Vegan Lasagna Soup

I can feel the change in the air and Spring should hopefully be right around the corner.  But it seems like we're still got a bit of cold weather left to get through.  The high temperatures for this weekend are in the 40s.  So that counts as still soup weather to me!

I wanted to share this lasagna soup we made for the first time this Winter.  It's hearty, healthy, vegan, and easy!  I've learned that weekday meals have to be quick and easy for us to realistically make them after a full day at work.  This recipe checked off all the boxes and was delicious as well.  I started out with this recipe.  This blog has become one of my go to sites when I'm looking for vegan recipes.

The original recipe makes 3 servings, we just added some garlic bread to stretch it out to 4 servings so we would have leftovers.

Ingredients

• 1 tsp oil
• 1/2 onion chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic chopped
• 1 cup veggies - combination of peppers , carrots, zucchini
• 1/4 cup red lentils
• 1 cup tomato puree
• 1 diced tomato
• 2 tsp italian seasoning 
• 1/4 tsp each of onion powder and garlic powder
• salt to taste
• 2 cups veggie broth (2.5 to 3 cups if using whole grain noodles or with more veggies)
• 5 oz lasagna sheets , broken into small pieces
• red pepper flakes to taste
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 cup packed spinach
• vegan pesto, vegan cheese, or garlic bread as optional accompaniments

1. Heat oil in the Instant Pot on saute mode. Add onion, garlic and a pinch of salt. Cook for 2 mins, stirring occasionally.
2. Add veggies, lentils, tomato, salt, seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder and mix in. Then add pasta and broth. Make sure to use small pieces and mix them in well so they don't stick.
3. Close the lid and cook on manual high pressure for 3 mins. Let the pressure release for 10 minutes, then manually release.
4. Mix in the black pepper, pepper flakes and nutritional yeast.
5. Fold in the spinach and let the spinach wilt, about a minute. Then serve with any toppings you want, such as pesto or cheese.
    
   This was so delicious!  Mike added cheese to his soup and said it definitely gave it more of that lasagna feel.  I stuck with pesto and nutritional yeast on mine and it was really good.  I didn't really miss the cheese but if you want it to feel more like lasagna, definitely add it :)
   
   Also, I'm linking up with Deborah and the Meatless Monday Link up.