Roasted Butternut Squash and Spinach Lasagna
This Butternut Squash and Spinach Lasagna has it all — butternut squash roasted to perfection, layers of spinach, and a creamy buttery béchamel sauce with a little bit of nutmeg for extra warmth. It’s the perfect vegetarian main dish that’s hearty, comforting, and guaranteed to make even the most loyal meat-eaters reach for seconds!
Ingredients
- 1 large butternut squash 1.2 kg (900g prepared weight), peeled, deseeded, cut into 2cm cubes
- 3 garlic cloves skin-on
- 2 sprigs of rosemary leaves removed and chopped finely
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 500 g spinach fresh or thawed from frozen
- 3 tablespoon tomato paste
- 5-6 lasagna sheets dried
- 125 g ball of mozzarella torn into pieces
- 60 g butter
- 60 g plain flour all-purpose flour
- 850 ml milk
- 50 g parmesan cheese finely grated
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
Instructions
Roast Butternut Squash
- Preheat the oven to 180°C Fan.
- Spread the butternut squash cubes on a large baking tray in a single layer. Add the whole unpeeled garlic cloves. Drizzle olive oil, sprinkle the rosemary all over, season with salt and pepper and mix to coat.
- Roast butternut squash for 35-40 minutes, until soft and browned on the edges, mixing once midway through.
Make White Sauce
- In the meantime, make the sauce by melting the butter in a medium pan. Stir in the flour and cook stirring continuously until you have a thick paste.
- Gradually whisk in all the milk until smooth (ensure no lumps of flour remain. Heat the white sauce for 4-5 mintes over emdium heat unti thickened and coats the back of the spoon.
- Take the sauce off the heat and stir in half of the parmesan cheese. Season with salt, black pepper and nutmeg. Set the sauce aside.
Prepare The Spinach
- If you are using fresh spinach, place it in a large colander and pour a whole kettle of boiling over the spinach (you may need a couple of kettlefuls to wilt it if your colander is narrow).
- Leave the spianch to cool down enough to handle, then squeeze out as much water as you can. You should be left with a block of pressed spinach.
- If you are using frozen and thawed spinach, simply squeeze out any excess moisture after destrosting.
- Roughly chop the spinach.
Assemble & Bake
- When the squash is cooked, squeeze the garlic flesh out of their skins and mix with the butternut squash to distribute the flavour. Discard the garlic skins.
- In a small bowl, mix the tomato paste with 4 tablespoon of water.
- Spread a third of tomato sauce on the base of an ovenproof dish (about 24x24cm).
- Spread about ⅓ of the roasted butternut squash on top.
- Scatter ⅓ of the spinach on top aiming to evenly distribute it across the squash.
- Spoon ⅓ of the white sauce all over the vegetables.
- Top everything with a layer of lasagne sheets (you may need to break some up to cover the whole surface). and spread a very thin layer of tomato sauce.
- Repeat this process once more: a later of butternut squash, a layer of spinach, white sauce and then a layer of lasagna sheets and the remaining tomato sauce.
- Add the remaining squash, spinach and bechamel sauce (do not top it with lasagna sheets).
- Scatter the rest of the parmesan on top, arrange the torn mozzarella pieces and place the lasagna back into the oven for 40-45 minutes.
- Allow the butternut squash and spinach lasagna to rest for 5 minutes before slicing it into portions!
Nutrition
Calories: 783kcalCarbohydrates: 102gProtein: 35gFat: 28gSaturated Fat: 15gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 0.5gCholesterol: 72mgSodium: 689mgPotassium: 1924mgFiber: 9gSugar: 18gVitamin A: 32759IUVitamin C: 75mgCalcium: 818mgIron: 7mg
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