Vegan Chilli, Vegan Lasagne - One Way I Reduce Food Waste

I live alone and find that I struggle to eat all my fresh vegetables before they go off. I like to have a variety of veggies in my meals otherwise it would probably be easy to get through one carrot before it went off. There are 2 meals I make that use pretty much the same fresh vegetables, so I cook them at the same time so that I can use up all the veggies and then freeze the portions that I don’t eat. This is how I reduce food waste, it’s also a time saver because I cook 2 meals at once (great for someone who’s a bit lazy like me).

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The 2 recipes I make are lasagne and chilli. These 2 meals are vegan, but can easily be amended to any diet. You’ll notice, if you watch the video, that I’m not really someone who measures out their ingredients. I do it all by sight and how I’m feeling. This does mean that the meals turn out slightly differently every time. In this version (in video) I didn’t make enough cheese sauce and I completely forgot to season the lasagne mix! I also did something I’ve never in my life done before and that was to pick up a clearly very hot dish with my bare hands! Please don’t do that, it could hurt you a lot!

The green lentils are a very recent addition to my lasagne recipe but I find that the finished lasagne is a lot easier to portion when I do use them as they soak up some of the moisture. I sometimes eat the lasagne by itself, with salad, or salad and chips or a baked potato depending on how I’m feeling (and how hungry I am). I normally eat the chilli with rice, but often eat it with a thick slice of bread and vegetable spread or just on its own.

The ingredients which are the same for both recipes are:

Onion
Carrot
Courgette
Red Pepper
Tinned Tomatoes
Tomato Puree
(salt and pepper, if you remember to use it)

Use your own favourite vegetables, I just think these work well in both veggie lasagne and chilli. You use half the veggies in one recipe and half in the other. Easy.

reducing food waste — All the ingredients for both recipes (except fresh coriander which I forgot was on the windowsill)

Other ingredients you’ll need are:

For the vegan lasagne:

Garlic
Green Lentils
Lasagne sheets
Cheese sauce (vegetable spread, flour, soya milk, Engevita yeast flakes)
Mixed Herbs

For the vegan chilli

Fresh Chilli
Some Vegetable Stock
Red Lentils
Bulgar Wheat
Cumin
Coriander
Lime

Method:

Chop up all your fresh vegetables
Get 2 pans on the hob with a splash of oil in each on a medium heat
Add Garlic and half the Onion to one pan (referred to as Pan A from now)
Add Chilli and the other half an onion to the other pan (referred to as Pan B from now)
Wait until the onions are soft then add a teaspoon of Mixed Herbs to Pan A
Add a teaspoon of Cumin to Pan B. Give both pans a good stir
Add all your other vegetables to both pans, putting half of each in both
Give both pans a good stir to make sure all the herbs and cumin coat all the veg
Add a tin and half of Chopped Tomatoes to both pans, followed by a good squeeze of Tomato Puree. Bring both pans to the boil and then turn down to simmer
Add Green Lentils to Pan A
Add Vegetable Stock to Pan B, followed by a tin of Kidney Beans, Red Lentils and Bulgar Wheat
Leave them both for at least 20 minutes, stirring occasionally
Put the oven on to Gas Mark 6 (200ºC) and make your Cheese Sauce (I make mine using soya milk and yeast flakes* to give it a cheesy flavour). Ensure you make enough cheese sauce for 2 layers of your lasagne!
Spoon half of Pan A into a lasagne dish, layer with lasagne sheets and then cheese sauce. Repeat this process and then pop the dish into the oven. (Use oven gloves!).
Leave the lasagne in the oven for at least 20 minutes.

Once the lasagne is cooked you can also turn the chilli off. If you’re having chilli tonight then add some fresh coriander and fresh lime juice to Pan B before serving. Alternatively add coriander and lime once you’ve defrosted a portion and are ready to serve it.

What I really like about cooking this way, is that not only have I made sure that all those fresh vegetables will be eaten before they go off and I end up throwing them away, I’ve also cooked myself 8 portions of food. Wait until it’s all cooled down then portion both of them up and put them in the freezer so you can easily heat them up another day.

I promise that the lasagne is so much tastier than it looks in this picture. It would also have looked a bit more appetising had I made enough cheese sauce!

Excuse the plastic containers, once they can no longer be used I’ll buy myself some eco-friendly food containers, but there’s no point in buying a replacement for something that can still be used.