Dairy-free, tinned-soup-free pasta bake?

[ILoveAFullFridge]

I want to cook tuna pasta bake type dishes, but have no tinned soups and have dairy-intolerant children.

I can make a white sauce and do lasagna-type dishes, but the dc don't care for them (and TBH lasagna is just too much faff to make if its not greeted with delight). When I make d-f pasta bake dishes, they just don't work as well as with cheese. Don't stick together well, lack creaminess, and often look vaguely greasy and curdled.

I've been cooking d-f for years, and don't usually find it at all challenging, but this is one thing I just have not mastered.

Any tips?

Try making the white sauce using chicken stock then add some more texture and flavour with grated lemon rind and chopped parsley. Can your children eat sheep or goats' milk cheeses?

Dh won't eat any cheese that's not cow's milk! He doesn't know that I use buffalo mozzarella on pizza (it's a sort of cow, anyway.)

Keep a vegetable stock on hand,made with onion, carrot, celery, and herbs, and thicken it with cornflour or flour to make sauce for your pasta bake.
You can also use tomato sauce.
Ideas-
Scatter some oregano/rosemary/basil/PARSLEY,black pepper, red chilli flakes, garlic slices fried cream colour (never brown, they become bitter), slices of hardboiled egg
Place slices of tomato on top