Quorn Fajita Lasagne

I first made this dish back in November 2010.  I had a packet of Fajita seasoning but never managed to get any chicken in, so it stayed in my cupboard for a while.  I also had some Quorn mince and lasagne sheets and thought I'd make lasagne with a twist!  This worked very well since Quorn is very bland so you need to make the sauce extra special.

Lasagne

I made enough for 8 servings minimum but still had mince sauce leftover so room for more!

Ingredients:

 

Mince:
2 tbsp Oil
1 large Onion, diced
5 cloves Garlic, crushed (peeled) and sliced
1 Red Pepper, deseeded and diced
1 Green Pepper, deseeded and diced
300g packet Quorn Mince
2 tins of Tomatoes (use chopped, I had plum  so had to faff around chopping them up)
About 1 tin of Water (swooshed/rinsed in the empty tomato tins)
1 packet Fajita Seasoning
2 tsp Sugar
1 tbsp Your Secret Ingredient aka Tomato Ketchup
Salt to taste
1tsp Cornflour, slaked with water

Béchemel:
25g Butter
3 tsp/25g Plain Flour (I used 3 tsp for ease but found my sauce was a bit on the thin side)
400ml Milk (ding it in the microwave with an optional bay leaf)
100g Mature Cheddar Cheese, grated
Salt and White Pepper

And 250g Lasagne Sheets

Method:

1.  Heat the oil in a large saucepan.  Fry onions until soft on a low heat, add garlic.

2.  Add the peppers and fry until slightly softened.

3.  Add Quorn and both tins of tomatoes with extra water.  Stir thoroughly and cook for 15mins.

4.  Add the packet of Fajita Seasoning and add sugar, ketchup and salt according to your taste.

5.  Add the cornflour mix to thicken sauce.

"Meat" Sauce

Set this saucepan aside to cool while you make the béchemel.

6.  Get a smaller saucepan than the meat sauce one and melt the butter.

7.  Add the flour and with a wooden spoon, keep stirring, almost beating it.  Let the flour cook a bit on low heat (this paste is the roux).  Meanwhile, you can ding the milk in a microwave container, add a bay leaf to pep it up if you have them.

8.  Add a little milk and beat into the roux.  Add a little at a time and beat quickly so you don't get lumps.  You can use a whisk but I just used a wooden spoon (less washing up!)  The key is to not put all the milk until you get to the point where the texture is okay to plonk all the liquid in.

9.  Cook for about 10-15 mins until the sauce thickens.  Don't just "stir" the sauce, make sure you scrape the bottom of the pan so you don't get a burnt sauce crust on the bottom.  I grate the cheese about now.

10.  Once the sauce is thickened, turn the heat off and let it cool.  This is where you can add the cheese but I prefer to save it for the cheesy topping.

11.  Let the building commence!  Grease/oil the lasagne dishes.  I ignore the instructions on the packet that says sauce first...I did pasta first (easy to dish up) mince, pasta, if there's room, repeat and top with the béchemel.  I know a traditional lasagne layers the béchemel as well but I personally think the layers get lost flavour wise so prefer just topping it with the sauce.

My pretties

I baked it for 20mins at 180c initially but the cheese was still yellow so I added another 10mins at 200c.  (Fan oven).

Done!

Review:

My favourite part was the cheesy top!  There was no need to precook the lasagne sheets but by not doing so, the sauce in the lasagne was not as juicy as I would have liked.  I will balance this next time by using more water so I can account for the pasta drinking up my water (the juicy factor).  I will make more béchemel and make it slighter thicker in consistency.  I will also keep an eye out for ANOTHER baking dish since I had so much Quorn sauce leftover.  This dish makes great freezer fare for those lazy days.