Vegan, "Cheesy" Lasagna recipe (dairy, gluten, egg, refined sugar, and soy free)

OMG! An amazing thing happened at dinner tonight. My picky kids went for seconds, and Brianna even asked if I'd save her some for tomorrow! The whole family loved it and asked for me to make it again.

I used the following:

Pastariso Organic Brown Rice Lasagna Noodles or no-bake lasagna noodles

Organic Garden Vegetable Pasta Sauce

Daiya Mozzarella Style Shreds (non-dairy, soy-free)

Homemade organic cashew ricotta cheese (recipe below): 

CASHEW RICOTTA CHEESE

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups raw cashews, soaked
• 1/2 cup water
• juice of 1 large lemon or 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 – 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast, optional
• 1 garlic clove
• dash of onion powder
• himalayan sea salt & cracked pepper, to taste

Soak the cashews for at least 2 hours in a bowl of water, covering the cashews about 2 – 3 inches of water as they will swell up.

Drain cashews and place all remaining ingredients into a blender or food processor, process until creamy stopping to scrape down the sides every few minutes. Taste for flavors adding any additional ingredients. Some like a salty ricotta so feel free to add as much salt as you want.

Store in an air tight container in the refrigerator for an hour or two, this will stiffen the mixture a bit. You can also prepare your dish straight away without refrigeration if needed. Refrigeration will thicken the mixture a bit. If it becomes too thick, add a tad of water and mix well.

Makes approx. 2 cups. Stores in refrigerator for up to a week.

Notes:

You could do just as well without the nutritional yeast if you don’t have it. I only added a small amount, probably pretty unnoticeable. I will be trying more next time to play around with it a bit. If you do add it, it will add a bit more cheesy flavor and some good nutritional value.

If you have trouble with the mixture blending on it’s own try this because it’s too thick, add a little extra water. More details here:
http://thesimpleveganista.blogspot.com/2012/10/cashew-ricotta-cheese.html

For assembly I just used the instructions on the lasagna noodle box using the ingredients above.