Food Feature: Making Callaloo Lasagna

Although callaloo is packed with sodium, potassium, calcium, fibre and vitamin C, most persons are keen on consuming it because of the amount of iron it contains.

In Jamaica, a lot of persons cook it with salt fish, onion, sweet pepper, tomato and hot pepper, and eat it with yam, dumplings and boiled green bananas. But it is not only prepared as a breakfast dish, as persons sometimes use callaloo as one of the ingredients in green juices.

We are going to switch things up a bit this week and ditch the meats. Instead, we will be sharing a callaloo lasagna recipe courtesy of Kingdom's Kitchen.

Ingredients:

1 pack shredded callaloo

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 onions (diced)

2 cloves garlic (minced)

10 lasagna sheets

2-3 tbsp Parmesan cheese (grated)

1 tbsp mustard

1 tbsp salt and pepper

For the cheese sauce:

750ml milk

50g butter

50g flour

1/2 block English cheddar

Method:

1. Place callaloo in a saucepan of water, olive oil, salt and pepper on low heat until leaves become wilted. Drain in colander, ensuring that all excess liquid is drained off.

2. Place lasagna sheets in boiling salt water with a teaspoon of olive oil for eight minutes.

3. When this is finished, pour off water and drain fully. Do not exceed eight minutes of boiling as sheets will become soggy.

4. Assemble lasagna by placing the layers along the bottom of your baking dish. Then place a layer of callaloo and then a layer of cheese sauce. Repeat this layering until the final level is a sheet of lasagna and a coating of sauce.

5. Sprinkle grated Parmesan over the top of the sauce and bake in a pre-heated oven for 30 minutes, covered, at 3758F.

6. After 30 minutes, remove cover, repeat sprinkle of Parmesan, and then bake uncovered for 10 minutes.