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!
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.
Spinach Filling:
Combine cooked spinach, Ricotta cheese, mozzarella, garlic, salt and pepper. Mix, taste, and add more salt and pepper, if needed.
Note: The recipe I provide for how to cook spinach uses lemon juice and lemon zest which pairs nicely with butternut squash but you don't have to use lemon juice and/or lemon zest if you don't like it.
Cooking lasagna noodles:
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).
How to assemble vegetarian lasagna:
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 ⅓ 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 (⅓) 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 ⅓) over this final layer of noodles, sprinkle with grated Parmesan and remaining mozzarella cheese (about ½ 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.
Notes
Make it GLUTEN-FREE
Use brown rice gluten-free lasagna noodles (or any other kind of GF lasagna noodles) and follow all the recipe instructions as-is.
How to use NO-BOIL LASAGNA NOODLES
You can use no-boil lasagna noodles with this recipe! You might need to add about ½ 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.
How to make it 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!)