Lasagne-Style Stuffed Courgettes
This bake has everything that makes a lasagne: ricotta with Parmesan and basil, spinach, bolognese and mozzarella on top. The only difference is that it all sits in hollowed-out courgette halves instead of between sheets of pasta.
You make the vegan bolognese yourself from fried tofu and Fody Marinara Sauce. Ready-made versions usually contain onion and garlic, and often soya mince too, so they are not low FODMAP.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200 °C (180 °C fan) and grease an ovenproof dish with butter.
- Crumble the tofu finely with your fingers. Heat the garlic-infused oil for the bolognese in a frying pan and fry the tofu for about 5 minutes until lightly coloured. Add the marinara, bring briefly to the boil and season with pepper.
- Halve the courgettes lengthways and hollow them out with a teaspoon, leaving a shell about 5 mm thick. Lay the halves in the dish and brush the insides with the remaining garlic-infused oil.
- Mix the ricotta, Parmesan and basil, season with salt and pepper and spread the mixture inside the courgette halves.
- Roughly chop the spinach and wilt it in a dry pan for 2 to 3 minutes. Press out a little of the liquid and spread it over the ricotta.
- Spoon the bolognese over the courgettes. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until the courgettes are tender.
- Remove the foil, sprinkle the mozzarella over the top and bake for another 5 minutes until it melts.
Tips
- Portion size matters with courgettes, so don’t add the scooped-out flesh to the filling. Use it the next day instead, in a soup for example.
- Ricotta contains a little lactose. In this recipe each portion has about 30 g of ricotta. If you are sensitive to lactose, use lactose-free cream cheese instead.
- If you have a ready-made vegan bolognese without onion, garlic or soya mince, you can use about 600 g of it instead of the tofu version.
