In Harmony with the Forest
Foraging is a beautiful way to feel connected with the land or an area of the forest - I find that when I consume a leaf from the forest, I receive information from the forest regarding its life and my body soon after feels more in harmony and in tune with my surroundings. I also find this to be very grounding. Often I will consume a young hazel leaf or dandelion flower to feel this connection but other plants are also great including wild garlic. Some plants are particularly nutritious and can be foraged and later consumed at home including stinging nettles which are a great source of iron. Flowers can also be collected and made into a tea for a nice meditation and relaxing way to connect with the world around us.
I recently was inspired to create a vegan lasagne with wild foraged plants after hearing the idea about making stinging nettle pesto. The recipe is simple but it tastes yummy...
Wild Foraged Vegan Lasagne Recipe
(Feeds 5-6 people)
Creamy green pesto sauce
1 bag of stinging nettles
75-100g of ground almonds
Water
Olive oil
Sea salt
The filling
500g vegan mince or 500g red lentils
3 bay leaves
300g chestnut organic mushrooms
1 bag of wild garlic
1 carton organic red kidney beans (380g)
1 pack Free From Lasagne Sheets 250g
Tomato sauce
1 can chopped tomatoes 400g
1 vegetable stock cube
I spoon of tahini sauce
1 teaspoon of mustard
2-3 sundried tomatoes
3-4 cloves of roughly cut garlic
1 teaspoon tomato paste
Sprinkle of thyme and basil
Sea salt
1) Boil the stinging nettles for around five minutes and drain them (collecting the water for a tea) and put the nettles in a blender with the almonds, water, salt and olive oil to make the creamy sauce. (Season to your taste.)
2) Put the lentils on to boil or start frying the mince with the bay leaves. Chop up the mushrooms and fry them. Wash and chop up the wild garlic and fry it lightly. While these are all cooking prepare the tomato sauce.
3) Put a can of chopped tomatoes in a blender with the stock cube, mustard, tahini, garlic, sundried tomatoes, tomato paste, thyme, basil and salt. (Season to your taste.)
4) Put on the oven to 180°C
5) Now the lasagne can be prepared. Smear some olive oil at the base of a cooking dish and then begin with a layer of mince, followed by a layer of tomato sauce and then place lasagne sheets across the dish. Depending on how many sheets you have in the package and size of your dish you will need to determine how many rows you will have.
6) Then put another layer of mince and tomato sauce on top (make sure you leave some tomato sauce for the final coverage) and continue in this way until you place the final lasagne sheets on top. Make sure you have some tomato sauce left over and completely cover the sheets (without this moisture the sheets will bake and become too hard.) Now add the creamy green sauce on top.
7) The lasagne is now ready to go in the oven. Cook for 35-40 minutes (depending on the requirements of your lasagne sheets - please check the packaging.)
This dish goes great with wild garlic salad and some cheeky chips.
