Tender vegetables, a light tomato sauce and lots of cheese make this vegetable lasagna recipe one of our favorites. Jump to the Vegetable Lasagna Recipe or watch our video to see how we make it.
As much as we love beef lasagna, when we both had a slice of this veggie version, we really didn’t miss the meat. We wanted seconds and if we could fit them, thirds. We love this recipe as much as our healthy spinach lasagna. This veggie lasagna doesn’t require too much time, either. While water boils and noodles cook, you can get through making most of the vegetable sauce. Then, all you do is finish the sauce, assemble and bake for 30 minutes or so. Bonus — We actually found this vegetable lasagna is better the next day – score for make-ahead meals.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: This veggie lasagna recipe become so popular that we made a spin off. Try our vegetable lasagna roll ups with a similar sauce, ricotta cheese and mozzarella. Easy to make and freezer-friendly!
How to Make Our Easy and Adaptable Vegetable Lasagna
The recipe is adaptable — you can choose to add your favorite vegetables. We kept things simple with onion, zucchini, yellow squash and a jar of roasted red peppers.
Try adding chopped mushrooms, olives, spinach or carrots. Just keep the proportions similar — 8 to 10 cups of chopped vegetables should do it. We bet you can come up with some pretty amazing vegetable combinations.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: If you like this veggie lasagna, you’ll love our Creamy White Chicken Lasagna Recipe with its cheesy sauce, chicken sausage and fresh spinach.
One thing — if you do adapt, we highly recommend keeping the roasted red peppers. The red peppers add so much flavor. When we first made this, we omitted them. Then, on a second go-round we added a whole jar.
Wow, what a difference they made — roasted red peppers add some sweet and a little smokiness.
You May Also Like
- Our baked ziti with spinach and artichokes is so simple to make.
- These easy, cheesy baked zucchini chips are addictive. They are perfect to serve with dinner or just as an afternoon snack.
- This utterly delicious vegetarian bean chili recipe — you won’t miss the meat at all!
Recipe updated, originally posted May 2013. Since posting this in 2013, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear and added a quick recipe video. – Adam and Joanne
Easy Vegetable Lasagna Recipe
- PREP
With lots of vegetables including zucchini, summer squash and roasted red peppers the lasagna is flavorful, but not at all heavy. We really do not miss the meat. Add your favorite vegetables to this — mushrooms, spinach or carrots would be great. When you cook the zucchini and squash try not to overcook them — you want them to be tender, not mushy.
You Will Need
14 lasagna noodles (2 extra for filling in holes)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup (140 grams) chopped onion (1/2 large onion)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or more to taste
2 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 1/2 pound)
2 medium yellow squash, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 1/2 pound)
One (12-ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained and cut into 1/2-inch pieces, 1 heaping cup
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
Generous handful fresh basil leaves, chopped
One (15-ounce) container part-skim ricotta cheese or cottage cheese
2 large eggs
2 ounces (60 grams) parmesan cheese, grated (about 1 cup)
8 ounces (230 grams) low-moisture mozzarella cheese, shredded
Salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste
Directions
- Cook Noodles
- Prepare Vegetables
- Make Cheese Filling
- To Finish
Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil then cook lasagna noodles according to package directions. (We add a couple teaspoons of olive oil to the water so the noodles do not stick together). Drain then lay flat on a sheet of aluminum foil.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil a 13-inch by 9-inch baking dish or spray with non-stick cooking spray.
Heat olive oil in a wide skillet with sides over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally until translucent; 3 to 5 minutes. Add garlic, red pepper flakes, zucchini, squash, and a pinch of salt then cook, stirring occasionally until softened but still with some crunch; 5 to 8 minutes.
Stir in the roasted red peppers and crushed tomatoes. Bring to a low simmer and cook until the liquid has thickened and reduced by half; 5 to 8 minutes. Add the basil and season to taste with additional salt and pepper.
Stir ricotta, eggs, and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt in a medium bowl until blended.
Spoon just enough vegetable mixture into the baking dish to lightly cover the bottom (about 1 cup). Arrange four noodles lengthwise and side by side to cover the bottom. (If the noodles are short on one end, you may need to cut an extra noodle and place into dish to cover where the other noodles have not).
Spread about half of the ricotta cheese mixture over the noodles. Sprinkle with a third of the parmesan cheese and a third of the mozzarella cheese. Top with a third of the vegetable mixture. Add another layer of four noodles then repeat with remaining cheese and vegetables. Finish with a final layer of noodles, vegetables, parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese.
Cover loosely with aluminum foil and bake 20 minutes, uncover then bake 15 minutes until cheese is crusty around the edges. To make the cheese golden brown on top, slide under the broiler for 1 to 2 minutes. Let rest 10 to 15 minutes before serving.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- If making ahead, you can cover and refrigerate, unbaked up to 2 days. When you cover, use parchment or wax paper between the lasagna and aluminum foil. Aluminum foil can react with the tomatoes.
- The vegetable sauce can be made in advance and should last in your refrigerator up to 3 days and in your freezer for about 3 months. We recommend using freezer-safe glass containers, or double layers of freezer bags to store sauces. To thaw, simply leave it overnight in the refrigerator.
- Baked lasagna also freezes well. Let it cool completely on a rack before freezing, and then wrap it very well with foil (we use two layers). Defrost the frozen lasagna overnight in the refrigerator and then bake, covered with aluminum foil, at 400 degrees F for about 30 minutes, uncover and cook until well heated through, about 30 more minutes.
- Nutrition facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA Supertracker recipe calculator to calculate approximate values.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
I made it and it was just amazing! Really recommended, try it and see for yourself!
This was really good and my teenage girls and husband loved it! I didn’t measure any ingredients at all, lol, I just chopped up whatever I had in the fridge, pumpkin (squash), zucchini,carrots,broccoli, cauliflower and microwaved then soft prior to popping into the pot. Also added the jar of peppers and decided to use semi sun dried tomatoes chopped up as well for extra flavour. I used a store bought jar of passata sauce that contained herbs and basil and simply added a little bit of curry powder (yes curry powder is always a secret ingredient but don’t go crazy) and threw it all in.I mixed the ricotta with eggs and also the Parmesan together and did quite thick layers along with a layer of spinach on top of vegetable layers. Tasty and delicious! Perfect reheated the next day too. my daughter took some cold lasagna to school today for lunch as well because she loved it so much!
Our house is new to part vegetarian part omnivore. We still struggle to come up with ideas so that we can all eat as a family (per Mom’s request). This recipe was a great addition! We followed it pretty much as instructed and it was a great hit! We will definitely make it again. And I will be looking for more ways to use those roasted red peppers… yum!! Love the recipe videos – thanks!!
I made this a couple of months ago and loved it! I was just curious if it could be frozen before baking it?
Hi Sandy, You should be able to freeze the lasagna unbaked. I’d wrap the assembled lasagna really well with foil then stick into the freezer and freeze up to a month. When ready to bake, either remove the lasagna the night before and thaw in the fridge or bake from frozen (this will increase the bake time).