Pumpkin and spinach lasagne

Whether you spell it as 'Lasagne', or 'Lasagna', either way it's delicious and you can change it to suit almost any dietary requirements.

Gluten free, dairy free, vegan, vegetarian, low fod-map, nut and seed free, the list goes on.

We've embraced the seasonal food available in winter and made a Vegetarian pumpkin and spinach lasagne.

You can go the easy route and purchase lasagne pasta sheets that do not require pre-boiling, and select from a range of wheat based or gluten free options, or make your own from fresh pasta dough rolled thin and cut into sheets, suitable to fill a deep dish or pan.

Preparing the pumpkin can be the trickiest part if you need to cut up a whole pumpkin, so a tip we have for you is to skip peeling and cutting the pumpkin up into chunks for roasting, and simply bake the pumpkin in halves, seed-skin and all, then once cooked, remove the seeds, keep the cooked pumpkin flesh for the lasagne filling, and discard the skins. Another tip is that pumpkin can be microwaved, or put into an air fryer if you do not have access to an oven, however you will need an oven to cook the lasagne, unless it's small and will fit in your air fryer.

Once your pumpkin is cooked, you can either choose a dairy based cheese sauce, cook a béchamel sauce, just use ricotta or cottage cheese, or use a vegan or dairy-free option.

The spinach can be pre-cooked, and then squeezed to remove the water before adding to the lasagne layers, or you can skip this step too, and simply add the fresh, washed spinach between layers, remembering that spinach cooks down a lot and you need quite a large amount to begin with.

Start at the bottom of the pan or dish with a wet layer, then add a layer of pasta sheets, then alternate your filling layers until you've used up all of your pasta sheets or until the dish is almost full, remembering to leave the last top layer for a cheesy or cheese substitute layer.

Bake for the directions on the pasta sheets, checking regularly to make sure your oven isn't too hot or the sauce hasn't bubbled over. You can use tin foil lightly over the top to ensure the pasta and filling layers are cooked through without the top browning too much.

Serve warm, let it sit for a little while if you want to retain the layers when serving, a piping hot lasagne will just fall apart. Perfect for freezing into portions, and enjoying for lunches too.

Make it to suit your dietary requirements, or tastes, and however you do it, enjoy it!