GF/DF Lasagna with Butternut Squash Sauce

Cold weather brings on the cravings for comfort food, having a strong love of Italian foods has been one of our biggest challenges with our allergies. A few weeks ago Angela Liddon at Oh She Glows put up a post for her Vegan Lasagna with Basil Cashew Cheeze and I just had to try it and since we're not vegan, I went ahead and added in some ground beef, and I omitted the lemon juice.
We haven't had lasagna in over.four.years, it took a little experimenting to get a good pasta sauce down since none of us can have tomatoes, but I did it, and my family LOVES it. They've begged me quite a few times to make it, and it always disappears very quickly. The first batch I made with gold beets, the second was made with red beets. I think the red gave it more of a tomato sauce feel, either way it was YUMMY!

So thank you Angela for the inspiration and without further adieu. . .

Gluten Free Lasagna with Basil Cashew Cheese and Butternut Squash Meat Sauce.

Ingredients

1 package rice noodles. (We use Tinkyada Rice Pasta)
2-3 lb butternut squash
1.5 lb grassfed ground beef
7 generous sized garlic cloves
1/2 white onion, coarsely chopped
1 c. raw cashews, soaked in water for at least 30 minutes 
1 T. dijon mustard
1/2 c. dried basil or 1.5c fresh basil
1/2 c. nutritional yeast
1/4 c. dried parsley or 3/4c fresh parsley
1/2 c. olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Diced veggies- of any kind.
Zucchini slices

Directions

Cut the butternut squash in half lengthwise, clean out seeds and put the two halves with the rind up in a casserole dish with about an inch of water. Sprinkle 5 of the garlic cloves around the squash, cover with foil and bake for about an hour at 350 degrees.Chop or shred your veggies (we used carrots and beets this time) Brown the ground beef, mix in with the veggies and set aside.

While your waiting you can prepare the Basil Cashew Cheese sauce.

Put the cashews in a blender along with about 1/4-1/2 cup of the water they soaked in, add in the remaining two garlic cloves, dijon mustard, basil, yeast and salt and pepper. Blend until you get a nice thick consistency, about like ricotta cheese. If your sauce is too runny, add a bit more yeast until desired consistency is reached. Put into a bowl and set aside.

Begin to boil the noodles.

When the squash is soft, scoop it out of the rind and place into the blender, add the five garlic cloves from the pan, the chopped onion, parsley, and olive oil. Blend until creamy, and water if necessary to reach desired consistency.

Mix the butternut squash sauce in with the ground beef and veggies.

Drain the noodles and rinse in cold water, this keeps the rice noodles from sticking together.

Put a small amount of meat sauce in the bottom of a deep casserole dish, then place in noodles and begin to layer noodles, meat and cheese sauce. Continue until your out or you reach the top of the pan. For the last layer I place the zucchini slices on top and spray a bit of olive oil on them. Cover with foil and bake 350 degrees for an hour or until warm and bubbly.