#OwenCooks: Spinach, Walnut & Gruyere Chicken Lasagne

This was by far the most involved project I'd tackled in the kitchen up to this point. It involved making two different sauces from scratch while also keeping an eye on an oversized vat full of lasagne noodles, and it kept me fairly frazzled for a solid hour of work. But the results were so worth it!

In early April, I went to visit my friend Tara and her family in Halifax, and she served me a version of this vegetarian version of this lasagne and it was so delicious that I photographed the recipe out of her cookbook and brought it home with me to try.

I've since found the recipe online here.

Essentially, you make a walnut and tomato sauce, and a spinach and gruyere sauce, and then you combine it all together into one gooey, cheesy, nutty masterpiece.

I added ground chicken to the walnut and tomato sauce. I also swapped half of the milk in the spinach sauce for Greek yogurt, and though it probably made zero difference, I used Swerve and coconut oil instead of sugar and butter.

Either way, this isn't the healthiest thing I've ever made, but I don't even care.

The recipe calls for spinach lasagne noodles in precooked sheets. I used whole wheat noodles (and whole wheat flour) and made far, far too many of them and had to transfer them to a bigger pot and then there were so many leftover and it was a whole thing.

One box of noodles will suffice, I promise.

I also had to Google what celeriac is and then find a YouTube video that explained how to cut it and stuff. But even my parents couldn't figure out what it was when I brought it home, so I don't feel so bad.

Oh and I didn't have any Dubonnet lying around (whoops) so I subbed in diluted apple cider vinegar and it worked out just fine.

Did I mention this thing is delicious? It makes enough to serve an army. I didn't have enough gruyere so I added goat's milk mozzarella to the top and nobody died, so...

Also we lost power just before I put the thing in the oven, and then the oven needed a reset before it would turn on. Basically this whole thing was nearly a disaster and then I got the oven working and I put the lasagne in and 45 mins later it came out and was immediately consumed to rave reviews from my family.

And then we had enough leftovers to last us the week.

Truly, is there anything more satisfying than busting your butt at a project that's a little bit out of your comfort zone and seeing it come together perfectly in the end?

Give this a try; you'll love it.