Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

I tried this for the first time last summer and while I do love traditional lasagna, this one immediately became my MORE favorite one. I love that you can use whatever vegetables you have on hand and it is really filling, but quite healthy. I am giving you the ingredients I used this time, but there is a lot of variation possible.

Ingredients:

2 small eggplants, sliced into 1/4" slices
2 red peppers, cut into 1" squares
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 cup sliced carrots
3 heads of baby bok choy, whites and greens separated, whites cut into 1" squares
2 Tlbs olive oil
black pepper
3 roma tomatoes, sliced
1.5 cup frozen corn
10-12 fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
grated mozzarella cheese
grated cheddar cheese
small container of low-fat ricotta cheese
6 whole-wheat lasagna noodles
1 can tomato sauce
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 can chopped tomatoes
parsley
basil
oregano
tarragon
salt/pepper

Put the eggplant, peppers, carrots, bok choy whites, garlic, olive oil and black pepper into a ziploc bag and shake until the oil coats everything. Pour them onto a cookie sheet and roast for 25-30 minutes at 400 degrees, stirring thoroughly every 10 minutes. To make the tomato sauce, put the tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, and chopped tomatoes in a pot with parsley, basil, oregano, tarragon and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then simmer over low for a while. In another pot, boil the noodles until done, then drain and set aside. Spray olive oil into the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Using a spatula, spread ricotta cheese on a noodle, then lay in the bottom of the pan. Repeat with two other noodles until the bottom of the pan has one layer. Ladle half of the sauce mixture over the noodles. Scoop half the roasted vegetables on top of the sauce. Layer half of the sliced tomatoes on top of the veggies, then sprinkle half the corn on top of the tomatoes. Sprinkle half the chopped basil over the corn, then sprinkle a thin layer of mozzarella on top of that. Repeat the entire layer process again, only adding cheddar as well as mozzarella on top. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, and let it sit for 10 minutes or so before serving.

I originally tried this recipe when looking for ways to use eggplant, which I dislike the smell of. I got the idea for the roasted vegetables from allrecipes.com, but the rest of it is my own. I like the fact that it is full of vegetables and still tastes like lasagna. The original version has other roasted vegetables, like mushrooms, but I used what I had in the fridge. I have never used bok choy in it before, but it turned out ok, although I don't know if I would use it again. I used the bok choy leaves in it as well this time, but I disliked it, so left it out of the recipe above. I have used black beans and loved them as well. Another thing I like is that this is easy to freeze in small portions for lunch.

Rating: 4.5/5
Why? I prefer to make my own tomato sauce, but I didn't have enough patience to simmer it down to a thick sauce, so the lasagna was a little runnier than I like. Also, I didn't like the bok choy. Normally, this would be a 5/5.