Vegetable lasagna will be just as good

Advocate staff photo by LIBBY ISENHOWER Slow cooker lasagnas are a great way to tweak a classic recipe. Layer the 'hardest' vegetables toward the bottom for the best results.

Vegetable lasagna will be just as good

Julie kay

There was a time when lasagna was lasagna — pretty standard recipe, with perhaps a variation in sauce or seasonings.

Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate that different can be just as good, if not better. Vegetable lasagna, for example, can be every bit as good as one with a meat sauce and the best part is, you can pick your favorite vegetables in more ways than one.

For those of you with prolific eggplant gardens, here’s a good way to embrace the different and enjoy the fruits of your labor at the same time.

Eggplant and acorn or butternut squash cook beautifully in the slow cooker.

Put the “hardest” root vegetable down first, topped by eggplant in order to ensure thorough cooking.

Spinach is added in the last hour of cooking, before mozzarella cheese is sprinkled over all.

If you have a favorite lasagna sauce, feel free to substitute for the convenience sauce in this recipe. Add shaved carrot strips, a bit of broccoli, you name it.

The point is not to worry about experimenting with food, slow cooked or not.