Vegan Lasagna

This recipe was taken from the Engine 2 diet.  I made a few changes but you can find the original recipe through the link.  I took the lasagna for dinner at my friend Meghan's house (check out here blog about going Vegan here) and we all really liked it (even her carnivorous husband).  Way more than we thought we would.  It does take awhile to get everything together so it's not a quick meal by any means, but it is delicious.

Ingredients:

1 onion chopped
1 small head of garlic, all cloves chopped or pressed
1 head of broccoli chopped
1 Zucchini sliced
2 carrots chopped
1 can of corn, rinsed and drained
1 package of Silken Lite tofu (It has to be Silken or soft or Japanese style tofu, not regular tofu)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (original recipe calls for 1/2 tsp but I'm a wimp with spices)
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1-2 jars of pasta sauce (most all are Vegan, I used a Ragu, no sugar added and only used one jar since I do not like a lot of sauce).
2 boxes of whole grain lasagna noodles (make sure they are vegan, a lot of pasta--even whole wheat--have eggs in them.
20 ounces of frozen spinach, thawed and drained
2 sweet potatoes cooked and mashed
6 Roma tomatoes sliced thin
1 cup of raw cashews, ground

Preparation:
Saute the onion, broccoli, garlic, zucchini and carrots on high heat for 3-5 minutes in non-stick pan. then place them all along with the corn in a large bowl. (I'm not sure this is really needed and the original recipe does most of them separate but that took forever to do).

Drain the Silken Tofu by wrapping it in paper towels. Then break it into the large bowl and use hands to mix it all together.  (the tofu is taking place of the cheese in regular lasagna).

Add the spices to the bowl and mix in with hands.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Cover the bottom of a 9x13" casserole dish with a layer of pasta sauce
Add a layer of noodles
Cover the noodles with sauce.
Spread the vegetable mixture over the sauced noodles.
Cover with a layer of noodles and another layer of sauce on top of the noodles.
Add the spinach on top of the sauced noodles.
Add a layer of mashed sweet potatoes.
Add another layer of sauce and a final layer of noodles and a final topping of sauce.  Cover the lasagna with thinly sliced roma tomatoes.
Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.
Remove the dish and foil and sprinkle the finely ground cashews over the top (this takes place of the parmesan cheese) and return the dish to the oven uncovered for 15 minutes, then remove.


The original recipe added a few different vegetables (mushrooms, bell peppers) that I don't like so I put in some zucchini instead.  You can be creative and add different things to this.