This recipe is for gluten free deconstructed vegetable lasagne with chicken meatballs. It is a healthy version of lasagne, with abundance of vegetables, baked with chicken meatballs and served with gluten free lasagne pasta mini-sheets.
Fresh vegetables are baked in layers with frozen or fresh chicken meatballs in one baking dish. Gluten free pasta mini-sheets are cooked separately and served with meatballs and vegetable bake.
Ingredients: servings for 2, for family size bake, double the quantity of all ingredients and use baking dish of appropriate size.
- 5-6 chicken meatballs, fresh or frozen (seasoned chicken mince can be used instead)
- 1 carrot
- 1 onion
- 1/2 leek
- 1 long eggplant
- 1 zucchini
- 1 red capsicum or sweet red long chili pepper
- 2 celery sticks
- 1-2 table spoons of oil or unsalted butter
- 2-3 table spoons of shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 table spoon of garlic and chilli peppers paste, or any spice mix you like
- salt to season, parsley to garnish
Preparation:
- chop carrots, celery, capsicum and onion
- using peeler, make long thin slices of zucchini and eggplant, cut leek
- put half zucchini and eggplant slices on the bottom of baking dish
- mix carrots, capsicum and celery with chili peppers and garlic paste, season with salt and make a second layer of vegetables
- distribute leek evenly on top
- finish with layer od sliced eggplant and zucchini
- put chicken meatballs on top, add 1/2 cup of boiling water, oil or butter, cover baking dish with aluminium foil, and bake in preheated fan forced oven at 190 degrees, for 30-40 min (depends what meatballs, fresh or frozen were used)
- remove aluminium foil, sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and bake for another 15-20 min.
- cook gluten free pasta mini-sheets
- serve pasta topped with vegetable and meatballs bake
This dish is less time consuming and healthier version, compared to regular lasagne, it has substantially lower content of pasta, is very low in fat, has lots of vegetables and juicy meatballs, as a source of protein. It does not have heavy, thick sauce and, using different spice mixes, any taste you like can be achieved. Fresh tomatoes can be used instead of water, to give distinct tomato flavour. To make baking time shorter, fresh or defrosted meatballs, or even chicken mince can be used. Carrots should be finely chopped or avoided altogether. I always have meatballs in the freezer for emergencies and for the times, when I do not feel well enough to cook. I use meatballs either to make chicken soup or vegetable bake. For this dish all I have to do is to chop vegetables, add meatballs, put them into the oven and boil pasta when the bake is ready.
Cooking Without Gluten 