Mexican vegetarian lasagna

2015 .... a first post in the new year.... haven't been blogging ...though I cooked and tried a lot of old and new recipes in the final months of 2014. I find photographing difficult in my kitchen here.... I do not have any natural light.... but, hoping to change and blog more, about the recipes I learnt.

Asian cuisine ingredients are difficult to find here, but you can easily get mexican cuisine stuff. I have started liking mexican food here....and this is one of the mexican inspired recipes.... I have used some store bought ingredients for it, but you can make the sauces at home too. It feeds many and a good recipe to take to a potluck.

Ingredients:

• Corn tortillas 1 pack -- I used about 18 for 3 layers
  
• Picante sauce -- I used Pace brand available in my grocery store, about 1.5 cups
• Salsa sauce -- I used Red Gold medium spicy, about 1.5 cups
• 1 can -- black beans
• 1 can -- pitted and sliced black olives
• 1 red onion
• 200 grams button mushrooms
• 1 green capsicum
• 3 small carrots
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 2 cups mixed mexican/southwestern blend cheese
•  5 cloves garlic
• 2-3 green chilies
• 2 avocadoes
• salt and pepper and about 1-2 tsp olive oil

Recipe:

• Prep and chop the fresh ingredients. Peel and grate the garlic. Wash vegetables and chop the onions, garlic, chilies, mushrooms, capsicum. Defrost the corn.

• Heat the oil in the pan.
• Saute the chopped onions, till they are translucent.

• Add the garlic, chilies, capsicum, carrots, mushrooms and finally the corn.

• Keep sauteing on medium heat till the vegetables are cooked. Add salt and pepper and keep them aside to cool.

• Cut the corn tortillas in half and heat them on a skillet for about 30 seconds each side.

• Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees farenheit.
• Assemble the lasagna.
• Take a glass or metal baking pan. (I used 13*9 glass pan). Layer the bottom of the pan with 2-3 tbsp of salsa sauce.
• Place the corn tortilla halves in single layer on the salsa.
• Spread 2-3 tbsp of picante sauce on top of the tortillas.
• Spread the prepared vegetable layer.
• Sprinkle beans and olives.
• Finally, add cheese.
• Repeat all the layers. 
• I made about 3 layers.

• Top the lasagna with picante sauce and more cheese and olives.
• Bake for about 30-35 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave the lasagna in hot oven for about 5 minutes.
• Take it out and let it rest for 10 minutes more.

• Garnish with chopped avocados and /or sour cream. 

• Serve hot.

Quantity:

• Makes about 8-10 servings.

Notes:

• You can make it with chicken mince. Add about 2 cups of chicken mince to the vegetarian ingredients.
• You can use either salsa or picante, or both.
• Increase or omit cheese and avocados.
• Also, a big tip is to top the lasagna with avocado slices just before serving. Cut the avocados only when you are going to serve. If u leave them they will turn black soon.  (as you see in the following picture )