[Elise] Sweet Potato Lasagna

I love lasagna, but have never really been a big fan of the ricotta cheese and meat sauce variety. Instead, over the past semester I've been working on my own recipe for awhile now. The carrot bit I got from my Danish neighbors, and the sweet potato is partially inspired by a piece of lasagna I had at a restaurant in Ithaca. Though it could certainly use some tweaking, I'm satisfied enough to share my recipe for a delicious vegetable packed lasagna.

Ingredients (measurements approximate)

16 lasagna noodles
1 sweet potato
1 zucchini
1 red onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 carrot
1 cup of frozen corn
2 cups of tomato sauce
1.5 cups of mozzarella
1.5 cups of mild white cheddar

I started by boiling the noodles in a large pot.

While waiting for the water to boil I peeled and chopped up one sweet potato, into inch square pieces. These I boiled in a separate pot until soft, drained, and then mashed, and set aside.

While those two were going on I sauteed some veggies. I used one onion, one zucchini and 3 cloves of garlic, but really this should be whatever you are really craving to have in your lasagna.

All of this at once isn't as crazy as it seems. The big pot takes a long time to boil, the small one less time, and the sauteing is only about 5 minutes. It's sort of like a nesting doll of cooking tasks, which all works out fine as long as you keep an eye on everything.

Next comes the layering. The start of this is a good time to preheat the oven to 375F

I started by spraying the 9x13" pan with oil, then laying down four noodles, overlapping. The first layer is just the mashed sweet potato, spread out as evenly as possible. Then four more noodles. The next layer is the sauteed veggies. First I spread about a third of the sauce down, then I sprinkled on the veggies, and then about 2/3 of the mild white cheddar shredded. Four more noodles. Then another third of the sauce. Then I sprinkled the shredded carrot over the whole thing, followed by the cup of frozen corn, and then slices of mozzarella. Four more noodles. Then finally the rest of the sauce, a ton of oregano, and the rest of the cheese (this time with mozzarella shredded).

Baked for 30 minutes, covered with tinfoil, and another 10 without, the lasagna came out perfectly. Though, I would recommend a few toothpicks in the middle to keep the tinfoil off the cheese.