Slow Cooked Moroccan Lasagne

This Moroccan Lasagne is a fabulous slow-cooked, warming Autumn dish. It is very easy to make and a delicious, super nourishing meal.

Serves 6-8, Prep 30 mins, Cook 3.5 hours

Ingredients

• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 2 small (telescope) eggplant, diced
• 1 small zucchini, diced
• 1 red capsicum, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 stick celery, diced
• 500mL (2 cups) unsalted chicken stock or bone broth
• 700g tomato passata (or 2 cans diced tomatoes)
• 1kg (approx.) beef chuck or oyster-blade, cut into 2-3 large pieces
• Handful parsley, finely chopped
• 12 fresh lasagne sheets

Spice mix

• 2 tablespoons smoked paprika
• 2 tablespoons cumin, ground
• 1 tablespoons cinnamon, ground
• 1 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
• 1 tablespoon coriander, ground
• 1 teaspoon turmeric, ground
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg, ground
• ½ teaspoon cloves, ground
• 2 teaspoons sea salt

Yoghurt sauce

• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 200g full-fat unsweetened Greek yoghurt
• 200g feta cheese
• 1 teaspoon cumin, ground
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• Good grind black pepper
• ½ cup grated parmesan cheese

Method

1. Pre-heat your oven to 150℃.
2. In a Dutch oven or oven proof dish with a lid, place the onion, garlic, eggplant, zucchini, capsicum, carrot, celery, stock/broth, tomatoes and all of the spice mix. Mix together.
3. Add the beef and submerge in the liquid. Put the lid on the dish and cook in the oven for 3 hours.
4. After 3 hours, remove the pieces of beef from the sauce, shred it and put it back into the sauce. If the sauce seems to liquid, pop it on the stove top (no lid) and simmer to reduce it to a thick ragu.
5. To make the yoghurt sauce, blend the garlic, yoghurt, feta, cumin, sea salt and pepper into a slightly chunky sauce.
6. Increase the oven temperature to 180℃.
7. In an approx. 35 x 25cm baking dish place a third of the sauce. Top with lasagne sheets, and repeat so you have three layers of sauce and finish with a layer of lasagne.
8. Top with the yoghurt sauce and parmesan cheese.
9. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the cheese is golden and the pasta is cooked through.
10. Slice and serve with the fresh parsley and a garden salad.

Variations

Dairy-free: Replace the yoghurt and feta with cashew nut cream and top with ¼ cup nutritional yeast mixed with ¼ cup ground macadamia nuts.

Gluten and grain-free: Replace the lasagne with a gluten-free pasta or thinly sliced eggplant to form the pasta layer.

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Georgia Harding is a Naturopath (20+ yrs exp.) author, mother and passionate health educator. On her website ‘Well Nourished’ she shares fad-free health advice and intolerance/allergy friendly recipes to inspire people to live happy, healthy lives and create delicious food memories.

Georgia is committed to supporting the health of this generation and especially loves to help parents feed their children ‘well’.  She endeavours to simplify nutrition and make cooking nourishing meals achievable for everyone.