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.
A total frustration the whole way through. I saw this recipe rated 4.9 from thousands of reviews upon googling “vegetarian lasagna recipe”. I should I read the recipe the whole way through before buying the ingredients and starting the cook. This recipe is just a mess. Why 9×9 dish?? I started with one and by the time I got to the third layer it would have been overflowing if I kept layering. Had to switch to a normal sized lasagna dish. Snapping noodles to make them fit in a 9×9 which doesn’t even hold all the ingredients… makes no sense and just infuriated me. Finally when it came time to cut into and serve the dish the noodles were hard! Yes I used oven ready lasagna noodles. The lasagna is back in the oven now hoping the noodles will continue to cook and soften while I angrily type this rant with beer in hand! Thanks for nothing, “Kathryne”
Hi Emma, I’m sorry to hear you didn’t have a great result. Did you measure your vegetables? I tested this several times and know it does impact results if you don’t measure your vegetables since there can be sizing differences in produce. I appreciate your feedback.
Bookmark this recipe now! This is hands down the best lasagna I’ve ever had. We don’t eat much animal protein in my house but my Italian husband was still skeptical of making vegetarian lasagna (they can often be under-seasoned, watery, etc). I thought this recipe sounded amazing so I surprised my family with this lasagna and a loaf of homemade bread one night. My husband and two boys devoured it. They admitted it was the best lasagna they’d ever had. If you can find it, I recommend using Good Culture cottage cheese. It is the best.
I’m glad it was a hit, Elizabeth!
We loved this recipe. I made no changes. However, my husband wanted to beef so I mixed a bit of sauce with sauteed ground beef, used this in one of the layers. I placed a bay leaf on top to identify the meat end. Just delicious.
I have to give you credit for mixing the veggies with the cottage cheese/ricotta as that was brilliant! I felt no need to zap the veggies after cooking them. Just make sure they’re fully cooled before mixing (I used ricotta). To save a little more time, I used Rao’s marinara and was fearful that it would not be enough sauce to cook the noodles but it was plenty. I cooked a pound of chicken Italian sausage after removing the veggies from the pan, then added in the sauce and let it simmer together a bit. My veggies were onion, garlic (4-5 cloves), red pepper, one zuc, half an eggplant cubed, carrots and 2 big handfuls of spinach. The flavor was outstanding and I will probably make it this way from now on. Thank you!
So good! I used ricotta & regular mozzarella. I also went with jarred marinara because I’m lazy lol. I also skipped using the food processor & just made sure my veggies were finely chopped. It turned out great & was a total hit with my roommates!
Hello Kate! My name is Sylvester and I sm from Oklahoma. I don’t cook very much but I decided to make Vegetable Lasagna for me and my Mom and she thought it was good! I tried to follow the directions but I think I made it backwards or upside down, LOL. I think it tasted good too so thank you very much and maybe this is my new years resolution to COOK more often!
You’re welcome! I’m happy you loved it.
I’m waiting for this to come out of the oven, but I found myself eating the cheese/veggie mixture on a cracker, it was so good! I had to use a 9×13 and I used ricotta because that was what we had. I also added a little balsamic and garlic to the veggies.
We loved this recipe. I mostly followed the exact recipe except I used Rao’s marinara sauce. It was fun to compose, and simply delicious. Oh! My grocer didn’t have no-cook pasta, and I followed Ina Garten’s 20 minute hot water soak. So easy and it worked out like a charm.
Thank you for sharing, Betty!
I love your recipes and can’t wait to try this one! Does the 3 cups of measured vegetables include the spinach ?
All the vegetables, except the onions.
I just finished making this and cut myself a little slice and wow…just wow. I never write reviews for the things I make but this was so good that I wanted to say something and thank you for this recipe. I looked through hundreds to find this one and this one seemed the best for my taste…well I definitely found it haha :-) You really did perfect this.
I changed a couple of things in this recipe. I just could not bring myself to use cottage cheese when I can get homemade ricotta cheese down the road in Little Italy. I never thought to blend it into a cream so thanks for that too….yum!
My husband loves a meat lasagna but I am made this for a group of people and some are vegetarians so I wanted to do a veggie lasagna. My husband calls mushrooms the meat of vegetables haha so I threw in some criminis as well. I also added freshly grated parmesan to each layer and to the top. I also used no boil Delverde noodles which I also got in Little Italy. If you are in NYC head to Di Palo’s for making an amazing lasagne. You cannot beat their ingredients or prices. Ask for Lou!
I will 100% be making this again and I cannot wait to see what people think when they try it. 5+++ stars.
Can I make this advance and freeze it? If so should I bake from frozen or defrost first?
I know others have tried this and have suggestions in the comments. I find it does release some liquid and don’t have go-to instructions. Sorry!
This was great, thank you. I used GF no-bake noodles (Barilla) and missed the note about boiling them for a bit so I just recovered the pan with foil and cooked for another 10 minutes at the end and it was perfect. Thanks!
I have made this twice and we love it! My toddler will eat it as well. Second time I made it, I used eggplant because I didn’t have zucchini.
Great to hear, Cari!
Yum! I have made lasagna in my carnivore days and was very disappointed, mainly because it was dry. This recipe was very easy to put together with the very clear instructions. It was surprisingly tasty based on the scarcity of spices (my preference). I used the Ronzoni noodles and they cooked perfectly in the time allocated. I used ricotta as that was what I had on hand and also string beans as I didn’t have zucchini. I used a few toothpicks around the pan to keep the foil away from the cheese. The second piece tasted even better than the first. Thank you for a lovely recipe. Next time I will try with cottage cheese.
Great to hear, Angella! I appreciate your review.
My first time making a vegetarian lasagna and the first time some of my oven ready noodles were underdone! 30 minutes is maybe just not enough time, even at 425? Most of my lasgna recipes are baked at 375 for 40-45 minutes, plus rest afterward. Otherwise, very tasty. Also wish I had used a 9 x 13 pan like my gut told me, but no overflow onto the baking sheet I used just in case. Thought maybe I wouldn’t have enough filling for the bigger pan, but it would have been 1/2- 3/4 full. Also went with store bought spaghetti sauce I had left over from another recipe (again, ignored instinct/previous recipes that add a bit of water to typical canned sauces for absorption by oven noodles), and no zucchini available. Maybe that is another source of my firm noodles?
This is amazing, I used my own marinara recipe and ricotta cheese. My husband and I loved it.
Great to hear, Ann! I appreciate your review.
Kate I have to tell you that I have made your Lasagna recipe many many times. It is the best I like to add a little sausage to half of the recipe for myself. It turns out every time. I freeze lunch size portions for my husband to take to lunch.
Thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome, Rachel!
I have to agree with others that, as written the recipeis extremely bland. I used a 28oz box of Pomi brand finely chopped tomatoes plus several tablespoons of Italian seasonings — Basil, Oregano, Everything Italian brand seasoning, garlic, and more to bring the flavor up to something resembling an Italian flavor profile.
Did not puree veggies or cheese, did add 8 oz of mushrooms to the saute, did combine with the cottage cheese.
This was a miss for me. Step 7 (“pulsing” 5 to 7 times (!!) to blend the veggies) is easy to overdo, and possibly altogether unnecessary. My painstakingly chopped and cooked veggies were reduced into a textureless green sludge.
Quantities were off too — I needed more noodles, cheese, and sauce than specified, and had too much of the veggies. Even then, the taste was lacking. Needs more of a crunch, eggplant cubes or something. I do not recommend this recipe and won’t repeat it. Next time I’m using a proven spinach and cheese recipe instead.
Hi Walter, I’m sorry to hear you had an issue. Did you measure your vegetables and be sure to cook until caramelized? That will ensure you don’t have too much. I appreciate your feedback.
Making this right now ;) and am not sure what I am supposed to do with the juices of the drained tomatoes. Are they used? I don’t see it mentioned again.
Thanks!
They are just drained, not used in this recipe.
This was fabulous!! I pretty much just threw any extra veggies I had (to an extent) in and added extra cheese and it was just amazing!! Thank you for this awesome recipe!
You’re welcome, Chandler! I appreciate your review.
This is BY FAR the best lasagna recipe I have ever made. I have shared the recipe with a number of people and they all love it! Two questions, can this be frozen and if so, before or after baking and if you are giving this as a meal for friends or relatives, should it be given already cooked or uncooked with instructions?
I haven’t tried to freeze it, but I know others have and didn’t mind the results. I would suggest seeing what others have tried in the comments.
Looking forward to making this. It sounds amazing. Can this lasagna be frozen?
Hi Shirley, I know others have tried it and didn’t mind the results.
My family went from skeptical (no meat) to arguing over the leftovers! Will be making this on the regular! Thanks for a great recipe. Here’s some things I did after reading the reviews.Used a 9×13 dish with extra veggies/cheese. Regular (not oven ready) lasagna noodles and followed Ina’s 20 min soak method, which worked great! Used a mix of Raos Marinara and Raos Arribitta sauces since I know our family enjoys those flavors and patted Ricotta with paper towels to absorb any excess liquid. I used the suggested cook times but left it in a little longer to get the cheese to brown on top. I will experiment with the textures of the cheese and veggies on the next batch to tailor it to my personal preferences, if my family will allow it! Ha…. Wonderful!
Thank you for sharing, JJ!
Can you use Ricotta instead of cottage cheese in this recipe?
Yes! It’s listed as an option.
Hi Katie- can I freeze this recipe? I want to make it ahead and bring it to the beach. Thanks!
Hi Elaine! Others have froze this and didn’t mind the results. I don’t have go-to recommendations. Sorry!
I do not have a food processor, and thought about buying one just for this recipe. I’m glad I didn’t. I took my time chopping all the vegetables and sautéed them until there was no more liquid in the pan. I used my blender to blend half the cottage cheese. I loved the taste and final results. I found it pleasing to see small chunks of veggies and spinach throughout the dish. I will be making this again the same way!
I’m glad you figured out a way to make this, Susan! I appreciate your review.
I used Barilla oven ready gluten free noodles and they were too undercooked even with extra cook time. Still, it was SO delicious! I’m making another one right now and plan to cook the noodles for just a few minutes just to be safe. We are a family of meat lovers and everyone gave this recipe rave reviews.
Great recipe. It fills the pan to the very top and I worried about it bubbling over. But mine didn’t. Very very yummy.
Great to hear, Karol! I appreciate your review.
Can I prepare this and freeze it for later? if so, what is the best way to do so?
I don’t have go-to instructions for the freezer. I suggest searching the comments to see what has worked well for others.
Literally PHENOMENAL. We aren’t vegetarian, but adored this recipe. Why have I never whipped cottage cheese?! And what else can I do that in? So tasty!!! Thank you!
So good! Excellent base recipe that I modified just a bit with terrific results. Rather than lasagna noodles I used whole wheat Penne pasta and added a pound of browned ground turkey. No layering necessary— easy assembly! Followed the rest of recipe as written and seasoned to taste. Delicious!
I’m glad you loved it, Jaclyn!
This gave me the structure I needed to be confident in making a tasty meatless lasagna! I already had ricotta on hand and jar marinara but the measurements from the recipe were spot on! Next time I will be sure to try it with the cottage cheese.
Thank you for sharing, Jac!
Delicious! Pleasantly surprised how easy recipe was and very tasty. I did not puree vegetables and it came out perfect. I did dice everything up small.
This was really good! The veggies add a depth of flavor you don’t normal get with lasagna. We did make some alterations – added Italian ground chicken and jar marinara. Amazing all together!
Very excellent recipe! I added a layer of Eggplant to mine. When following the instructions my no boil lasagna noodles were completely uncooked. I used the Whole Foods’ No Boil lasagna noodles and needed to cook the lasagna for 20 more minutes covered.
I’ve made this recipe many times and it is delicious. Like other commenters I recently wondered if I could make this in advance for a party. I ended up tripling the recipe, cooking the veggies and making the sauce the night before and assembling the lasagna about 2 hours ahead of our guests arriving. It tasted as good as if I had done everything the day of. Hope this helps someone!
I don’t know if I did something wrong here, but the lasagne sheets on the top were completely hard after cooking. Were fresh sheets (soft) used here, or are the lasagne sheets we have in the uk different? It was delicious but had to remove the top layer.
Yes, in the US we use hard so that is likely your issue.
When I googled “Best Vegetarian Lasagna” this was the first on the list, so I made it. It’s become one of my all time favorite go to meals. Only alternative I had to make was using oven ready gluten free lasagna noodles, soooo delicious!!!
Great to hear you loved it, Teresa! I am glad this is a go-to for you.
Absolutely delicious! Everyone loved it, wish I make more ! I also added lentils in it!
Delicious! I’m freshly postpartum and I’m making this in bulk to freeze and heat up when I need a quick weeknight meal :) I’m planning on just cooking it as per the recipe and allowing to cool then freezing in tinfoil and plastic bags.
Thanks for sharing! I didn’t use peppers or spinach, but added fresh garlic and seasonings to the veggies . Used 3 jars of rao’s marinara sauce, jovial gf no boil noodles, 2% cottage cheese, and a Monterrey Jack/parmesean blend for the cheese. Baked in a 9×13 pan for 55 mins covered. Then uncovered and baked for 10 more mins. Turned out great!
OMG this turned out so good. This is the best vegetarian that I have made. One advice is to drain the diced tomatoes as recipe states and forget about the extra juice. You will have enough sauce. However, I didn’t think I would but I did in fact have plenty and needed to drain a little liquid too.
I’m not usually one to comment once I’ve tried a recipe but I really must say this recipe was absolutely divine. Thank you so much – I copied the recipe exactly and the taste was absolutely delicious. It looked so beautiful as well with the colours etc – definitely a recipe I will be making regularly! Thank you again!
You’re welcome, Sabah!
I made this recipe last night and it turned out great! I added a little Frank’s Red Hot to the tomato sauce instead of red pepper flakes, and also added some nutritional yeast for salty-cheesiness as well. I used a 9″x12″ dish and so I ran out of mozzarella when it came to the topping, but I made up for it with fresh grated parmesan. Thanks for adding to my repertoire of vegetarian dishes!