I was sure I had blogged this recipe before, but I can’t find it, so I can’t have done. It is yet another recipe from this months Slimming World – a good haul of recipes I like this time. Their recipe is called Cheesy Lentil Lasagna. They use cottage cheese, just on the top layer, and no sauce in the other layers. I have added a sauce layer, missed out the cottage cheese and added some cheddar. I also substituted rinsed baked beans for puy lentils.

The bean sauce layer
2 onions, chopped, Asda 2kg/£1.07, 11p
2 garlic cloves, Asda 25p/bulb, 10p
200g frozen peppers, Asda 500g/£1, 40p
Tin value tomatoes, 31p
2 tsp vinegar, 1p
2 tsp sugar, 1p
2 tsp mixed dried herbs, Asda value herbs, 25p pot, 3p
2 carrots, Asda 57p/kg, 12p
2 tins value baked beans, 48p

pasta layer
100g value flour, 45p/1.5kg, 3p

sauce layer
400ml skimmed milk, 3.4 litres/£1.30, 15p
50g flour, 45p/1.5kg, 1p
50g butter, Asda 88p/250g, 18p

100g Cheddar, Asda £3.84/800g, 48p

Total cost £2.42, serves 4, 60p a serving

Bean mixture
Sauté the onions until transparent. Add the garlic, frozen peppers, tomatoes, vinegar, sugar and the dried herbs.

Grate the carrots, no need to peel unless they are manky. Add the carrots to the vegetables.

Open the beans and drain off the sauce, retaining the sauce to use in shepherds pie or soup. Rinse the beans and drain well. Add the beans to the vegetable mix. Season with salt and pepper.

Sauce
Put the butter in a saucepan and melt it. Add 50g of the flour and cook for a minute or two. Add a little of the milk and stir until amalgamated. Add the rest of the milk bit by bit and whisk well to incorporate. Now heat the milk mixture either in a saucepan or in the microwave until it thickens. Season. Set aside.

Pasta
Put the remaining 100g flour in a bowl and add enough cold water to make a pastry like dough. Knead a little.
Divide into 3. Roll out one third to the thickness of a credit card and approximately the shape of your dish.
In an ovenproof dish, the one I use is 9″/23cm x 7.5″/18cm, place one third of the beany mix, top with one quarter of the white sauce and sprinkle with a quarter of the grated cheddar.

Cover with the rolled out pasta.

Repeat, beany mix, white sauce, cheddar, pasta
Repeat, beany mix, white sauce, cheddar, pasta
Now top the final layer of pasta with the last quarter of the white sauce and the final quarter of cheddar. Everything else is cooked, we just need to cook the pasta through.
Bake in a medium oven for 30-35 minutes until the top is browned.

The beans can be any type, black eye beans, green or brown lentils, chick peas. You could even use red lentils, the cheapest of all, although they will melt into the mix, which is fine if you don’t mind that.

Experiment with the herbs. Use a bit of fine chopped rosemary, or thyme, marjoram or sage. A mix of any combination of them that you like. You could infuse the bean mix with bay while it cooks.

You may like a bit of mustard in the bean mix or the white sauce, or maybe a splash of soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, tomato or brown ketchup. Try things and see what you like

Before putting together the meal planners, Lesley surveyed what was needed. Of the existing 14 meal plans, most are for 2 people so can be sized up or down. Others are for 1, or 4 people