Looking for the best vegetarian lasagna recipe? You’re in the right place. This Butternut Squash and Spinach lasagna will become one of your favorites! This lasagna is stuffed with vegetables and combines Ricotta, Parmesan, and Mozzarella cheeses to create the ultimate Fall and Winter comfort food.
This delicious veggie lasagna recipe is healthy, meatless, gluten-free friendly, and perfect for the Fall and Winter season. Because it uses butternut squash, it’s a great choice as holiday vegetarian main dish or just a holiday recipe. It’s so good, it’s popular with kids!
To me this is a great recipe to make any time of year, but because this lasagna has butternut squash, it is surely a good holiday veggie main dish for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s Eve.
This vegetarian recipe uses butternut squash puree, which you can easily make by following my easy step-by-step tutorial: how to make butternut squash puree. Or, you can always buy pureed butternut squash at the store.
I also want to warn you that this is my most photo-intensive post yet with lots of step-by-step photos which I think are quite helpful to make this delicious vegetarian lasagna. So, if you want to go directly to the bottom of this post – just scroll down.
Cooking tips
- Use cooked lasagna noodles. Bring a large pot of water to boil, cook the noodles al dente, rinse each noodle with cold water and drain. This will guarantee the perfect texture!
- Make this vegetarian lasagna gluten free! Use brown rice gluten free lasagna noodles and follow all the recipe instructions as is.
- For butternut squash filling, make your own butternut squash puree from scratch or use store-bought version.
- No boil lasagna noodles. You can use no boil lasagna noodles with this recipe! You might need to add about 1/2 cup of milk or water or vegetable stock to the squash purée, in addition to the milk called for in the recipe. (Thank you, Debbie, for your great tip!) You might also have to bake the lasagna for 10 extra minutes.
- Make this lasagna vegan. Use vegan Parmesan and Mozzarella cheeses, then make vegan ricotta out of tofu and lemon juice using this recipe. (Thank you, Laura, for this wonderful tip!)
- Don’t like vegetarian and want protein or meat? No problem. Add rotisserie chicken, or cooked crumbled bacon in between lasagna layers.
I also tested this butternut squash and spinach lasagna with gluten free noodles, and it works great! I used Tinkyada gluten free brown rice lasagna noodles – almost the whole 10 oz package. So, yes, this recipe is gluten-free friendly, for sure!
Bake this vegetarian lasagna at 375 F covered with foil for the first 30 minutes, then remove foil and bake for additional 10 minutes.
With this delicious meatless vegetable lasagna, you will have no leftovers!
How to make vegetarian butternut squash and spinach lasagna (step-by-step photos):
First, prepare the butternut squash filling. Using food processor, combine butternut squash puree with Ricotta cheese, milk, salt and nutmeg. Add more milk if needed (to make the butternut squash filling very creamy). Mix very well, taste and add more salt, if needed:
Next, make spinach filling by mixing cooked spinach, Ricotta cheese, Mozzarella cheese, minced garlic, salt and pepper:
Prepare a baking dish – I used a casserole dish 11 inches x 8.5 inches x 3 inches deep. Grease the bottom of the baking pan lightly with olive oil spray. Spread 1/3 of butternut squash filling on the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle lightly with mozzarella cheese.
Cook the lasagna noodles according to the package instructions, rinse with cold water and drain. Top the first layer of butternut squash mixture with cooked lasagna noodles without overlapping – as you can see I used 3 noodles. Use as many noodles as you need for your baking dish.
Spread half of spinach filling over the cooked noodles.
Top lightly with Mozzarella cheese:
Top with cooked lasagna noodles:
Spread another layer (1/3) of butternut squash mixture:
Sprinkle lightly with Mozzarella cheese:
Top with cooked lasagna noodles:
Spread the remaining half of spinach filling over the noodles. Top lightly with Mozzarella cheese.
Top with the final layer of cooked noodles:
Spread a generous amount of butternut squash filling (the remaining 1/3) over this final layer of noodles:
Sprinkle with grated Parmesan and remaining Mozzarella cheese (about 1/2 cup of Mozzarella):
Generously sprinkle the cheese with Italian seasoning, paprika, basil:
Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 30 min. Remove foil and bake additional 10 minutes.
Your veggie lasagna is ready!
Recipes with Butternut Squash
Since you’re looking at this butternut squash and spinach lasagna, I assume you like butternut squash. Here are a few other delicious recipes using this wonderful ingredient. All these recipes are also vegetarian and meatless.
- Butternut Squash and Spinach Tortellini
- Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Cinnamon Butternut Squash, Pecans, and Cranberries
- Black Bean and Butternut Squash Enchilada Casserole
- Quinoa Salad with Butternut Squash, Pine Nuts, Caramelized Onions and Feta cheese
Butternut Squash Salads:
- Autumn Salad with Butternut Squash and Pumpkin Seeds
- Butternut Squash Salad with Spinach, Pecans, Cranberries, and Pomegranate
Delicious vegetarian lasagna recipe that uses vegetables (butternut squash, spinach), and three cheeses (Ricotta, Mozzarella, and Parmesan)! Perfect as a veggie main dish for every day. Healthier version of lasagna. Also, a great holiday recipe for Thanksgiving or Christmas!
- 2 cups butternut squash puree (about half of squash)
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup milk or more, if needed
- 1/4 teaspoon salt plus 1/8 teaspoon more
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 8 oz spinach (1 cup cooked spinach)
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- pepper to taste
- 10 oz lasagna noodles cooked (for gluten free, use Tinkyada brown rice lasagna noodles)
- 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese or more
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese on top
- 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon Paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon Basil
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- For this filling, you will need to have pre-cooked butternut squash puree. Using food processor, combine 2 cups of butternut squash puree with Ricotta cheese, milk, salt and nutmeg. Add more milk if needed (to make the butternut squash filling very creamy). Mix very well, taste and add more salt, if needed.
- Combine spinach, Ricotta cheese, mozzarella, garlic, salt and pepper. Mix, taste, and add more salt and pepper, if needed.
- Bring a very large pot of water to boil, and cook lasagna noodles according to package instructions. Rinse in cold water, drain. Using knife, trim noodles to fit your baking dish (if necessary).
- Prepare a baking dish - I used a casserole dish 11 inches x 8.5 inches x 3 inches deep. Grease the lasagna dish lightly with olive oil spray. Spread 1/3 of butternut squash filling on the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle lightly with mozzarella cheese. Top with cooked lasagna noodles without overlapping (I used 3 noodles).
- Spread half of spinach filling over the noodles. Top lightly with Mozzarella cheese. Top with cooked noodles.
- Spread another layer (1/3) of butternut squash mixture, then sprinkle lightly with Mozzarella cheese. Top with cooked noodles.
- Spread the remaining half of spinach filling over the noodles. Top lightly with Mozzarella cheese. Top with the final layer of cooked noodles.
- Spread a generous amount of butternut squash filling (the remaining 1/3) over this final layer of noodles, sprinkle with grated Parmesan and remaining mozzarella cheese (about 1/2 cup of mozzarella). Generously sprinkle the cheese with Italian seasoning, paprika, basil.
- Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 30 min. Remove foil and bake additional 10 minutes.
Have you ever tried this in a crockpot?
This recipe is AMAZING! I’ve been making it for the last few Christmas holiday’s and it always goes. Even my brother-in-law who is not a veggie lover LOVES this lasagna. I make it often. Making one tonight to eat and one to freeze for after I give birth in May and won’t want to cook but still want something tasty. One of my favorite recipes! 🙂
I love comments like yours! Thank you for such a kind and wonderful comment. It made my day! So glad you’ve been making this lasagna regularly, and it makes me feel good that it’s one of your favorite recipes! Thank you!
Can you please tell me the temp and how long you heat the lasagna after thawing? Thanks
Fabulous!!! Used freshly grated nutmeg, a little more than required. Added cayenne to the spinach and quickly sautéed the spinach and garlic before adding to the cheese. Also roasted a large red onions along with the butternut when I made the purée and added the onion to the spinach mixture. My husband was raving! Can’t wait for leftovers tomorrow!
So happy you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for your wonderful comment! Great idea to add a dash of cayenne pepper and a roasted red onion to the spinach mixture. Delicious additions!
So do you cook the spinach beforehand? 8oz of cooked spinach equals how much uncooked since it wilts so much?
Yes, I cooked the spinach in advance. I cooked 8 oz of fresh spinach which resulted in about 1 cup of cooked spinach.
Made this last night and the whole family loved it! I think it’d also be great with Gruyere cheese..so delish!
So glad you liked this recipe!
This looks delicious. I have been looking for a good butternut squash lasagna recipe. I intend to try this one first. I do have one question. I like to make my own pasta. The home made stuff takes very little time to cook. I am wondering if I should use as is, or should I go ahead and cook the sheets of lasagna first, before putting the casserole together. Thank you for your help.
I admire you for making your own pasta! In one of the comments for this recipe, it was mentioned that they used no-boil noodles, soaking them in hot water for a few minutes before adding and that it worked great! Another suggestion would be to add more liquid to the butternut squash puree so that the pasta has more liquid to absorb. And bake it a little bit longer.
This was so good. I added cayenne to the spinach which cut the creaminess. Not that the creaminess was an issue. 10 out of 10.
So happy to hear that! What a great idea to add a touch of cayenne pepper!