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December 28, 2005
CR-Friendly Lasagna and Crab Vegetable Roll-Ups
In response to Gregg M.'s request, I'll post the lasagna recipe, as well as the recipe MoMR sent me for vegetable crab roll ups. Here's the crab first:
Makes 16 appetizers
Start to Finish: 40 minutes
Ingredients
2 medium zucchini
1/2 cup cooked crabmeat
1 tablespoon mayonnaise or salad dressing
1 teaspoon Wasabi paste
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 of a medium avocado, cut into 16 strips, halved
2 tablespoons fine matchstick-cut carrot
4 small fresh basil leaves, cut into strips
Directions
1. Trim ends of zucchini. Using a sharp vegetable peeler, slice zucchini lengthwise into wide, flat ribbons. Discard first and last slices, and the seedy portions in the middle. (You will need 32 ribbons.) Set ribbons aside.
2. Carefully clean crabmeat, removing any shell or cartilage pieces. Drain crabmeat well in a colander, pressing with the back of a spoon to remove most of the liquid. Pat dry with paper towels. In a small bowl combine crabmeat, mayonnaise, wasabi paste, and salt. Seed and peel the avocado; cut into thin strips.
3. On a clean work surface, place one zucchini ribbon on top of another, offset. For each roll-up, place 1 slightly rounded teaspoon of crab mixture at one end of a doubled zucchini ribbon. Top with avocado strips, a few shreds of carrot, and a basil leaf. Roll up; secure with toothpicks if necessary. If desired, cover and chill up to 30 minutes. Makes 16 appetizers.
Nutrition facts per serving:
calories: 23
protein: 1g
total fat: 2g
saturated fat: 0g
cholesterol: 4mg
sodium: 37mg
carbohydrate: 1g
Note from MoMR:
The original recipe called for WAY too much basil, to the point that it overpowered the other flavours. I use a bit more Wasabi.
CR-Friendly Pastaless Lasagna:
I've made endless variations of this recipe but the basic idea is that you use either zucchini, eggplant, or some other squash, or a green like kale or arugula as the separator between the layers instead of pasta. If you use a watery veggie like zucchini, it's good to sprinkle with half-salt and drain or pat dry before putting in the dish, otherwise all the water will release during cooking and your lasagna will be wet. You can also use an endless variety of veggies: tonight, I am using cauliflower, but I often use artichoke hearts, home-roasted red peppers, or broccoli. I usually use fat free or lowfat cottage cheese, mixed with garlic powder and either fresh or dried basil, as the filler where a ricotta would normally be in a lasagna, but you could certainly use fat free ricotta and get great results. For the tomato sauce, use whatever you like. Tonight I am using a combination of whole peeled tomatoes and tomato sauce (we need to use up some opened cans) but in the summer I just used fresh tomatoes simmered in red or white wine with a bit of garlic. You could also use a jarred marinara, or your favorite marinara recipe. I like to use Quorn Grounds, which is Quorn's version of ground beef and is a nice protein source, but you could use any sort of veggie burger type ground beef, or you could use chicken or turkey or even shrimp. I have at times used eggwhites, and tonight I will use about 30 calories worth of eggwhites to up the protein, since Quorn has quite a bit of carb along with its protein. The idea of a layered casserole in a rectangular baking dish with a protein source, a creamy dairy layer, vegetables, and a tomato-based sauce was brilliant: it's the pasta and the giant amounts of full fat cheese and overzealous indulgence in olive oils that make it a nutritional disaster. But who needs those? MR and I often sprinkle a small amount of part-skim mozzarella on top, though tonight we're skipping the cheese as we've already had enough saturated fat this month with all the turkey and seafood we ate at the holiday. We always add a bit of oil, either flax or olive, to the top of the dish once it's out of the oven, though we don't want it to oxidize so we don't use it to cook the veggies or do anything where it would get too hot.
Here is a link to one of the posts where I wrote a lasagna recipe I made for MR. But don't feel like you have to stick to that... mix up whatever ingredients you want, plug it into your nutritional software, and see what you get! Eat and enjoy!
Posted by april at December 28, 2005 3:33 PM
Comments
Thank you! I'll try it sometime soon.. :)
Posted by: Gregg M. at December 28, 2005 4:09 PM