Tibits Spinach and feta lasagne with some other stuff thrown in

Wowzers. This was tasty. I got the Tibits book from a friend. We used to go to the Regent Street Tibits for lunch often. Not sure why we are not going anymore, maybe just forgot about the whole place. Must go again soon.

For anyone who doesn't know it, it's a vegetarian restaurant on a pretty little square just off Regent Street. They have a huge buffet of all sorts of vegetarian delights, salads, hot and cold starters and mains and a broad selection of sweets as well. You just fill your plate with whatever you like, they weigh it and you pay based on the weight. Sounds a bit canteen-ey, but it's not. It's nice and the food is just awesome. I love that you can have a little spoonful of a dozen different things and most of it is really healthy too.

So I was flicking through the book for inspiration and saw a lovely looking recipe for a spinach and feta lasagne that I hadn't tried yet, so decided to give it a go. I added a few things to the original recipe, because the professional restaurateurs just probably didn't get it right. So I threw in some celery, mushrooms, pesto and nutmeg as well. And also replaced soy milk with normal milk, because I'm just not new-age enough for soy milk.

Husband didn't even realise he was eating a vegetarian meal, he loved it. And together with the red wine it did the intended trick of making him so drowsy he didn't want to go out. I like our Friday nights in our fave Soho bar Little Italy, but also on Fridays I'm just knackered so falling asleep on the sofa is the absolute paradise.

I'm really happy about this, because I used to love partying and was concerned I wouldn't be able to give up and would end up a pathetic 50+ woman in a too short denim skirt with red wine stained teeth and fake tan hanging in bars with people half her age. So thank God I turned into a healthily and acceptably pale and non-denim skirted domestic bore just at the nick of time.

I think husband is on to me though. As we were both half asleep on our respective sofas (my sister questions the happiness of our marriage because we have separate sofas instead of sharing one glued to one another) in front of the inevitable third rate action film, he announced that next Friday he's definitely going out for a drink whatever I choose to feed him. I like a challenge. I might need to pull out the big guns. Lamb shanks should do the trick even on the most determined middle-aged party animal.

The only thing I would say about this recipe is that next time I might make the white sauce a bit thicker and maybe fry the tomatoes (just a quick visit to a hot dry pan) to get rid of some of the water, so the lasagne would cut into more beautiful slices and not collapse non-photogenically on the plate. But is was very, very good.

Tibits spinach and feta lasagne with added mushrooms and pesto

160g feta cheese
3-4 tomatoes
3 tbsp pesto (optional)
400-500g fresh spinach
1 celery stalk (optional)
200g chestnut mushrooms (optional)
1 onion
vegetable oil
2 cups milk (or soy milk)
1 cup vegetable stock
pinch of red pepper flakes
4-5 tsp cornflour
8 tbsp cold water
1 tsp nutmeg (optonal)
200g fresh green lasagne sheets
1/3 cup grated mozzarella / cheddar (optional)

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

Crumble the feta cheese. Cut the tomatoes into slices. Mix the tomato slices and pesto.

Wash the spinach, remove stalks. Peel and chop the onion. Chop the celery and slice the mushroom.

Heat some oil in a frying pan, add the onion and sweat for a few minutes. Add the celery and mushrooms. Saute for up to 10 minutes or until mushrooms and onions are soft. Add the spinach and cook for 2-3 minutes until spinach wilts. Season with the red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.

Bring the milk and vegetable stock to boil. Mix the cornflour with the cold water, add to the liquid and cook for about 1 minute until it thickens. Add nutmeg.

Assemble the lasagne in a 15 x 22cm gratin dish: lightly oil the dish, put in a layer of the white sauce. then a layer of pasta followed by a layer of vegetable and spinach mix and a sprinkling of the feta cheese, tomatoes and white sauce. Keep repeating the layers and finish with white sauce and the final sprinkling of feta. I also rebelliously sprinkled a small handful of grated cheddar and mozzarella on top.Nothing was ever ruined by a handful of extra cheese.

Prick the lasagne a few times with a sharp knife. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 25-30 minutes until bubbling and golden brown.