I have never been much for pasta, however I have always loved Lasagna.  As a child, on those special days when my family ordered out and my Mom wanted pizza, my Dad would always order lasagna – I always ate with Dad. 

When I started eating gluten-free, pasta was NOT one of the foods that I cried over losing; it was almost irrelevant.  Almost - I have tried corn pasta, which I don’t mind, however I much prefer Tinkyada and have since learned to give it a good rinse in cool water when I’m finished cooking it.

That being said, I do suffer the occasional craving for pasta and now that I eat the GF variety, I can even manage to eat an entire serving.

Inspired by a co-workers recent chickpea lasagna (sans tomato sauce), the delicious gluten-free lasagna my mother-in-law made Just For Me, and the enormous bowl of chickpea’s that Shauna inspired me to cook, I decided it was time to experiment.  I am suprisingly happy with this dish on it’s first try – if you are able to tweak the recipe and make it even better, be sure and leave a comment and let me know what worked.

Although my husband is agreeable with a fair amount of Gluten-Free eating, if it doesn’t pose too much trouble I will occasionally make two seperate dishes.  In the case of pasta, I have taken to baking in two loaf pans, using the same fillings, but different noodles to accomodate us both.  If the quantities below seem odd – keep this in mind. 

 

Gluten-Free Chickpea Lasagna

Ingredients:

  • Half a box of Tinkyada lasagna noodles
  • Half jar of tomato sauce
  • 1.5 cups cooked Chickpeas*
  • Half box of frozen, chopped spinach
  • 1 cup cottage cheese**
  • 1 tsp herbamere seasoning
  • 1 1/4 cup shredded cheese***

*You can substitute canned chickpeas – you may not need the whole can
**Ricotta would have been delicious, but I didn’t have any on hand
***I used a mozzarella/edam mix

  1. Cook lasagna noodles according to package – remove from water a few minutes early to avoid mushy noodles. 
  2. Preheat oven to 400 F.  Lightly grease a large loaf pan.
  3. While the pasta is cooking, in a medium bowl, mix the chickpeas and pasta sauce.
  4. Drain spinach and place in a medium bowl with ricotta cheese and sprinkle with herbamere. Mix well.
  5. Once cooked, drain noodles and rinse with cool water.
  6. Cover bottom of loaf pan with cooked noodles.
  7. Spoon 2/3 of chickpea mixture onto noodles, sprinkle lightly with grated cheese.
  8. Cover with a layer of cooked noodles.
  9. Spoon 2/3 of spinach mixture over noodles, sprinkle lightly with grated cheese.
  10. Cover with a layer of cooked noodles.
  11. Spoon remaining chickpea mixture over noodles then layer remaining spinach mixture on top.  Sprinkle lightly with grated cheese.
  12. Cover with a layer of cooked noodles – if you have any remaining pasta sauce, spoon it on top
  13. Cover with remaining cheese and bake for about 30 minutes until is brown and bubbly.
  14. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving!

yield: 3 generous servings