Best Vegetable Lasagna
Seriously the best veggie lasagna! This meatless lasagna recipe is packed with bell pepper, zucchini and carrots, sautรฉed until golden on the edges.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 29, 2024
I set out to create the best vegetable lasagna recipe. Here it is! This vegetarian lasagna is cheesy (of course), and loaded with vegetables, spinach and a simple tomato sauce.
If you have any meatless-meal skeptics in your life, this lasagna will change their mind. Iโm sure of it.
This lasagna is based on my spinach artichoke lasagna on the blog and the roasted eggplant lasagna in my cookbook. I love those less-conventional vegetarian lasagnas.
Yet, I wanted to offer a classic vegetable lasagna suitable for holidays and weeknights, and this is it. The tomato sauce is the same across all three recipes, but the vegetables vary.
For this recipe, youโll chop bell pepper, zucchini and carrot into very small pieces and sautรฉ them until theyโre nice and golden on the edges. That caramelization brings out so much more flavor. Then, add spinach to the skillet and cooked it down for a few minutes so it doesnโt get too soggy.
The Best Vegetable Lasagna
Five reasons to love this recipe:
- You can easily adjust the vegetables to suit the seasons or your pantry (see recipe notes).
- The sauce is made from scratch with basic ingredients. It only takes a few minutes to make.
- Use no-boil noodles and you donโt have to bother cooking them. Just layer them up!
- I recommend cottage cheese instead of ricotta, which has more protein and flavor (trust me).
- You can even make this recipe gluten free and/or vegan. See the recipe notes for details.
The end result is a super flavorful, nutrient-dense, veggie-packed lasagna. This lasagna might not be the quickest weeknight option around, but it is a reasonably simple recipe that will absolutely satisfy your comfort food cravings.
Enjoy, and please let me know how this recipe turns out for you in the comments! Your feedback is so important to me.
Craving more vegetable-packed casseroles? Here are more of my favorites:
- Baked Ziti with Roasted Vegetables
- Lentil Baked Ziti
- Better Broccoli Casserole
- Roasted Veggie Enchilada Casserole
Watch How to Make Vegetable Lasagna
Best Vegetable Lasagna
Seriously the best veggie lasagna! This lasagna recipe is packed with bell pepper, zucchini and carrots, sautรฉed until golden and tender on the edges. Recipe yields one 9-inch lasagna, enough for 8 slices.
Ingredients
Veggies and spinach
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 large carrots, chopped (about 1 cup)
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 medium zucchini, chopped
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- ยผ teaspoon salt
- 5 to 6 ounces baby spinach
Tomato sauce (or substitute 2 cups prepared marinara sauce)
- 1 large can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes
- ยผ cup roughly chopped fresh basil + additional for garnish
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- ยฝ teaspoon salt
- ยผ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Remaining ingredients
- 2 cups (16 ounces) low-fat cottage cheese, divided
- ยผ teaspoon salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 9 no-boil lasagna noodles*
- 8 ounces (2 cups) freshly grated low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
- To prepare the veggies: In a large skillet over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Once shimmering, add the carrots, bell pepper, zucchini, yellow onion, and salt. Cook, stirring every couple of minutes, until the veggies are golden on the edges, about 8 to 12 minutes.
- Add a few large handfuls of spinach. Cook, stirring frequently, until the spinach has wilted. Repeat with remaining spinach and cook until all of the spinach has wilted, about 3 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and set aside.
- Meanwhile, to prepare the tomato sauce: Pour the tomatoes into a mesh sieve or fine colander and drain off the excess juice for a minute. Then, transfer the drained tomatoes to the bowl of a food processor. Add the basil, olive oil, garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes.
- Pulse the mixture about 10 times, until the tomatoes have broken down to an easily spreadable consistency. Pour the mixture into a bowl for later (you should have a little over 2 cups sauce). Rinse out the food processor and return it to the machine.
- Pour half of the cottage cheese (1 cup) into the processor and blend it until smooth, about 1 minute. Transfer the mixture to large mixing bowl. No need to rinse out the bowl of the food processor this time; just put it back onto the machine because youโll need it later.
- Transfer the cooked veggies and spinach mixture to the bowl of the food processor. Pulse until they are more finely chopped (but not purรฉed!), about 5 to 7 times, stopping to scrape down the sides as necessary. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of whipped cottage cheese. Top with the remaining cottage cheese, then add ยผ to ยฝ teaspoon salt (to taste) and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Stir to combine. Now itโs lasagna assembly time!
- Spread ยฝ cup tomato sauce evenly over the bottom of a 9โ by 9โ baking dish. Layer 3 lasagna noodles on top (snap off their ends to fit, and/or overlap their edges as necessary). Spread half of the cottage cheese mixture evenly over the noodles. Top with ยพ cup tomato sauce, then sprinkle ยฝ cup shredded cheese on top.
- Top with 3 more noodles, followed by the remaining cottage cheese mixture (weโre skipping the tomato sauce in this layer.) Sprinkle ยฝ cup shredded cheese on top.
- Top with 3 more noodles, then spread ยพ cup tomato sauce over the top (you may have a little sauce leftover) to evenly cover the noodles. Sprinkle evenly with 1 cup shredded cheese.
- Wrap a sheet of parchment paper or foil around the top of the lasagna (donโt let it come into contact with the cheese). Bake, covered, for 18 minutes, then remove the cover, rotate the pan by 180ยฐ and continue cooking for about 10 to 15 more minutes, until the top is turning spotty brown.
- Remove from oven and let the lasagna cool for 15 to 20 minutes, so it has time to set and cool down to a reasonable temperature. Sprinkle additional basil over the top, then slice and serve.
Notes
*Lasagna noodle recommendations: I like to use DeLalloโs Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles (affiliate link) and Whole Foodsโ 365 No-Boil Lasagna Noodles. See below for gluten-free suggestions.
Change it up: Feel free to play around with the vegetables here. Youโll want to use about 3 cups chopped veggies total (excluding the onion). Mushrooms or butternut squash might be nice!
Make it gluten free:ย Substitute gluten-free lasagna noodles. Choose no-boil (oven ready) noodles if possible; if not, cook them according to package directions. (Fair warning, I tried using DeBoles brand of no-bake lasagna noodles and they werenโt done cooking in the time specified here. Reheated leftovers were ok, though.)
Make it dairy free/vegan:ย Double the recipe for my vegan sour cream (also available in my cookbook, page 217) and use 2 cups instead of the cottage cheese. Skip the step where you would blend the cottage cheese and just barely blend the spinach/veggies into the sour cream. Omit the mozzarella and use all of the tomato sauce for the final layer. Serve the lasagna with a dollop of additional sour cream on top or, better yet, my basil pesto.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionistโs advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Delicious! Have made several times and always comes out great. I like the use of cottage cheese in place of ricotta.
I use the Barilla gluten free lasagna sheets and they can be iffy. What Iโve found is that making it the day before helps a lot, so that the noodles absorb a lot of moisture before cooking. I add a little water around the edges before cooking to make sure it doesnโt come out too dry (maybe a teaspoon around each side).
Hi Leigh, thanks for sharing your experience with gluten free lasagna sheets. Prepping ahead is a great tip!
Better than I had imagined. I used one carrot, shitake mushrooms and zucchini and yellow squash.Added power house greens(marked down for quick sale. For tomato sauce I roasted grape tomatoes and processed with cream. I didnโt want anything canned. Basil would have made it perfect but I didnโt have any.
This looks like I changed a lot but I really didnโt. I will definitely make it again. Iโm not sure why some people said it was bland โฆnot so.
The vegetable lasagna took forever to make! Prep in 30 minutes might be true if you have cut everything up before you start the timer. A helper in the kitchen would also make a difference. Also you do not need โ3 large carrotsโ to make 1 cup! Read carefully!
The finished product looked awful โ the middle of lasagna โsankโ, leaving noodles sticking up on edges. Havenโt tasted it yet โ hereโs hoping it tastes better than it looks!
Would this work well with Raoโs marinara sauce as a shortcut if I am in a hurry?
Hi Katy, yes that is my preferred kind of jarred sauce. It will work well in this recipe.
Iโm excited to try this recipe for a 70th birthday party but need to feed 10 people as a main dish. Would you double the recipe? What size pan would you recommend? Thank you.
Hi Claudia, This makes 8 large servings. Depending on what else you are serving, that might work for your party. If youโre doubling the recipe, I would use 2 deep 9ร9 pans. This works well in a 9ร9 2.5 quart pan, or a 9ร13 3 quart pan. If you are going to double, you will need a deep 9ร13 that holds at least 5 quarts. I hope your party is lovely!
Thank you for the quick reply!
I first made this as a test for a dinner Iโm planning to host for a vegetarian. Oh my gosh, did it turn out well. The only change I made was 1/2 cottage cheese and 1/2 ricotta cheese. Iโm confident my second attempt will be just as good. Thank you for such a great recipe!!
Can I freeze this? Love your recipes!
Hi Mary, yes this freezes well. You can freeze prior to baking, or freeze cooked individual portions for easy, grab and go lunches.
I make this all the time and love it! Itโs a great meal prep.
Question, if I were to freeze it would I prepare it in the dish and freeze it before I would normally put it in the oven?
Yes, you can freeze after assembly and before baking. To cook, defrost in the refrigerator overnight, then bake as directed.
Fantastic lasagna, even better when re-heated!