Best Vegetarian Lasagna
I love making lasagna or any dish that involves a lot of time and patience in making. We make lasagna every Christmas.
I developed this recipe many years ago when before even trying it at a restaurant. I even made a youtube video on this recipe. I kept the video private viewing only. It was an amateur video just for fun.
This recipe celebrates vegetables in all its glory. It is loaded with vegetables. Every now and then, you will find only meat lasagna recipes at restaurants. Very few places can make a good vegetarian lasagna. I haven’t yet found one. That’s why I love homemade version more. I make homemade tomato sauce, but you can readily use store-bought one. I have some tips and suggestions that I have learnt throughout these ten years of making lasagna. They might help you. I have even rolled out pasta sheets at home. Check it out in the highlights on Instagram. It’s amusing how I tried to dry my pasta sheets.
Couple of things I find important about lasagna recipe.
- Chop vegetables medium to fine. Because you don’t want to cut through big chunks. It just disturbs the balance of the towering pasta sheets.
- Sauce should always be thickened. No watery sauce. As lasagna cooks, it releases water from lot of the other ingredients and being covered with foil, it also produces some steam. A watery lasagna is a big no.
- Always prefer to boil lasagna sheets and I have timed them for 8 minutes, its perfect. Rest of the cooking is done while baking. Do not over boil them. Do not remove cooked pasta sheets on and overlap them on each other. Leave them separate. If possible, lightly grease the tray. So that they do not stick to each other. They will tear as you try to pick them up.
- After baking leave lasagna at room to set further for at least 20-30 minutes. It won’t be bubbling hot to burn your mouths and will set perfectly. Easier to slice it.
- Place a tray under your baking dish to catch any drips while baking, you don’t want to clean your oven if it spills while baking. Lasagna rises as it bakes, thus spilling over is possible.
- Lasagna is all about multi-tasking or planning well. It works out perfectly fine if you have a game plan on how to make everything and assemble it.
There are some other vegetables that can be added like mushrooms, broccoli, squash, artichokes, olives etc. I always add the same vegetables I shared with you in this recipe. Let me know in the comments what is your favorite lasagna recipe. I have another fun and flavorful easy recipe. it is much simpler but still delicious. I will share that some other day.
Best Vegetarian Lasagna
Vegetarian lasagna recipe that has tons of vegetables, tomato sauce, and cheesy. All in one, with amazing flavors in every bite.
Servings: 8 servings
Ingredients
Vegetables
- 1/4 cup Olive oil, divided
- 1 big onion medium chopped
- 1 red bell pepper medium chopped
- 1 green bell pepper medium chopped
- 1 big Italian eggplant medium chopped
- 2 zucchini medium chopped
- 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
- Salt to taste
- 1 tbsp pepper
- 2 tsp Red chili flakes
Cheese/ Spinach mix
- 1.5 cups whole milk ricotta
- 2 cup spinach chopped
- ½ tsp red chili flakes
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Tomato Sauce
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 clove garlic finely chopped
- 1 can of tomato sauce 15 oz
- Pinches red chili flakes
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp Freshly ground black pepper
- ½ tsp sugar
- ¼ cup roughly chopped Basil, divided
Assembly
- 12-14 lasagna sheets boiled al dente for 8 minutes
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella I like to use fresh mozzarella then pre shredded
- 1 cup parmesan cheese grated
Instructions
Cook the vegetables
- Take all the vegetables and chop them medium sized or finely chopped. Heat 2 tbsp. olive oil in a skillet on medium heat and sauté the vegetables starting with onions, and then adding bell peppers, zucchini and eggplant. Once it starts releasing water, add salt and other seasonings too. Remember to salt less as every layer will have salt in them. Cook them stirring occasionally until the water has evaporated and they look cooked. Transfer them to a bowl.
Make spinach Cheese mix
- In a mixing bowl, add the ricotta, seasonings and chopped spinach. Mix it well to incorporate.
Make tomato sauce
- In the same pan as we cooked the vegetables, heat 2 tbsp. olive oil. Add grated garlic, and saute it until it turns barely golden. Add the tomato sauce, and seasonings. Again, salt only enough. Add ½ cup of water to the sauce. Add basil and taste for seasonings. Cook it until water has evaporated and the sauce has thickened. Watery sauce will make watery lasagna, so make sure to thicken up the sauce. It should be thick enough that you can spread it properly, but it does not run all over the place.
- While the sauce is simmering and thickening, boil lots of water in a deep pot on medium heat. Once the water boils, add the lasagna sheets few at a time if you cannot fit all them in the pot. Boil them for 8 minutes or until cooked al dente. They should not be overcooked. Remove them in tray once they are cooked.
- Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly oil a 13-inch by 9-inch baking dish
Assembly
- Spread some olive oil on the bottom of the 13-inch by 9-inch baking dish. Spoon just enough tomato sauce into the baking dish to lightly cover the bottom (about 2 tbsp). Arrange four noodles lengthwise and try to cover the bottom of the pan. If noodles do not fit, you may need to cut them and rearrange the cut pieces too. They do not have to be perfect but make sure to cover the pan.
- Spread half of the vegetable mix over the noodles and then followed by another half of the ricotta cheese mixture over the vegetables. Sprinkle with a third of the parmesan cheese and a third of the mozzarella cheese. Add 2 tbsp tomato sauce approximately.
- Add another layer of four noodles then repeat with remaining vegetables mix, cheese mix and 2 tbsp sauce.
- Finish with a final layer of noodles and top it with remaining tomato sauce make sure to cover the noodles with sauce, parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese. There are 2 layers of vegetables, cheese mix and 3 layers of noodles.
- Cover loosely with aluminum foil and bake 25 minutes, uncover then bake another 15-20 minutes until cheese is melted and crusty around the edges.
- Remove it from the oven and leave it to set further for 30 minutes at room temperature. Add chopped basil while serving.
Notes
- TIPS
- Lasagna is surely a project and labor-intensive dish.
- A little mutli-tasking and planning goes long way.’
- You can buy pre-made tomato sauce.
- You can also cook the vegetables beforehand.
- You can prep this lasagna the night before, keep it covered in the fridge, and bake it the day you want to serve it.
- Lasagna makes great leftovers. You can keep the lasagna in the refrigerator at least for few days. Reheat it and enjoy it.
- Once you have assembled it, you can even freeze it for 1 month.
- Engage other family members to assemble it could be a fun activity.
XO, Devangi