A few weeks ago, my best friend had her bridal shower. When we were divvying up food responsibilities for the bridal shower amongst the guests, I jumped on the opportunity to make the veggie lasagna. Typically, I find that with most vegetarian meals cooks/chefs like to slather on enormous amounts of cheese to create flavor (I guess they are making up for the lack of meat). This is especially true for veggie lasagna. So I set out to make a dairy-free veggie lasagna that really packed a punch on the veggie front.
Instead of using ricotta cheese or greek yogurt, this recipe relies on ground cannellini beans for its creaminess. Since I wanted to infuse as many veggies as possible, I even added some spinach into the “cheese” layers. You can never get enough greens.
The recipe calls for the use of traditional lasagna noodles, which require you to boil them before adding them to your casserole dish. You can use no-boil lasagna noodles (Trader Joe’s has them) but you will need to add in more marinara (the no boil noodles absorb a lot of liquid causing the dish to be on the dry side).
This recipe ended up being a huge hit, even without the cheese. The bride herself actually asked if I could post the recipe here. As we all know, the bride always gets what she wants. Love you T!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion diced
- 1/2 pound of mushrooms diced
- 2 carrots diced
- 1 zucchini diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 12 lasagna noodles
- 6 ounces raw spinach
- 2 15 ounce cans of cannellini beans
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1/4 cup vegetable broth
- 1 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon basil
- 1/2 teaspoon rosemary
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 24 ounces marinara sauce
- 1/4 cup shredded vegan mozzarella
Method
Preheat oven to 350.
Start by sautéing your onion for 10 minutes with the olive oil.
While the onion is sautéing, cook your lasagna noodles according to the package’s directions.
Then add in carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, and garlic. Sauté for another 10 minutes.
While the veggies cooked, add your spinach, cannellini beans, vegetable broth, nutritional yeast, salt, and spices to a large processor and process until smooth. If you have a smaller processor like me, start by process the spinach first, then add in spices and one can of beans, process again, and then add in final can of beans and process again.
Your veggies should be done by now. Turn off the burner and set them off to the side.
Coat the bottom of a 11 x 13 casserole dish with a thin layer of marinara sauce (about ¼ of the jar).
Place 3 lasagna noodles on top of sauce.
Sprinkle 1/3 of cooked veggies on top of the noodles.
Evenly spread 1/3 of bean mixture on top of veggies.
Evenly spread 1/4 of marinara sauce on top of bean mixture.
Repeat this two more times.
Then add another layer of 3 noodles.
Pour the remaining marinara sauce over the noodles and spread evenly with a spatula.
Then sprinkle your vegan mozzarella cheese on top.
Cover dish with tin foil and place in oven for 30 minutes.
Then remove the foil and place dish under the broiler for 3-5 minutes (or until cheese melts).
Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then cut and serve.
