How to make Raw Lasagna

Rob and I recently visited Avo, a wildly popular Nashville restaurant that inspired me to try to re-create their hit raw lasagna dish at home. Wow. I’m seriously impressed with myself and excited to share this recipe with you. Here’s how I did it and a few tips I have to help you have some kitchen awesomeness too! It’s a perfect meal for two when you want a little something extra special.

Marinated Vegetable Layer

My first step was to create a tomato rich vegetable layer. There would be 3 layers (a vegetable layer, a pesto-like layer and a blended tomato layer).

For the vegetable layer, I marinated some tomato and mushrooms in tamari. Any vegetables would work nicely for this layer depending what you have in your fridge. If you haven’t used tamari before, it’s simply a gluten free alternative to regular soy sauce. You could also use Bragg’s Liquid Aminos.

Confused?

Here is a nice summary about soy sauce alternatives detailing the pros and cons of each.

I noticed, after looking at the pictures Rob and I snapped of our raw lasagna when were at Avo, they pureed this layer; I couldn’t bring myself to do that… The mixture was so beautiful and I believed it would help keep this more of a hearty comfort food style dish as opposed. I decided to take my chances. Next time, I am going to puree this layer just like restaurant did because the vegetables gave me some trouble during the lasagna assembly (check out my video), even though they were nice to look at.

Cilantro Walnut Pesto

Then, it was time to make a pesto. I looked in my fridge, and saddened by my lack of fresh basil (the norm for traditional pesto), I decided to get daring and see if I could make some magic with the cilantro that I hand on hand…. Yikes!

I pulsed an entire bunch of cilantro in my food processor with walnuts, sunflower seeds, freshly squeezed lemon juice and one garlic clove. It worked! I was actually surprised at how fantastic it tasted… the cilantro created a really nice “hot” version of traditional pesto. I was so proud.

Tomato Spread

The tomato spread layer of my raw vegetable lasagna was fairly simple to concoct. I threw some sun-dried tomatoes (I had sun dried cherry tomatoes but regular would be equally delicious), a can of chick peas (sprouted chickpeas would have been better… to stick with the “raw” theme of this recipe but, oh well… I used what I had), tahini, fresh lemon juice… and yes, more garlic. Can you tell I like garlic?

I pulsed the tomato spread ingredients in the food processor until smooth but left some nice bits of the tomato visible. Wow! so beautiful. This was really going to be a nice dish. I think the little flecks of tomato really added to the depth of this recipe. Rob had better not inhale it; he is known to inhale recipes I spend hours creating… I usually smile and think of it as compliment, in a manly kind of way.

Let the assembly begin!

I placed the zucchini noodles on the plate, a dab of pesto, the tomato spread and finally the marinated tomato vegetable layer. At Avo, each layer was very independent but me, being me… got creative on my own and did another round of the laters and finished this beautiful dish with a small handful of olives on top. Nice. Picture worthy. Video worthy. I hope you enjoy it as much as Rob and I did.

PS. Yes, both of us did want to inhale it (it was delicious) however, we took our time and enjoyed our personal lasagnas along side a nice salad and a glass of Cabernet. Even though this recipe was not exactly like the dinner that inspired my own raw vegetable lasagna, mine is definitely one that we will make again (& again).

Yield: 2

Raw Lasagna

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Ingredients

• 1 tomato, sliced
• 1 cup mushrooms, chopped fine
• 1 tsp tamari, or Braggs Liquid Aminos
• 1 tsp coconut oil
• 2 cups cilantro, fresh
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 2 lemon, juice, divided
• 2 garlic clove, divided
• 1/2 cup chickpeas, sprouted (or cooked/canned)
• 1 tbsp tahini
• 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 zucchini, sliced
• greek olives, handful

Instructions

1. Slice the the mushrooms and tomato; put in a bowl. Add tamari (and oil, if using) and mix until evenly covered.
2. To make PESTO, pulse oil, cilantro, walnuts, sunflower seeds, lemon juice, garlic in your food processor until it becomes a pesto-like consistency, adding water or other liquid as needed. Put in a bowl and set aside.
3. To make the tomato spread: blend chickpeas, tahini, lemon, garlic & sun-dried tomatoes until smooth.
4. To assemble, lay 3 small zucchini slices, slightly overlapping then layer with pesto & tomato spread (repeat 1x). Top with olives.