix with a whisk until the butter and flour bulk together like a yellowy, thick paste.
Now add the milk a bit at a time and whisk thoroughly between adding milk. You need to whisk on a low heat until the mixture begins to thicken. You are looking a for glue like consistency...

You can now build the lasagna. Layer it red sauce, white sauce, lasagna sheets and repeat. I found this made about 2 layers of each and then on top I had a layer of red sauce with white on top. I then topped it off with a handful of mature cheddar cheese.

Cook in the oven for 25 minutes on 190C.

It will be a perfect meal then, ready to be eaten by parents. Lovely with a spring salad. (It needs to cool down before baby can eat it).

I then saved the rest, which was over half. I portioned it off into baby sized portions. I have been mixing these portions in a food processor, then heating them in the microwave for 30 seconds. Mixing well, to distribute the heat, then feeding to Archie. (Always check the temperature of any food you feed to a baby).

I hope you and your family like this if you make it. :)

And lastly, please always be careful with any allergies, especially with babies and children. This does contain some allergens.