Veggie Lasagna

This is a GREAT vegetable lasagna recipe! Possibly the best – depending what kind of veggie lasagna person you are.

I was looking for a healthier alternative to the usual veggie lasagna that is made with a creamy white sauce and hardly resembles anything “veggie” at all. This one really packs in the vegetables and uses lighter alternatives to the usual dairy products.

My adaptation of this recipe originally posted by CookieandKatie, leaves most of the veggies whole or diced as opposed to blending (and of course, as always, more garlic!).

This is a great option for a Sunday night meal when you want to indulge a bit but still feel good about what you ate. We want to feel less guilty when we go back for seconds, or… you know…!

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 large carrots, chopped
  • 1 red bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 medium zucchini, chopped
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 4-5 (or more) garlic cloves
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 8 ounces baby spinach
  • 16 ounces low-fat cottage cheese, divided
  • ¼ teaspoon salt, to taste
  • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • 9 lasagna noodles
  • 8 ounces part-skim mozzarella cheese
  • 2 cups good marinara sauce

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 425
  2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add carrots, bell pepper, zucchini, onion, and salt. Cook until the veggies are slightly softened, about 5-8 minutes.
  3. Add garlic and cook  another 2-3 minutes. Ad spinach little by little until all wilted. Remove skillet from the heat and set aside.
  4. Add half the cottage cheese to a food processor and pulse about 4-5 times until slightly blended but still chunky. Transfer to a large bowl.
  5. Add about 1/2 the veggie spinach mixture to the food processor and pulse until slightly smooth but not puréed . Add it to the bowl with the cottage cheese mixture. Add the remaining unblended veggies to the bowl and stir until all combined. If you want a saucier mixture you can blend more veggies. Add remaining cottage cheese, salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper. Stir to combine.
  6. Spread ½ cup tomato sauce over the bottom of a 9” by 9” baking dish. Add 3 lasagna noodles as bottom layer. Spread half of the cottage cheese mixture evenly over the noodles. Top with ¾ cup tomato sauce, then sprinkle ½ cup shredded cheese on top.
  7. Top with 3 more noodles, followed by the remaining cottage cheese mixture. Sprinkle ½ cup shredded cheese on top.
  8. Top with 3 more noodles, then spread ¾ cup tomato sauce over the top. Sprinkle evenly with 1 cup shredded cheese.
  9. Bake, covered, for 18 minutes, then remove the cover, rotate the pan by 180° and continue cooking for about 10 to 15 more minutes, until the top is starting to brown.
  10. Remove from oven and let the lasagna cool 15 to 20 minutes, so it has time to set.

Have I mentioned that I like garlic? Have I mentioned that you can double, triple, quadruple, quintuple… the garlic amount in almost any recipes and never fail?? Conversely, you may actually come out on top! DO IT. TRY IT. YUM.

The veggies – Dice ‘em up! This is where you’re welcome to play with the portions or variety of vegetables, but this is a darn good combo. The zucchini and carrots add great flavor and texture.

This dubious looking mixture is just the partially blended veggies, the non-blended veggies, and the cottage cheese. Don’t worry how it looks, it tastes good!

You can “go big” if you want to make this more “from scratch” and uses homemade tomato sauce and regular lasagna noodles, or take the easy shortcuts and use a (good) jarred marinara sauce, and the “no-boil” lasagna noodles. Highly recommended!

This one time I attempted to use deli sliced mozzarella instead of trying to grate fresh mozzarella (have you ever tried this?? It is NOT fun). The deli slices worked really well! But I did not buy enough.. I would overestimate how much you’ll need (probably around a half pound), and super thin probably isn’t necessary either – go regular slices if you go this route. Alternatively, you can buy the square blocks of mozzarella and use the long cutter side of your cheese grater, or just a knife, to cut thick chunks off the block (freezing it before hand helps here!).

Look at this masterpiece! So tasty, nutritious and delicious!

I served with a crusty multi-grain baguette.. and I was one happy dumplin!