Yeah, it’s autumn (ok, almost close to winter) and that means it’s pumpkin and soul food time! As I love lasagna, mushrooms and pumpkin, I had to throw everything together, top it with a creamy sauce and refine it with something special like cinnamon – et voilà, here’s a perfect warming and comforting dinner.

Serves four hungry trick or treaters

For the pumpkin tomato sauce

• 1 Hokkaido pumpkin (~ 1 kg)
• 300 ml vegetable stock
• 1 big onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 500 ml puréed tomatoes
• handful of dried tomatoes
• spices: cinnamon (about 0.5 tsp), paprica powder, chili flakes, pepper, salt
• some oil for frying

For the white mushroom sauce

• 3 tbsp margarine
• 4 tbsp flour
• 500 ml plant-based milk (preferably unsweetened soy)
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 300 g mixed mushrooms (fresh or from a glass)
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp mustard
• spices: curry powder, pepper, salt
• some water, if needed

Additionally…

• 300-500 g lasagna sheets
• 3-5 tbsp nutritional yeast for the topping

(1) Cut the hokkaido in half and scoop out the seeds (you can use them roasted as a topping), cut into cubes. Heat some oil in a big pot, add the cubes and pour in the vegetable broth – let simmer for about 15 min, until the mass has become purée-like (see picture). Meanwhile, peel and cut the onion and garlic and fry until golden in a separate little pan. Chop up some dried tomatoes and add them together with the puréed ones to the pumpkin sauce. Heat everything up briefly and season to taste with paprica, chili flakes, pepper, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

(2) For the white mushroom sauce, heat up the margarine in a little pot until melted and stir in the flour with a whisk. Pour in the plant milk, add the nutritional yeast, mustard, vinegar and spices, and stir in the mushrooms. Heat up once and then take the pot off the stove. If it seems too thick to you, thin down with some water.

(3) Preheat your oven to 200°C (390 °F). Take your two sauces, the pasta and a casserole and start layering: Begin with a layer of pumpkin sauce, then some lasagna sheets, then some white sauce, then sheets again and so on, until your sauces are used up. Use white sauce on top and sprinkle some nutritional yeast over it. Make sure to cover the pasta thoroughly and that no naked pasta edges peak out ;) (they would turn hard otherwise).

(4) Pop in the oven for about 30 to 40 min. Do the wooden stick test after half an hour: Stick a long tooth pick or wooden stick in the lasagna and feel if the pasta is cooked through. Make sure the sauce has turned in a golden crust, so it looks like this…

And now – enjoy your lasagna!

/Thanks for reading! If you like my stuff (or have some improvements ; )), feel free to like, share and/or leave a comment here. Every comment makes me happy!