Preheat the air fryer to 180C.
First step, chop the sweet potato into bite sized pieces.
Put them in the air fryer with a good pinch of salt and 5 sprays of oil (1/4 tsp) and bake for 20 minutes. Once they are done, set aside they will go through the tomato sauce.
Put the cashew nuts for the cashew cream in a small pot. Cover with boiling water and boil for 10 minutes on a gentle rolling simmer. This will soften them up and make sure that when you blend them into a white sauce you get a consistent homogenous texture like a traditional white sauce
Tomato sauce
Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic, finely slice the mushrooms and grate the carrot. If using the chilli, chop it finely, removing the seeds if you prefer less heat.
Put a wide non-stick pan on a high heat and leave to heat up. Once hot, add a few sprays of oil to the pan along with the chopped onion, the mushrooms and a good pinch of salt and cook for 5 minutes stirring regularly. If the onions or mushrooms start to stick to the pan add 1 tablespoon of water or a couple of sprays of oil and deglaze the pan with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula. Add the tamari/soy sauce and mix it through so all the mushrooms and onion get coated.
Add the carrot, garlic and the chilli, and cook for a further 3 mins, stirring regularly. As above If any of the veg starts to stick to the pan, add a tablespoon of water or a couple of sprays of oil and deglaze the pan with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula. You want to cook it until the onions start to brown around the edges and the mushrooms have cooked right down. Add the remaining ingredients for the tomato sauce: the chopped tomatoes, the tomato puree, maple syrup, salt and the black pepper. Also add the cooked sweet potato. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and leave to simmer for 10 minutes. Taste and season with more salt and pepper to your taste and once it is finished, leave it to sit with the lid off while you make the cashew sauce.
Cashew cream
Drain and rinse the soaked cashews. Put all of the ingredients for the cashew cream in a blender and blend until really smooth. This could take about 2 minutes. Taste and season with extra salt and pepper if you think it requires it.
Layering up
Preheat the airfyer to 180C.
Into your lasagne tray put a thin layer of the cashew cream and spread it evenly across the bottom. On top of this, add a layer of lasagne sheets. It is a bit like making a puzzle, you will likely need to break some sheets to fill the gaps and cover the white sauce completely. You also don’t want any overlapping of sheets as these overlapped pieces will not cook through.
Add a half of the tomato sauce on top of the lasagne sheets and spread it so that it is level and compacted.
Put another layer of lasagne sheets like the base layer on top.
Top this with half of the remaining cashew sauce and spread it out so that it is evenly spread.
Top this with the rest of the tomato sauce.
Put another layer of lasagna sheets on top.
Finally top it with the cashew cheese.
Once layered up, put it in the airfyer and cook it at 180C for 20 minutes.
Having served lasagna for years in our cafe we find surprising to most people that the easiest and best way to cut lasagna is with a scissors. Cut with scissors, serve and enjoy!