PKU Lasagna

PKU Lasagna

My mom used to make me PKU lasagna when I was a kid. I never had it that often, most likely because it does take a bit of work to make (especially getting the noodles into the casserole dish after they’re cooked), but whenever I did get to eat lasagna I always felt like I was having a really special meal. Lasagna has always been a “normal person’s” meal in my mind, so when my mom would take the extra time to make it for me, it always felt nice (and tasted super delicious).

PKU Lasagna pre-bake

Once I moved out, I never tried to make lasagna for myself. I was always too scared at how difficult the process would be to get the cooked noodles into the casserole dish. I had seen how hard it was when my mom made it, and it’s haunted me ever since. But, recently, I decided I needed to face my fears and take a stab at it. The only low-protein companies I know of that make lasagna noodles is Loprofin, if you know of any others leave a comment below. A couple of key things you’ll need to make the first step go smoothly is a large pot that the noodles will fit into, and fancy spider strainer to get the noodles out. I also use some kitchen tongs just to help pull the noodles onto the strainer so they don’t break.

Another important thing to remember about cooking the noodles is to not overcook them. I have always taken one noodle out at a time, and then added the sauce and cheese, and then continued adding the rest of the noodles after. An issue with that though, is the last couple of noodles will cook longer in the pot so sometimes the last noodle will break on me when I am adding it to the dish because of how soft it is. An easy way to avoid this is to take all the noodles out at once and lay them out on a flat surface so they immediately stop cooking. You should probably do this to avoid make the same mistakes I did. I’m just lazy and don’t want to clean more dishes or surfaces than I need to.

PKU Lasagna

After dealing with the noodles though, the rest of the process is pretty simple. Be sure to only use smaller amounts of sauce when layering, because the amount of sauce posted in the ingredients is the total amount for the recipe. The same thing goes for the So Delicious Cheddar Jack cheese. The mozzeralla cheese is just for the top, because I think the top looks prettier with the white cheese on top, but you can take this off if you want to cut back on the phe. Another swap you can do is to use Cambrooke’s Mozzarella Shreds. With Cambrooke shreds, 30g of cheese is 35mg of phe (source – nutrition facts tab), whereas the So Delicious Cheddar Jack dairy-free and Mozzarella shreds are 13mg of phe for 28g of cheese (source- HMP). I always used Cambrooke’s Mozzarella Shreds growing up, so they work great, they just don’t melt the same way as the So Delicious cheese.

The rest of the recipe is pretty straight forward, nothing really to comment on about it. This does make 2 servings, I normally eat both servings because it’s so delicious, but I have kept it as leftovers in the past, and it reheats perfectly fine in the microwave. 

If you have any other cool, innovative ways to use lasagna noodles, comment below! I’d love to see some of your ideas. I hope you enjoy the lasagna!

Ingredients:

One serving of PKU Lasagna

3 Loprofin lasagne noodles   48g

½ cup So Delicious Cheddar Jack (separated) (56g)

¼ cup So Delicious Mozzarella (28g)  

1 cup Ragu traditional sauce (separated) (250g)

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. basil

Salt to taste

Servings per recipe: 2 servings

Serving Size: ¾ cup (half of the casserole)

Phe per serving: 84mg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Follow box directions to cook lasagna noodles. (Cook for the least amount of time due to the extra time the noodles will cook in the oven).

3. In a greased, small casserole dish, layer the bottom of the pan with a thin amount of tomato sauce.

4. Once the noodles have cooked, place one noodle top of the sauce. Add a layer of sauce, then a layer of the cheddar jack cheese. Top with a little onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, and basil. (Add salt to taste).

5. Repeat previous step with last two noodles. Then add the mozzarella cheese on top.

6. Cover casserole with aluminum foil. Cook in the oven for 25 minutes.

7. Uncover the casserole, and cook in the oven for another 30 minutes.

8. Let cool for 3 to 5 minutes, then serve and enjoy!