First Time Recipe: Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna
I found several iterations of this recipe on Pinterest. The first one I saw was put out by the Food Network, but since it called for homemade noodles I decided to go with a different one. I know I could have just substituted the homemade for store-bought, but thought I could make a different recipe work. The recipe I used, and made slight alterations to, came from Chungah at damndelicious.net.
My dad doesn’t like pasta with creamy sauces. He prefers red meat sauces. I went into this recipe hoping it would be fantastic and would sway him to the side of yummy alfredo and some of my favorites.
The original recipe does not call for any meat—it’s a vegetarian recipe—which I knew wouldn’t have enough oomph to it to fill up my dad and brother. I decided to brown a pound of hamburger and add it to the layers. My mistake here was not doing enough seasoning on the meat—it would have been good if I treated it like the way we treat the hamburger for Dad’s spaghetti.
The mushroom sauce was a lot of work and took way longer than the 25 minutes Chungah gave for prep time. I did this part of the recipe exactly the way it was described in her recipe—except that I used baby bella mushrooms instead of cremini.
My mom and brother were really supportive of the finished product. I took my first bite and found myself chewing away at spinach much longer than I expected. Twenty ounces of spinach is a lot for lasagna.
I was also surprised by the lack of flavor in general. I was worried that it might have too much basil or garlic. Did you know that spinach could cut that seasoning out of the dish? I didn’t.
Dad was quiet as we ate. But he ate it anyway. I knew that if I wasn’t crazy about the meal then he was force-feeding himself. He finally said, “It looks pretty.”
The layers did look nice.
You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t given you my version of the recipe. That’s because I’m planning some big adjustments to this recipe that works better for our family and then posting about that at a later date.
Everyone has different taste buds and preferences, so if you like the look of Chungah’s recipe then you should give it a shot.
It’s not a bad recipe. It’s just not as good as I hoped.
Mom and I had leftovers last night, and she added a lot of seasoning to the top, and that really helped.
As we were discussing the recipe after supper, Dad admitted that he didn’t get his (famous) spaghetti and chili recipes right the first time. It reminded me of Mom’s approach to her caramel corn—lots of practice made her a pro.
So in my adventure to develop my own favorites, this recipe is a good first try. And I’m excited to make some changes and try it again.
