Vegetable Lasagna

Guess what I made this weekend?
Lasagna! How'd you know? ;)

I heart lasagna. You really can't go wrong with pasta and cheese! When I became vegetarian, I just left the meat out of my lasagna. And . . it was disappointing. I think leaving out that whole pound of ingredients kinda threw off the balance. So this time around, I made vegetable lasagna. I used spinach, carrots, and cauliflower because I had all three in my fridge, but there are tons of variations out there. Stouffer's makes a frozen vegetable lasagna with spinach, broccoli, and carrots, so I might try that combo next time. The cheese portion of the recipe also has tons of flexibility. I didn't use ricotta because I didn't have any on hand - just use what you have!


Vegetable Lasagna

• 6 lasagna noodles
• 2 - 3 cups shredded cheese (I used a combo of mozzarella and parmesan)
• 1 jar of tomato sauce (mine was 24 oz.)
• 3/4
 cup shredded cauliflower
• 3/4 cup shredded carrots
• 1 egg
• 1 minced garlic clove
• 4 cups fresh spinach
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Boil lasagna noodles according to the package directions, drain. Add olive oil and garlic to a skillet and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the spinach and cook until wilted. Shred the carrots and cauliflower in a food processor, and combine with the egg and wilted spinach. Spread about a cup of tomato sauce in the bottom of an 8x8 baking dish, then two of the lasagna noodles, then about 1/3 of the vegetable mixture, and top with about 1/3 of the cheese. Then twice more - sauce, noodles, veggies, cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 20 - 25 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 - 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Can't wait to see the assembly action unfold? I started with a layer of tomato sauce, then noodles, and then filling:
 Then mozzarella:
 Then start to repeat - here's sauce and noodles again:
And don't worry about making the noodle layer perfect - no one will ever know! ;) Use kitchen scissors if you'd like your edges to be more precise than mine.
It was super yummy - I hope you enjoy it too!

Comments

  1. Holy moly, this looks delicious! I love the healthy addition of crazy amounts of veggies :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, the veggies totally negate the three cups of cheese ;)

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  2. CatMan is a total lasagna freak, so we have veggie lasagna around once a week. He's fussy about veggies though (which is hilarious, since he's been a vegetarian most of his life - how does a vegetarian not like veggies?!?) Anyhow, I generally use a layer of scrambled eggs where the meat would go. I scramble them up with some diced onion & garlic, and whatever veggies I think I can sneak in there without setting off his alarms (generally some mushrooms and maybe a bit of spinach or grated zucchini.)

    My other trick is that I generally use cream cheese, or a thick cream sauce made with cream cheese in place of the ricotta layer. I've never been a big fan of the ricotta... sorta tasteless IMHO, and the cream cheese adds a lovely flavor as well as a nice creamy texture.

    Happy lasagna making!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ooh, sneaky - I love it! haha

      Both scrambled eggs and cream cheese sound like good additions, thank you!

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  3. This sounds amazing! I love the healthy veggies in it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I might be biased, but I really enjoyed it haha ;)

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  4. Congratulations! Your recipe is one of my featured winners at Future Expat's Required Ingredient Link Party. This recipe looks really great! Thanks for sharing.

    http://futureexpat.com/2013/12/required-ingredient-sugar/

    I hope you'll stop by and link up your sweet recipes to today's sugar party.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks!

      And definitely - I have plenty of recipes that use sugar :)

      Delete

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