Creamy Spinach and Pumpkin Lasagna

As pig farmers, most people assume that we eat something pork every. single. day. While that is almost true, I try to think out of the box and make something up that is a little different every now and then.  While trying to find a lasagna recipe, I stumbled upon Pinch of Yum's Creamy Tomato Lasagna Florentine and stealthy added it to our menu for the week.  This recipe contained all sorts of Mike disapproved foods, mainly spinach and cottage cheese.  Needless to say, after finishing a plate, he went back for seconds and thirds.  I figured the recipe was a keeper.  Then I started to experiment and came up with and even more delicious variation- adding pumpkin to the cheese sauce.  It was an accident really, I just needed to use up a partial can of pumpkin in a place that Mike wouldn't expect (of course pumpkin is on the no-eat list), and voila, Creamy Spinach and Pumpkin Lasagna was born.

Creamy Spinach and Pumpkin Lasagna

Printable Version

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups fresh spinach (or most of one bag- the more the merrier!)
2 cups cottage cheese

1/2-3/4 cup pureed pumpkin (or whatever you have on hand)
2 eggs
¼ cup ground flaxseed meal
1 1/2 teaspoons oregano

1/2 teaspoon salt

½ cup grated parmesan cheese
4+ cups tomato sauce (I use tomato basil usually, or homemade)
12 lasagna noodles
2½ cups shredded Mozzarella cheese (or fresh mozzarella cut into thin slices)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Get a large fry or saute pan and heat olive oil.  Add minced garlic to warm oil and cook until just aromatic before adding the spinach.  Let the spinach wilt to 1/2 or 1/3 of original volume. Set aside.

3. (Optional, but it really makes a wonderful cheese sauce if you do it this way) Spoon cottage cheese into a blender or food processor and puree until it has a smooth consistency.

4. In a large bowl, combine cottage cheese, pumpkin, eggs, flax seed meal, oregano, salt, parmesan cheese, and spinach mixture.

5. Grease a 9 x 13 baking dish and put a small amount of tomato sauce on the bottom, spread in a nice thin layer.  Then place down 3 noodles, topped with 1 cup of tomato sauce, topped with approximately 1/3 of the cheese mixture, then topped again with 1/2 a cup mozzarella cheese.  Repeat layers 2 more times. Place the final 3 noodles, followed by the last cup of sauce and 1 cup of mozzarella cheese.  

6. Pop in the oven for 40 minutes.  Remove and let set 10-15 minutes before serving (this will save the roof of your mouth, too).