Teff Lasagna, a Belated Passover Post

Ten years ago, I decided to host a Passover seder with two friends. Hosting was very significant for me, as it helped me internalize the fact that I was really an adult now, with my own traditions and decisions about life. I think previously I'd had a vague sense that you don't start hosting holidays until you're married and own a house, and I wasn't sure if or when the former would happen. I did buy a home later that year, though. Hosting a seder was a way to claim that adult autonomy despite being single, and it was also really fun!

At first I offered to be in charge of the cooking, and my friend would be in charge of the Haggadah. The third friend was in medical school and was basically offering us her space but not her time. She was useful for keeping us calm, though. I ended up helping with the Haggadah as well, and we compiled a mash-up booklet that we have used ever since. It's very liberal and social justice-y, with alternate words for G-d, an appreciation of all the women's roles in the Exodus story, a note that we will use the term Mitzrayim (the Narrow Place) rather than Egypt to avoid the implication that we are in any way holding a grudge against modern-day Egyptians, and discussion of contemporary sources of oppression. Our seder plate gets very crowded, with an orange to symbolize the role of women in Judaism, an olive to show our hope for peace in Israel-Palestine, one year a tomato in support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and another year a small bag of peanuts to show our support of airport workers fighting for higher wages.

Back in the day, I used to insist that the seder could not be a potluck, because I wanted to do all the cooking! I got a little more tired each year, though, until this year I didn't want to host anymore at all. My friend offered to host on his own, and I brought three dishes, including the kale brownies that inspired the title of this blog. My favorite was the dish I invented myself, teff lasagna. It's the kind of dish where even on the third day I'm still excited to eat the leftovers. Unfortunately, there was very little left for me after the seder! This one is a keeper, though, so I'll be making it again.

As a little background, I'd bought teff with the intention of making injera, an Ethiopian bread. My first attempt at injera failed, and I didn't feel like trying again as it had involved letting the dough sit out for three days to ferment. I had a lot of teff left over, though, and I noticed the texture was like cornmeal, so I tried substituting it for cornmeal in a casserole, and it worked fine. Then I got to thinking ... I had a recipe for polenta lasagna, so why not make a polenta recipe using teff and then make it into lasagna? You can get it at Whole Foods, or order it online. (I love Bob's Red Mill! I have visited the mill, outside Portland, OR.)

I try to eat mostly vegan, so the next step was to find a vegan cheese recipe that did not involve nutritional yeast, which I assume is not Kosher for Passover. I have a cashew ricotta recipe that I like, and the nooch is optional, so I left it out and added a little extra lemon juice and salt for zing. Lastly, I decided to use store-bought tomato sauce. I figured, what with making my own noodles and cheese, I had to allow myself one shortcut!

So, here's what I ended up with:

Teff Lasagna

Ingredients

"Noodles"

• 1 cup teff
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup milk (I use almond milk)
• 1/4 cup tahini

Cheese

• 1 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked
• 1/2 cup water
• juice of 1 large lemon (1/4 cup)
• 1 garlic clove
• dash of onion powder (or 2 Tbsp fresh onion, minced)
• salt and pepper, to taste

1 jar tomato sauce with Italian spices

1 eggplant

1 zucchini

salt

Instructions

First, set the cashews to soak. Cover them with water. This isn't the 1/2 cup that the recipe calls for; it is water you'll discard later so you don't need to measure it.

Slice the eggplant and zucchini lengthwise into thin slices. Set on a cutting board or plate and sprinkle with salt. Let sit for 10-30 minutes, until beads of water appear on top. Preheat the oven to 400.

In a medium saucepan, mix the teff, broth, and milk. Whisk well and heat on low until it's almost too thick to stir. Turn off the heat. Stir in the tahini.

Spray a baking sheet and pour the teff mixture onto it. Cover with plastic wrap and use your hands to spread it out into a thin layer, aiming for 1/2" thickness. Put in refrigerator to firm up.

Rinse off the vegetables. Spray another baking sheet and put the vegetables on it. Bake until just starting to blacken, about 20 minutes?

Drain the cashews and put into a blender with 1/2 cup new water and the lemon juice, garlic, and onion powder. Blend well. It's ok if it's a little lumpy, as real ricotta is, too. Add salt and pepper. Taste, and add more lemon juice or salt if you need to.

Take the teff out of the fridge and the vegetables out of the oven. Lower the temperature to 350. Get out a lasagna pan. Cut the teff into strips roughly the size and shape of lasagna noodles. You probably want to make them shorter, since they fall apart easily and will be easier to transfer if they're short.

Swirl just a little bit of sauce into the pan first. Then layer half the noodles over the sauce. It's ok if they fall apart a little as long as you can get them into the pan. Spread half the cheese over the noodles, then half the tomato sauce, then the vegetables, then the rest of the noodles, then the rest of the cheese, then more tomato sauce. The important part of the order is to put sauce on top. If you have noodles as your top layer, they'll dry out.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Here it is