Vegetable Chicken Sausage Lasagne
I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving! I know I was stuffed for days with all of the good fixins I had at my grandmother’s house. I do not think I can look at turkey, stuffing, or any other Thanksgiving dishes for at least a few weeks. Here’s the opposite dish to feast your eyes on: Vegetable Chicken Sausage Lasagne! Inspired by Saveur Magazine’s Vegetarian Lasagne, this is not your average lasagne dish. Béchamel sauce is used in place of ricotta cheese which helps make the flavors of vegetables and chicken sausage more dominating and succulent. As a long time user of ricotta cheese in lasagne and ziti based dishes, I was very intrigued by the use of béchamel sauce in this recipe. I was hesitant at first because this was a totally new territory in cooking for me. I remembered how much one of my good friends Reeni at Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice loved béchamel sauce. She used béchamel sauce in her Gus’s Pastichio recipe earlier this year. I figured why not take the risk and give this sauce a chance? Don’t worry I made sure to make a healthier and low fat version of this sauce by using skim milk and unsalted butter. Boy let me tell you, I am glad I did because I do not think I can use ricotta cheese again in lasagne dishes. It was that good! I was very impressed by how the béchamel sauce enhanced the flavors many of the ingredients in this dish. Do not just take my word for it, I’ll let these delicious photos do the rest of talking.
Vegetable Chicken Sausage Lasagne
- 2 Sundried Tomato Chicken Sausage Links, cooked and chopped
- 1 1/2 cup broccoli florets, chopped
- 1/2 cup flour
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 tsp garlic, minced
- 2 1/4 cups fat free/skim milk
- a pinch of ground nutmeg
- salt and pepper
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 cups tomato sauce
- 11 lasagna noodles
- 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 1/2 cups Fontina cheese, shredded
Making the béchamel sauce:
Heat 4 tablespoons butter in a 2-qt. saucepan over medium heat
Add onions, garlic, and flour; cook 2 minutes
Stir in milk and bring to a boil. Reduce to medium-low and simmer. Season with a pinch of nutmeg, salt, and pepper
Keep whisking until a thick sauce consistency develops
Making the veggies and sausage filling:
Heat olive oil and add the broccoli and chicken sausage. Cook for about 5 minutes
Season with parsley, oregano, thyme, and rosemary
Add the tomato paste
Finally stir in your favorite jarred tomato sauce. I used Paul Newman’s Fire Roasted Tomato and Garlic Sauce. Talk about YUMMMY! Cook for 8-10 minutes on simmer, stirring occasionally. Set sauce aside.
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
Prepping the Lasagne:
Lightly grease a baking dish with some olive oil. Spread 1 cup tomato sauce in baking dish
Cover with a layer of noodles
Then spread about a cup of béchamel sauce over top. Scoop some of the veggie sausage mixture over the béchamel sauce layer and sprinkle with some cheese
It should look like this in the middle of the layering process:
Repeat layering one more time
Top with remaining noodles with tomato sauce followed by béchamel sauce
Lastly sprinkle cheese once more
Bake covered with foil for 1 hour.
Then remove the foil and raise oven to 500 degrees and bake until golden, 10-15 minutes.
Look at how cheesy and tantalizing this lasagne looks:
Bon Appetit!
your lasagne looks great! I didn’t know that you have to add the bechamel sauce too. I like it though. Chicken and sausage are a great combo!
I love it when you cook with sausages and this dish is just pure comfort food. It’s one of the dishes I would like to have after a hard days work provided that I’ve made it a day ahead.
Oh yeah definitely make this one a day ahead! I normally do not put sausage in lasagne dishes but in this one I could not pass it up!
I love the use of bechamel here! So flavorful.
Your lasagna is singing to me to come and have a bite! I really enjoy lasagnas with a bechamel as well. Its creamy without the over-stuffed feeling of ricotta. Don’t get me wrong I still loooovvee heaps of ricotta but a little variety is the spice of life. Cheers!
This is the perfect time of year for lasagna… easy dinner party or quick leftovers – your recipe looks fabulous!
Oh how lovely! And this is healthier than regular meat-filled lasagna too. Making me hungry!
Yum! This lasagna sounds wonderfully delicious!
You are so sweet! Thanks for giving me a shout-out. You remembered my Pastichio. This is a recipe to rival! It looks incredibly delicious! The chicken sausage sound real yummy. You did an excellent job of making it healthier. Hope all is well with you.
Chicken sausage is so good and your step-by-step images are great too for budding lasagna chefs.
Look at all those cheese! Im in heaven already.
your step by step amazes me, and at 6pm it also makes me really hungry. curiously, i have everything for this in the kitchen, well, if i sub sausage for bacon. i’m thinking i should throw it together, tho i guess i wouldn’t be eating for awhile. thank you for the delish post!
looks so yummy and healthier than my fave lasagna bolognese.. this is perfect for the coming Holidays! Thanks again as always for sharing great recipe
I like the addition of broccoli and bechemel sauce. You have the comfort food thing down!
Popped in from Reeni’s to say hi! This looks wonderful!
Girl this dish looks so good! Nice going!
looks wonderful
I meet you at Paul Smith today!!, happy blogging will follow on facebook
Rebecca
This lasagna looks so good! I think I should try this one. I love the broccoli and chicken sausage (tomato!).
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This looks delicious… I am a huge fan of chicken sausage!
This looks so so so amazing. I love Chicken sausage! It rocks!
Thank you for sharing. Cheers!
I love, love lasagna, great idea using veggies and sausage.