Meatless Eggplant Lasagna

I made the best fall lasagna last night, so good that I had to share right away!  There are a couple of tweaks that I will note throughout the recipe of things that I will do differently next time.  Lets get started.

I sauteed fresh mushrooms, one small chopped onion,several cherry tomatoes, two minced garlic cloves and a full package of frozen spinach (defrosted) in a little EVOO.  One change that I would make is to use fresh spinach next time, the frozen (although squeezed and drained) produced a lot of extra liquid.

While that was sauteing I washed and thinly sliced one large eggplant, skin on.  I also mixed roughly 1.5 cups of cottage cheese (could use Ricotta, or Cashew), two eggs, and some basil and parsley in a medium sized bowl.

*I admit that I did use store bought sauce, It was an organic Butternut Squash Tomato sauce, it was so sweet and tasty, I will be experimenting on how to make my own soon! I also think cubes of butternut squash would be DELICIOUS in this recipe.

Then the layering fun began!  I layered several thin slices of eggplant on top of a small amount of the sauce, cottage cheese mixture, veggie mixture, sauce, eggplant...I continued the layers until I ran out of ingredients!

During the layering process

I shredded a small amount of fresh mozzarella, and basil right on top covered with foil and popped in the oven at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes.  I then removed the foil and baked an additional 10 minutes.

Before being baked

hint*** Be sure to check that the eggplant is super tender before removing from oven.

The finished product, YUM.

Enjoy!