Lasagne – My Big Batch Failsafe Version

My son’s absolute favourite meal is lasagne. When my children ask what is for dinner when this is on the menu, the response is always “Garfield’s favourite!” and they know exactly what is coming. Of course lasagne is traditionally made on a base of tomatoes and topped with cheese, my recipe is completely without both. I am sure that is sacrilege to the true Italian, but I actually prefer it without now too.  Tomatoes are very high in salicylates, amines, and glutamates  so we keep right right away from them since all 3 would react badly. I have also left the cheese off as it is high in amines. (If you are doing an amines challenge, you could top with cheese).  This recipe is suitable for the Failsafe Elimination diet.

Lasagne really isn’t that hard to make, but it is one of those meals I feel that if I am going to the effort to make one… I might as well make a few at once so I can have some in the freezer for another meal. This recipe makes 3 lasagne’s all up, I use one for dinner that night and make 2 in the throw away bbq foil trays to go in the freezer. I will then add them into my menu plan, one a week, for the next 2 weeks. Just watch your amine levels with how long you freeze your cooked meat if you have amine responders in your family. I chop all the veggies in the Thermomix and cooking it all in a big pot on the stove while making the Béchamel white sauce in the Thermomix from the Thermomix EDC. If you don’t have a Thermomix, you could use a food processor to chop the veggies and make the white sauce in the microwave. I have a recipe for that on this link.

Makes 3 lasagna’s.

3kg beef mince
3 tablespoons oil
5 cloves garlic
2 leeks
30g oil
12 Brussels sprouts
1 choko
1 swede
small handful of Parsley *
small handfull of chives
4 pear halves from tinned pears in syrup
180g pear syrup
70g brown sugar
30g Carob syrup
2 tablespoons Vegetable Stock Concentrate
Salt, to taste
lasagne sheets

Add 3 tablespoons oil to large pot. Add mince and cook over a medium heat until browned, stirring regularly. While it’s cooking, place garlic and leeks into Thermomix. Chop on speed 6 for 2 seconds. Add the 30g oil and cook on 100 deg for 3 minutes speed 1.

Add Brussels sprouts, choko, swede, and herbs. Chop on speed 5 for 8 seconds or until you get your desired texture of vegetables. Tip into the pot with the mince and stir to combine.

Without cleaning the TM bowl, add the pear, syrup, brown sugar, carob syrup and veg stock. Mix on speed 6 for 5 seconds. Add to the pot and stir through. Simmer until all the vegetables are cooked though and sauce reduces slightly. Season to taste.

While it is simmering, make a double batch of the Béchamel white sauce recipe from the Thermomix EDC or use the microwave white sauce recipe I have.
Once the meat and vegetables have cooked through, place a layer of the meat in the bottom of the lasagne dish, then layer with lasagne sheets, top with the Béchamel sauce. Repeat all layers again, finishing with the Béchamel sauce. I usually get one layer on each of the three lasagne’s with the Béchamel sauce, then whip it back on the Thermomix and make another double quantity for the top layer.

Leave covered with Alfoil and cook in a moderate oven 180°C until cooked through for approx 45 minutes. Remove the alfoil with 15 minutes cooking time remaining to lightly brown the top.

I like to serve the lasagne with a garlic pizza bread.  Miss 4 isn’t overly fussed on lasagne, but loves the garlic pizza, so everyone is happy! This is just the pizza base recipe form the Thermomix EDC and brushed with a little oil and fresh garlic and cooked for approx 10 minutes. I like to keep a stash of the pizza dough in the freezer so it is easy to take one out to whip up to enjoy with pasta dish for dinner.

Tips: I find the BBQ trays hard to move around without support underneath when hot and full, so I place them on chopping boards similar size to the tray to make it easier to handle, if you can, place in freezer on the chopping board until frozen. I also leave the lasagne uncovered in the freezer for approx 1 hour just to set the white sauce on the top a bit, otherwise I find the alfoil sticks to the sauce and I lose all the sauce on the alfoil when I remove it for cooking.

You can buy carob syrup from Carobana,  Allergy Train and The Carob Kitchen have a list of suppliers around Australia, I have been lucky to find it at my local heath food shop. Cooking for Oscar has a recipe to make your own carob syrup as well.

*Parsley is now listed in the RPAH handbook to be used as a garnish, if you know your family can not tolerate it, leave it out of the recipe. My family is ok with parsley in cooking.