Best Vegetable Lasagna
Seriously the best veggie lasagna! This meatless lasagna recipe is packed with bell pepper, zucchini and carrots, sautéed until golden on the edges.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 29, 2024
I set out to create the best vegetable lasagna recipe. Here it is! This vegetarian lasagna is cheesy (of course), and loaded with vegetables, spinach and a simple tomato sauce.
If you have any meatless-meal skeptics in your life, this lasagna will change their mind. I’m sure of it.
This lasagna is based on my spinach artichoke lasagna on the blog and the roasted eggplant lasagna in my cookbook. I love those less-conventional vegetarian lasagnas.
Yet, I wanted to offer a classic vegetable lasagna suitable for holidays and weeknights, and this is it. The tomato sauce is the same across all three recipes, but the vegetables vary.
For this recipe, you’ll chop bell pepper, zucchini and carrot into very small pieces and sauté them until they’re nice and golden on the edges. That caramelization brings out so much more flavor. Then, add spinach to the skillet and cooked it down for a few minutes so it doesn’t get too soggy.
The Best Vegetable Lasagna
Five reasons to love this recipe:
- You can easily adjust the vegetables to suit the seasons or your pantry (see recipe notes).
- The sauce is made from scratch with basic ingredients. It only takes a few minutes to make.
- Use no-boil noodles and you don’t have to bother cooking them. Just layer them up!
- I recommend cottage cheese instead of ricotta, which has more protein and flavor (trust me).
- You can even make this recipe gluten free and/or vegan. See the recipe notes for details.
The end result is a super flavorful, nutrient-dense, veggie-packed lasagna. This lasagna might not be the quickest weeknight option around, but it is a reasonably simple recipe that will absolutely satisfy your comfort food cravings.
Enjoy, and please let me know how this recipe turns out for you in the comments! Your feedback is so important to me.
Craving more vegetable-packed casseroles? Here are more of my favorites:
- Baked Ziti with Roasted Vegetables
- Lentil Baked Ziti
- Better Broccoli Casserole
- Roasted Veggie Enchilada Casserole
Watch How to Make Vegetable Lasagna
Best Vegetable Lasagna
Seriously the best veggie lasagna! This lasagna recipe is packed with bell pepper, zucchini and carrots, sautéed until golden and tender on the edges. Recipe yields one 9-inch lasagna, enough for 8 slices.
Ingredients
Veggies and spinach
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 large carrots, chopped (about 1 cup)
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 medium zucchini, chopped
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 5 to 6 ounces baby spinach
Tomato sauce (or substitute 2 cups prepared marinara sauce)
- 1 large can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes
- ¼ cup roughly chopped fresh basil + additional for garnish
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Remaining ingredients
- 2 cups (16 ounces) low-fat cottage cheese, divided
- ¼ teaspoon salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 9 no-boil lasagna noodles*
- 8 ounces (2 cups) freshly grated low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
- To prepare the veggies: In a large skillet over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Once shimmering, add the carrots, bell pepper, zucchini, yellow onion, and salt. Cook, stirring every couple of minutes, until the veggies are golden on the edges, about 8 to 12 minutes.
- Add a few large handfuls of spinach. Cook, stirring frequently, until the spinach has wilted. Repeat with remaining spinach and cook until all of the spinach has wilted, about 3 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and set aside.
- Meanwhile, to prepare the tomato sauce: Pour the tomatoes into a mesh sieve or fine colander and drain off the excess juice for a minute. Then, transfer the drained tomatoes to the bowl of a food processor. Add the basil, olive oil, garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes.
- Pulse the mixture about 10 times, until the tomatoes have broken down to an easily spreadable consistency. Pour the mixture into a bowl for later (you should have a little over 2 cups sauce). Rinse out the food processor and return it to the machine.
- Pour half of the cottage cheese (1 cup) into the processor and blend it until smooth, about 1 minute. Transfer the mixture to large mixing bowl. No need to rinse out the bowl of the food processor this time; just put it back onto the machine because you’ll need it later.
- Transfer the cooked veggies and spinach mixture to the bowl of the food processor. Pulse until they are more finely chopped (but not puréed!), about 5 to 7 times, stopping to scrape down the sides as necessary. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of whipped cottage cheese. Top with the remaining cottage cheese, then add ¼ to ½ teaspoon salt (to taste) and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Stir to combine. Now it’s lasagna assembly time!
- Spread ½ cup tomato sauce evenly over the bottom of a 9” by 9” baking dish. Layer 3 lasagna noodles on top (snap off their ends to fit, and/or overlap their edges as necessary). 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.
- Top with 3 more noodles, followed by the remaining cottage cheese mixture (we’re skipping the tomato sauce in this layer.) Sprinkle ½ cup shredded cheese on top.
- Top with 3 more noodles, then spread ¾ cup tomato sauce over the top (you may have a little sauce leftover) to evenly cover the noodles. Sprinkle evenly with 1 cup shredded cheese.
- Wrap a sheet of parchment paper or foil around the top of the lasagna (don’t let it come into contact with the cheese). 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 turning spotty brown.
- Remove from oven and let the lasagna cool for 15 to 20 minutes, so it has time to set and cool down to a reasonable temperature. Sprinkle additional basil over the top, then slice and serve.
Notes
*Lasagna noodle recommendations: I like to use DeLallo’s Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles (affiliate link) and Whole Foods’ 365 No-Boil Lasagna Noodles. See below for gluten-free suggestions.
Change it up: Feel free to play around with the vegetables here. You’ll want to use about 3 cups chopped veggies total (excluding the onion). Mushrooms or butternut squash might be nice!
Make it gluten free: Substitute gluten-free lasagna noodles. Choose no-boil (oven ready) noodles if possible; if not, cook them according to package directions. (Fair warning, I tried using DeBoles brand of no-bake lasagna noodles and they weren’t done cooking in the time specified here. Reheated leftovers were ok, though.)
Make it dairy free/vegan: Double the recipe for my vegan sour cream (also available in my cookbook, page 217) and use 2 cups instead of the cottage cheese. Skip the step where you would blend the cottage cheese and just barely blend the spinach/veggies into the sour cream. Omit the mozzarella and use all of the tomato sauce for the final layer. Serve the lasagna with a dollop of additional sour cream on top or, better yet, my basil pesto.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE ricotta cheese in my lasagna. Will I be disappointed with using cottage cheese instead?
Delicious! Everyone raved about it. I even made some mistakes, such as didn’t get pre-cooked noodles and didn’t cook them 1st, and used parmesan cheese in the inside layers instead of mozzarella, and it was amazing (may make the same “mistakes” next time!). I doubled & it was overflowing in a 9×13. I had about an hour+ before it was time to eat so kept it in the oven on warm and it just kept crisping & bubbling up – SO good. Not watery at all – maybe because of the extra time in the oven. I like this better than meat lasagna. Thank you!
Made tonight. So tasty and simple to make! Will definitely be adding you to my rotation of food bloggers. Thanks so much, so happy to have found
You’re welcome, Roni!
Made this last night – it was delicious and my kids devoured it. Can’t wait to make it again. Don’t be intimidated by the food processor steps; it was actually really simple. Easy clea up.
I love to hear that! Thanks for your review, Noel.
I followed this recipe as is and didn’t change anything, it turned out fabulous and DELICIOUS. will be adding this to our weekly night dinner rotation.
28 Oz’s of tomato’s? I’m confused. I’m trying to bake this now. Please can someone help me? Emma
Hi Emma! Sorry for the delay. How did it go? If you make the tomato sauce, instead of using store bought, you need 28 ounces of diced canned tomatoes. Does this help?
Yummmmy!! I used canned spaghetti sauce. Soo good.
I made this as the special dish my daughter requested for her bday! It turned out super yum! Thank you for this wonderful recipe
This was my first time making a lasagna and that too a vegetarian one! My family loved it so much! I substituted zucchini ( as I didn’t have any) with mushrooms and added a lot of spinach and it came out perfect! Thank you so much for this recipe!
Will definitely be making it again!
This was a brilliant vegetarian alternative and great fish in it’s own right! I added Porcini mushrooms and steamed aubergine to the tomato sauce for added meatiness.
Delicious… cooked for my teenage girls to rapturous applause (no mean feat)! Thanks Kate!
That’s great to hear, Chris! Thanks for your review.
This is SO good … even my meat-loving husband prefers this lasagne over any meat lasagne.
This was SO GOOD. Restaurant quality for sure.
This is disgusting, it’s a overly cheesy soup that tastes like mud and can be done so much better with a lot less effort. I’m disappointed at the time and money I wasted on that rubbish. Will never use this site again
Hi Ben, I’m sorry you didn’t like this recipe. It sounds like you may have over blended your vegetables and may not have cooked out all the water in the saute process. I appreciate your feedback.
Awesome!!
I made this today, followed the recipe exactly but used Gluten Free noodles and added 1/4 cup grated parmesan on top. I used a 2 quart rectangular pyrex pan, used all the tomato sauce and I baked the foil covered lasagna at 400 F for 45 minutes, removed foil and baked another 15 minutes uncovered.
This was excellent, noodles completely cooked and went well with Caesar salad.
Thank you so much!!
I made this dish for supper tonight and it was well worth the wait! The dish came together fairly quickly and baking on a high temperature is a great idea because it heats everything through and cuts the meal time prep down. We waited 20 minutes before cutting into the lasagna and that was just right. I found that the lasagna was juicy and my noodles, which were par boiled, came out perfectly cooked. My husband loved it and said he didn’t miss the meat at all! As with all your recipes, the flavours are fantastic and the steps are well laid out. The one thing I did differently was using fresh tomatoes and simmering them in their own juices with some olive oil, salt and pepper.
Oh my word Kate, you were not kidding when you said this was the best vegetable lasagne! This was so tasty. Whilst chopping all the veggies I thought “this had better be good to warrant all this prep”, but it truly was. It got the thumbs up from hubby too, who I am converting over to veggie meals, but he insists they have to taste good as well as providing him with protein. I did add some Quorn mince to mine too, for this reason. I read all the reviews re. some people experiencing a watery result, so I added 1 TBSP tomato puree to thicken up the tomato mix a bit more and also add an extra tomato flavour. I had no issue with the consistency.
I love all the recipes of yours that I have tried, Kate, and this one is no exception. Will most definitely be doing this one on a regular basis. Thanks so much for sharing your recipes, also thanks to all the reviewers with their little tips and tweaks. (I did add 1/4 cup grated parmesan to my cottage cheese mix as suggested by someone). Very yummy!
Thank you, Janet!!
Made this for my niece’s bridal shower was awesome my daughter said it was the best thing I ever made LOL
That’s fantastic, Heidi!
Made this yesterday, came out very yummy
I’ve made this recipe over and over again. It’s so fun watching my kiddos gobble up all those veggies!
I made this for a family dinner tonight for 10 people to celebrate my daughter’s 7th birthday. I multiplied the recipe by about 1.5 and it was an absolute hit. Even the 4 sometimes hard to please children at the table gobbled it up. Thank you for another great recipe!
You’re welcome, Julie! I’m happy it was such a hit.
Didn’t feel like cooking tonight after a long day but I am so glad I did. Thank you for this simple yet delicious recipe, will definitely be making again and again and again!
This was a perfect fridge cleaner type meal. Super easy to make, delicious and so versatile.
I used what I had on hand for veggies: 2 small zucchinis, a red pepper and a purple pepper. I didn’t have spinach but used a package of spring mix. I didn’t have 2 cups of shredded mozzarella so I used a combination of shredded Asiago, Cheddar, Mozzarella, Havarti and Gouda. The 1 cup whipped cottage cheese (I used 2%), with the second cup of non-whipped was perfect. The tomato sauce was really nice. The proportions were perfect.
Overall my wife loved it and didn’t realize how many veggies were in a serving.
I’m glad you loved it, Barry!
Very bland. A lot of work for an okay dish.
I’m sorry you didn’t love it. Did you make the tomato sauce or buy it from the store?
This recipe was perfect! My friend doesn’t eat meat and her kid has every allergy so this recipe saved the day. They both loved it and I’m definitely making it again.
Hi! I have no idea how I/this failed.
I’ve been making a baked gnocchi dish of my invention for years, but thought an actual lasagna would be a good change. I’ve even used no-book noodles in the past with great success.
But the mid-layer noodles just. stayed. hard.
I baked and cooled it as prescribed.
Cut into it: hard noodles.
Covered it again because the top was browned, and baked at 350° for an additional 30 minutes.
Still hard.
I was pretty bummed because the flavor is good.
I guess I’ll stick with gnocchi or use boiled noodles. ✌
This was soooooo gooooood!!!
Thanks Kate – your recipes are so reliably good!
I didn’t follow everything exactly as I didn’t have all the same ingredients on hand but I followed the gist of it. What a brilliant idea to pulse the sautéed veg in the food processor and mix it with the cheese (I used skim ricotta). I never would have thought of doing this. I will be making this regularly! Thanks for another great vegetarian recipe!
Thanks for sharing, Emma! I’m happy you loved it!
This lasagna is outstanding. Just outstanding.
Well you have done it again….Concocted the absolute best lasagna both vegetarian, vegan, or with meat! If ANYONE out there has never whipped cottage cheese, she has made an understatement in saying its more flavorful than ricotta. Its a forgiving recipe (thank God) and a good way to clear out end of week veggies…. The best yet again!!
Thank you so very much for this blog and your cookbooks!!
Thank you, Sue! I’m so happy you enjoyed it.
Ooookay – when I saw you used cottage cheese in this recipe I was totally going to ignore it and use ricotta instead. Because I despise the consistency of cottage cheese in lasagna. Ew. Just. Gross.
BUT THEN – I saw you put cottage cheese in the food processor, which then led me down a rabbit hole of google for what happens when you put cottage cheese in the food processor, and now I’m convinced I need to buy cottage cheese in bulk and start using it allllll the dang time. So I’m going to try it. I’ll report back.
If I want to freeze it, should I bake all the way first and then freeze/reheat later?
Hi Crystal! I hope you like it. I haven’t had luck freezing this one, but I know other readers have. It got really watery for me. I believe baking has worked best for others. Try searching the comments to see what they recommend!
Hi , I just made this today . I was hoping for more :-( it looks great but taste wise maybe a 6-7 and it’s quite labor intensive!! I Did use extra garlic and extra cheese . I ran short on the red sauce ! I’ve never made a veggie lasagna before . Maybe that’s the problem, I no longer eat meat . It looks very pretty !
If you like more sauce, you can always add more. The extra cheese may have played a roll. Thanks for your feedback, Brenda!
It took longer than I expected but it’ll be faster next time now that I know what to do. It was absolutely delicious. It wasn’t watery at all which is what I was afraid of with all the veggies. I used more ricotta than cottage cheese because I ran out of cottage to cheese. I also broiled it the last 2 minutes and it looked and tasted perfectly. Can’t wait to make this over and over again this fall!
Wonderful – instant new family favorite lasagna! All I added was some butternut squash to the veggie mix and used some canned pasta sauce with tomatoes mixed in for more richness (and a little time-saving, as I was making two). Thank you for recipe.
WOW!
This is the vegetarian lasagna you were looking for that you didn’t know you needed!
So simple, no fancy ingredients, hearty and delicious. On our repeat recipe list :)
Love to hear that, Danielle!
Hi Ashley,
Fabulous recipe! It has become my go-to lasagna recipe and we’re not vegetarian. Have you ever used eggplant noodles instead of regular noodles? Would love to try it but I’ve never used eggplant before.
I haven’t used eggplant noodles. Sounds interesting!
This recipe is excellent. I’ve made it a few times. Thanks very much!
You’re welcome, Caitlin!
Made this last night and it was delicious! I followed the recipe exactly except added an extra layer of mushrooms (just had extras in the fridge). Froze half of it to eat post-partum. Yum!
Thank you for your review, Tara!
We made it the first time for 2 other (non-vegetarian) and it turned out great!!! Make ahead suggestions:
1. Chip and cook all vegetables the night before (puree if necessary; I didn’t, but just made sure that they were chopped small as shown in the picture
2. We didn’t have zucchini (and I am not a big fan of it anyway) so we used fresh mushrooms and a small eggplant.
3. We substituted frozen spinach. (Make sure you completely defrost and literally ring out ALL of the water, i.e. put defrosted spinach in a couple of paper towels; put that in another towel and ring it out as tightly as you can.)
4. Assemble the next morning and refrigerate until cooking .
5. We used a 9×13 pan and baked for 40 minutes uncovered (with 1/4 turn after 20 minutes as Lin Sarnecki said in her 7/19/19 comment. Thanks Lin!)
6. Definitely let it sit for at least 20 minutes.
Wonderful dinner and great leftovers!
Thanks for sharing your approach, Laura!
Hi Kate! I have been such a fan of yours for so long. — I pre-ordered your book way back because I had used sooooo many of the recipes from your blog, it was the only way I could to repay you for all your hard work. I just love you AND Cookie and am so thankful to you. Your recipes, specifically the Veggie Black Bean Enchiladas,Thai Red Curry with Vegetables, Homemade Vegetarian Chili plus others are household favorites. And if I had a dime for every time I have made your Mexican(ish) Kale and Quinoa Salad, I would be loaded! Thanks so much for all you have done for so many of us. I know there are tons of people like me that think this, but haven’t had the chance to tell you personally. You rock!!!
Thank you for your kind words, Laura! I’m so happy to hear it. I really appreciate your review.
My husband has greatly limited his red meat intake due to heath issues, so I’ve been on the lookout of meatless meal recipes.
I made this with the following minor modifications:
9×12 pan
Whole milk ricotta
A little parmesan with the mozzarella
I have a Pampered Chef onion chopper, and it made light work of all the veggie prep. This came together so nicely, and my husband and son LOVED it!! I can’t wait to take some leftovers to my mom tomorrow. Thank you!
Thanks for sharing! I’m glad it worked out so well.
My wife turned vegan recently and as i do the cooking your site is really really helpful. This specific recipe gave me hope to be able to cook vegan and get good food. I was really not getting anything amazing out of the internet. Thank you so much, this recipe meant a lot to me.
You’re welcome! I’m happy it could be enjoyed.
This was a really amazing healthy lasagna recipe! Thank you so much!
You’re welcome, Lauren!
Absolutely delicious. I recently cut out red meat from diet. I went with ricotta and added asiago. I cant wait to learn of other recipes this site has to offer.
Tried this recipe and absolutely loved it! Man!!! I never would havd thought of this. Way to ho!!! #delicious
I’m happy to hear you loved it, Laretta! I appreciate your review.
This recipe is outstanding. My husband and I both commented that it was the best vegetarian lasagna we have ever had – and so easy! A keeper for sure. Thank you!
Wonderful, Beth! I’m so happy to hear that.
I’m not a vegetarian but this is my new favorite lasagna recipe. It’s very good. I added more carrots and three garlic cloves. It’s hardy and my family loved it. It’s now in our favourites list.
Sounds great! Thank you for sharing, Bill.
I made this for the second time, and it’s just as good as I remember it. It was necessary for me to prep the lasagna in advance of its serving, so I did so, then covered it with foil and left it in the fridge overnight. The next day, I took it out of the fridge and left it out for about two hours before cooking, just to take some of the chill off. I followed the cooking directions and added just a little of time to account for the chilled dish. It turned out beautifully! Quite a favorite with all my guests. By the way, I doubled the receipe, which worked perfectly.
I’m glad that method worked so well for you, Nancy!
This recipe is very tasty and good. My family like it very much. My daughter says it tastes better than regular lasagna. My husband really likes it. He stated it a couple of times to me while eating it. He usually does not go back for seconds, with this he did.
Share more of your recipes.
I love to hear that, Ellen! Thank you for your review.
Hello Kate! I just made your veggie lasagna and it’s so very flavorful! I omitted the zucchini because I didn’t have any in the refrigerator. I grew up in an Italian family and always use ricotta instead of cottages cheese, and either a grated parmesan or romano cheese on top. I did add romano cheese on top! The sauce was easy, light and had lots of flavor which came through with every bite. Thank you! Lu
Thank you for sharing! I’m happy you made this with your family tastes. I appreciate your review, LuAnn.
Made this in a 9*13 pan. It turned out great! I made an extra 14oz of tomato sauce and used extra noodles but otherwise kept everything the same. I cooked the lasagna at 425 F, twenty minutes covered, twenty minutes uncovered, and then I broiled for a few minutes. I will be making this again. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing, Ela!
I totally forgot to cook the noodles before and I already assembled it. Do I just cook it longer?
Did you use no-boil? You shouldn’t need to change if you used no boil. But if you didn’t, yes might need to cook long and rest longer. Be mindful to not burn the top!