How to be sure your child will end up being a food blogger in the future? When she's under 10 and asks her aunt about how to prepare wild garlic. My aunt lives in the north of Estonia and wild garlic has always been more common there. As a South Estonian kid, it always seemed so exotic for me.
And yesterday was my third time meeting this fascinating herb. We went to a grocery store and I noticed a woman outside who was selling all kinds of things from berries to wild garlic. I was so happy and instantly bought a bunch. When we arrived home, I made a load of pesto and ate it with buckwheat flake porridge and creamy dilly tomato salad. What a summery treat!
PS! You should hurry, because the wild garlic season is ending. But if you can't find it, use any other edible (wild) herbs for the pesto.
Serves: 6 - 8 people / (12 x 9 inch / 32 x 24 cm baking dish)
Ingredients:
Wild garlic pesto:
- 2 large handfuls of fresh wild garlic (about 2 cups / 60 g)
- ½ cup / 120 ml extra virgin olive oil
- (2 Tbsp nutritional yeast)
- ¼ - ¾ tsp salt
- a dash of ground black pepper
- ½ cup / 50 g cashews or sunflower seeds
Tomato sauce:
- 4 ¼ cups / 1 l tomato juice (with salt in it)
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
- 5 tsp (unrefined) sugar
Lasagne filling:
- 1 large eggplant (15 oz / 450 g) + some salt
- 14 oz / 400 g green beans (frozen and slightly thawed)
- ½ tsp salt
- about 25 lasagne sheets
Potato and carrot cheese:
- 2 cups / 300 g potato cubes (from peeled potatoes)
- 1 cup / 150 g carrot cubes (from peeled carrots)
- ½ cup / 8 Tbsp / 30 g nutritional yeast flakes
- ½ cup / 120 ml cold water
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- ⅓ cup / 80 ml extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 F / 200 C. Make the pesto by blending all the ingredients until smooth. If needed, tilt the blender for a little bit while working or add a bit more oil, so everything gets blended. You can also use an immersion blender (then the pesto will be a tiny bit grainier). Set the pesto aside.
Mix all the tomato sauce ingredients and boil for a few minutes.
In the meantime, cut the eggplant into thin slices and rub with a little bit of salt. Mix green beans with salt (I added the salt right into the green bean package). Now grease a deep medium-sized baking dish. Ladle some tomato sauce onto the bottom. Add one layer of lasagne sheets. If needed, crack some sheets so they fit better. Add a bit more tomato sauce. Add one layer of eggplant slices and ⅓ of green beans. Add another layer of lasagne sheets. Continue adding the same layers. Remember to keep some tomato sauce to cover the last layer of lasagne sheets. For the middle layer also spread ½ of the wild garlic pesto. For the top layer you should have a layer of lasagne sheets and all of the remaining.tomato sauce. You can press the layers together by pushing them down a little bit.
At first, bake the lasagne for 35 - 40 minutes. In the meantime you can make the potato and carrot cheese. Boil the potato and carrot cubes in a same pot in plenty of water until soft. It takes about 15 minutes. Drain and add them to a blender along with nutritional yeast flakes, water, salt, oil and vinegar or lemon juice. Blend for a couple of minutes until smooth.
When the cheese is ready, take the lasagne out for a moment and spread the cheese sauce onto it. Since it's a big amount of cheese, you will most likely have a little bit of leftover sauce. You can use it on pasta, pizza or as a dipping sauce. It was actually great to dip the lasagne in it! :)
Put the lasagne back into the oven and bake it at 350 F / 180 C for 15 more minutes or until it's soft. Take it out and spread the leftover wild garlic pesto onto the top. Let it sit for about 5 minutes before serving.
