Like most chefs, Greg the head chef at Sage Organic Vegan Bistro in LA, does not cook with recipe books. He has compiled this recipe in handwritten notes and photos before sending them to me to translate, edit and share. I will post my findings on the recipe when I make my version this weekend. Happy Follow Friday!  

Ingredients:

Lasagna noodles (either the no bake or the kind you boil is fine,) 2 red bell peppers, 1 onion, 7 garlic cloves, 4 celery stalks, 30 oz canned whole tomato*, heirloom tomatoes sliced, 6 oz. tomato paste, 3 carrot, 1/2 cup red wine, zucchini, eggplant, 1 bunch fresh basil, sage, parsley, panko, nut yeast**, vegan chix stock, handful of pitted Kalamata olives, 2 tbl dark agave, rep pepper chili flakes, cumin seeds, soy butter, rice flour, granulated garlic, tamari, 1 cup soy yogurt, 2 cups panko, a few rosemary sprigs, 4-5 dried rosebuds and 1 tbl balsamic vinegar

* (If you are going to stew your own tomatoes, peel and puree them and then get more to slice for the lasagna layers. If you are using canned tomatoes, crush with hands and then  buy enough fresh for a couple layers in the lasagna)

** (Nut yeast = nutritional yeast. If you want to be lazy you can just melt some Daiya or Follow Your Heart cheeeeeeeez)

DIY Recipe:

l. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Start with a fine dice (miropoix) of celery, carrot, onion, bell pepper and cumin seeds, add to saute pan and cook in olive oil. Add your favorite cooking wine to reduce.

2. Now add your stewed, roasted or canned whole tomatoes that you have crushed by hand, olives and herbs. (garlic, sage, parsley)

  3. Add about 1 cup water and simmer for 30 min on low heat. 

4. Now add about 4-5 rose buds to the simmering sauce.

5. Finished sauce. Add basil, salt & pepper to taste. I like mine hot so I toss in a lot of chili flakes.

6. Here is the start of the roux. In the pan, melt your soy butter while stirring in the rice flour.

7. Once you have made the roux (paste with flour and soy butter) add in the water and nutritional yeast bit by bit while stirring constantly over low heat with whisk. This is the time for the granulated garlic, tamari, salt and pepper. 

8. Everything should come together with a nacho cheese like consistency.

9. Prep your tomatoes and zucchini by slicing them in l/8 to l/4 inch rounds.

l0. Prepare you 2 smaller rectangular (or l large) pan by oiling the sides and edges with olive oil.

ll. Layer the tomato sauce first and coat the bottom of the pan. Then add your noodles and keep in mind that the neatness of how you layer your components will affect how the lasagna looks when it is sliced. It is ok to overlap the noodles.

l2. The bechamel cheez sauce goes over the noodles next followed by the zucchini and then heirloom tomatoes.

l3. The process begins all over again with the tomato sauce, noodles, bechamel, zucchini and then tomato slices until finished with the tomato sauce on top.

l4. Before putting the pans into the oven, sprinkle the slivered almonds and lay the rosemary sprigs across the top. Cover with tin foil. The lasagna should bake for approximately 45 minutes in total. WARNING: Remove the rosemary from the lasagna after l5 minutes in the oven. Any longer and the flavor of the herb will be too strong. place the pans back to cook until golden brown on top and bubbly.

l5. While the dish is cooking in the oven begin to prepare the eggplant rounds. Blend equal parts panko, nutritional yeast, and chix stock powder in the food processor. Dip both sides in soy yogurt and then coat with panko mixture.

l6. Pan fry in some vegetable until they are crisp on the outside and look close to the photo below.

l7. Plate with a quick circle of balsamic reduction, a bit of the leftover tomato, kalmata and rose petal arrabiata sauce in the middle and then the lasagna slice on top. Place the fried eggplant round above the almond crust and garnish with some fresh basil.

The chef notes that he likes to serve this accompanied with a salad including pine nuts and thinly sliced red onion. If you have a loaf of artisanal bread handy, whip up some garlic toast points by rubbing fresh garlic on toasted bread and place on the side.

Bon Apetit!

Please keep in mind this makes two rectangular casseroles and is a great amount for entertaining. You may spit in half for a smaller group.

All photos above are taken by head chef Greg Arnold in the kitchen of Sage Organic Vegan Bistro, LA and color corrected and edited by me.  As this is our first #FF DIY collaboration and the recipe is a bit involved, feel free to post any questions below. My 3rd installment of this project with final photos and the Q&A will be up by the end of the weekend. Thank you.

I recently the pleasure to get acquainted with Greg Arnold, the head chef of  Sage, an organic vegan bistro in LA. At first glance, his menu seems out of this world for a small towner like me who is used average 70’s type vegetarian/vegan food found locally, unless I travel to a rather large city. The menu is loaded with organic specialty produce, robust spices, delicately balanced reductions, complex and thoughtful sauces and other glorious things that really set the restaurant and his food apart. Aside from Greg’s creativity in the kitchen, he is a great iphonographer and kind enough to share tips and tricks in both cooking and photography.

All of these components; the cooking, lifestyle and photography fit perfectly with my new project which makes use of the #ff (Follow Friday) trend on Twitter and like media outlets. It is intended to showcase new restaurants, up coming chefs and the like with a positive attitude and ultimate goal of a cruelty free lifestyle through a signature recipe of theirs photographed by me and a short Q&A about why they do what they do.

For today, we will start with Greg’s photography, his recipe and his view on why he does what he does.

Greg in the kitchen.

Upstairs.

View from upstairs at Sage in LA.

The man with a knife.

Pictured here the dish that I am recreating for Follow Friday. The balsamic reduction is topped with a golden slice of lasagna with layers of heirloom tomatoes and other vegetables, a rose petal, tomato and kalmata puree layered with a vegan bechamel sauce, topped with sliced almonds and a fried eggplant round. Is that enough to make you drool yet?

My next post will contain his prep photos, the instructions and of course my rendition. All photos shown in this post are taken by Greg. You can find more of his work by searching for @ofaire on Instagram.