A meat lasagna with red kidney beans
Difficulty: Easy
Portions: 8
Preparation: 40 min.
Baking time: 40 min.
Here is an excellent and different lasagna recipe for a meat lasagna, baked with red beans... As seen in the famous chili con carne, ground beef combines very well with red beans; the
the texture and consistency of the red beans actually allow us to use less meat. It is actually possible to make this a vegetarian lasagna by substituting all the meat
for more mashed beans...
Ingredients:
* 2 cups cooked red kidney beans home or 1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained (19 onces)
* 1/2 pound (250 g) lean ground beef
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 1 can tomato paste 13 oz or 369 ml
* 3 cups water
* 1 teaspoon dried basil 5 ml
* 1 teaspoon ground thyme 2 ml
* 1 teaspoon ground oregano 2 mL
* 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper 2 ml
* 1 egg, slightly beaten
* 2 cups cottage cheese, or 500 ml
* 9 precooked lasagna noodles (no boil dry pasta, oven ready)
* 3 cups grated mozzarella
Instructions
Cook and mash the red kidney beans:
1) Puree the already cooked red kidney beans with the back of a fork.
Preparing the tomato meat sauce, and cottage cheese stuffing
2) In a large nonstick skillet, cook ground beef, onion and garlic over medium heat, about 6 minutes or until beef no longer pink and the onions have become translucent. Important: remove excess liquids with a spoon.
3) Add the mashed beans, whole beans, tomato paste, water, basil, thyme and oregano. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the sauce has reduced significantly - about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
4) In a medium bowl, mix the egg with the cottage cheese. Reserve.
Putting this lasagna together
5) Preheat oven to 350 ˚F (180 ° C). In a 9 x 13 inch lasagna pan (22 cm x 33 cm) or baking dish, spread 1 and 1/2 cups sauce (reserve one cup of sauce for the next step).
6) Place 4 lasagna noodles over the sauce and again top the remaining sauce. Add half of your egg and cottage cheese mixture. Then cover with half of the grated mozzarella.
7) Repeat with 4 lasagna noodles, then another layer of egg and cheese mixture then the remaining grated mozzarella.
Baking the red beans lasagna
8) Place rack at the center position of oven. The oven should now be at 350 ˚F.
9) Bake for 40 minutes or until the pasta lasagna noodles are soft. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.