A staple fave, lasagne always goes down well as a family meal, plus it's also a great option for meal prepping so you can stockpile some or all of it for the days ahead. If you've got children in your household who aren't into eating vegetables, this is the perfect dish for 'hiding' them so the kids can get a delicious, nutritious meal.

Makes around 6-8 serves.

Ingredients

• 300-400g minced beef (you can substitute for 2 tins brown lentils if you prefer a vegetarian option)
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 tin (approx 410g) tomato puree
• 1 pack fresh or dried lasagne sheets
• 2 carrots, grated or chopped
• 2 handfuls baby spinach
• 1/2 cup grated cheese
• 1 cup beef stock
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp dried or 1 handful fresh Italian herbs
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Splash of red wine, optional

CHEESE SAUCE

• 1 cup grated cheese
• 2 cups milk
• 50g butter
• 2 tbsp flour
• Salt and pepper

Method

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

In a large heavy-based frying pan on medium heat, saute the onion until translucent. Add the minced beef and cook until browned. Add the tomato puree, tomato paste, beef stock, a little red wine if you like, vegetables, finely diced or dried herbs, salt and pepper, then mix to combine.

Reduce heat and allow to simmer until mixture thickens.

CHEESE SAUCE

While the meat sauce is simmering, in a separate saucepan over low heat, melt the butter then stir in the flour (if the heat is too high it will burn). Slowly add the milk a little at a time, stirring continuously to make a smooth sauce (important to add milk slowly - if it's cold/too much is added at once it will solidify the butter and you'll end up with a lumpy sauce).

Keep stirring over heat until the sauce thickens, then remove from heat. Add salt and pepper to taste. This is your basic Bechamel, or White Sauce. Add the cup of grated cheese and stir to mix in to create a Cheese Sauce.

PUT IT TOGETHER

In a deep baking dish/lasagne dish, layer the meat mixture, pasta then cheese sauce, and repeat until the meat and cheese sauce have been used up, finishing with the cheese sauce on top. Sprinkle over the remaining grated cheese then bake in your preheated oven for 30-40 mins until the pasta has cooked through and the top of the lasagne begins to go golden brown.

TIPS

• After browning the onion and minced beef, you might like to put all the sauce ingredients into a slow cooker at the start of the day. Then when it's time to cook dinner you simply layer it with the cheese sauce and pasta then follow the rest of the method as usual.
• If you use dried lasagne sheets and find they aren't softening when you cook the lasagne in the oven, you can cover the dish with tinfoil and remove it halfway through to allow the top to brown.

Image / NZ Real Health