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.
Just finished making this for the second time. Delicious! We used a stick blender to whip the cottage cheese and to chop the cooked veggies. We love this lasagna!
That’s great to hear, Mary! Thank you for your review.
Really good!! My husband the meat eater agreed! I replaced the spinach with dry fry mushrooms – google it :) Only thing is I must have used a 8 x 8 pan vs 9×9. Couldn’t get three noodles to fit side by side. Sharing to make sure others don’t make my mistake. Oh I also didn’t mess with the food processor. I diced the veggies plenty small and assumed the cottage cheese would melt. It did.
Thank you for sharing!
I probably messed it up somehow (all I did was trade the carrots for mushrooms) but it wasn’t good at all
Well, that’s what I was going to try the next time I made it, because the carrots were too overpowering. Can you tell me why it didn’t work? I don’t want to end up with something terrible, after all the work.
Thank you!
Jennifer
You’re welcome, Jennifer!
This is the best! I use Rao’s Roasted Garlic Tomato Sauce and it makes this recipe super simple. I’ve made it twice now and my husband loves it. That’s a huge win for me! Thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome, Amy! I appreciate your comment.
Really delicious and pretty easy. Made it the first time exactly as directed. Fantastic. Second time I moved a lot faster, chopping the veg roughly because it would be chopped finer later, and used a high quality jar of marinara instead of making the tomato sauce. Still fantastic.
We all loved the recipe as written. I definitely will make it again on a regular basis. I did have a butternut squash I needed to use and wanted to try that this week. Should I use it fresh and just chopped? Could I use thawed frozen spinach instead of fresh? Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe!
You could try it. Be sure to squeeze the moisture out of the spinach when thawed.
We did and just cooked it longer on the hob to get some of the water out and left tinfoil off in oven. Turned out great.
I have not made this yet, and was wondering if you could freeze this like you would a meat lasagna?
I know others have tried it and didn’t mind the results. I do find it releases some liquid. Let me know what you think!
This is absolutely delicious, and not too complicated to make! Me and my husband love it so much. Now we have a baby but she doesn’t seem to like the cottage cheese flavour. I wonder if I could try using ricotta or mascarpone? I don’t like to change the recipe but I hope I can get baby to like it somehow because its a meal I enjoy so much.
That’s great to hear, Martha! Thank you for your review.
I usually use half ricotta half cottage cheese in mine and turns out great
I’ve made this 2 times. The first time, I didn’t use spinach. Didn’t have any so I just used more carrots and zucchini. I didn’t chop the veggies in the food processor. And I didn’t have cottage cheese but I did have Mascarpone cheese that I needed to use up. So, I used this instead of cottage cheese. The lasagna was delicious. I’m Italian, so when some of my family said they preferred the vegetarian lasagna, that says something. So, the 2nd time, I used cottage cheese and spinach and put the veggies through the food processor. It was equally as good. Thank you for the wonderful recipe.
You’re welcome, Anna!
best vegetarian lasagna ever. have a vegetarian and celiac in my family so am always looking for recipes. love that the vegetables are pulsed in food processor making the consistency more like a traditional lasagna than a chunky vegetable dish. used barilla oven ready gluten free noodles (making sure all noodle surface was covered with veggies or sauce before baking) and the family loved it. am making it again this weekend.
I’m excited to hear it was a hit, Roxana!
Thanks for the recipe!! I used to work in a group home with seniors with health issues. My co-worker would make this. Like you, she would use cottage cheese instead of ricotta. Also frozen spinach, thawed and VERY well drained. She would mix the spinach with a can of good mushroom soup. No extra salt needed. Topped with mozzarella.Take on tomato and thinly sliced for final topping. We would make two and freeze one. This was always a hit with the people that lived there.
Peggy did you cook the lasagna before or after freezing?
I loved this! It was so good. I am not vegetarian and thought I would not enjoy this as much as a recipe with meat, but I decided to make this for another person that is vegetarian this week and I would definitely make it again just for myself! It was very flavorful and nutritious.
This lasagna is just delish, and easy to make, even the sauce!! I’ve been provisioning our boat for a 3 month trip and have been cooking lots of recipes from your site. If you’ve ever used a boat galley, ease of cooking and freezing are big pluses and this dish works well, as well as tastes fantastic. Thank you for all your experimenting to help us get right to the cooking!!
You’re welcome, Arlene! I appreciate your review.
Have made this several times now and my ground meat adverse kids love this. We use lactose free cottage cheese and mozzarella along with brown rice noodles. As a mom of 3 young kids I don’t make stuff like this without at least doubling to freeze one and this freezes beautifully as long as you remove some of the veggie liquid and cook from frozen, don’t that it ahead of time but just adjust your cooking time and keep it covered until the last bit to brown the cheese.
this is by far the best lasagna recipe I have ever tried. Last week I added mushrooms. This week I used a really good store bought sauce. I did not have basil so I used Italian spice. It is so delicious! I will never use another recipe. If I want meat, I will add Italian sausage but the veggy version does not require anything else.
Thank you!
Can you make this a day or two in advance, keeping it in the fridge before cooking it?
Thanks!
I find it starts to release liquid. It does make great leftovers once baked.
Hi! Can I put the lasagne in the fridge before baking it? I don’t have time before dinner and would like to bake it fresh before eating it. Thanks!
I find it can release some liquid and recommend it best as written. It does make great leftovers!
I made this. Used eggplant, carrots, and Swiss chard from my garden for the veggies and cheated and used a jar of Rao’s marinara for the sauce. Turned out amazing! Whole family loves it.
Note, I salt my chopped eggplant, let it sit for about half an hour, then drain, rinse and pat dry before I cook it.
To cookie and Kate
Great lasagne!! But wouldn’t use carrots again..
Took longer than given time of ,12 mins.
More than an hour.fresh
and organic.not tasty.use mushrooms.next
I make this every year for Christmas and it is such a hit! Is there any way to prep this or make this beforehand without sacrificing taste/texture?
Hi Anna, some have let it rest in the refrigerator before cooking and didn’t mind the results. I find it does release water. I don’t have go-to prep ahead instructions for you. Sorry!
Which cookbook of yours is THIS recipe in? I love love love this recipe, (I have edited it some) but can not find it in your published cookbooks?
I would LOVE to gift this recipe in a cookbook IF IF IF I could find this exact recipe in one of your books?
thanks.
This is a great lasagna. I love the versatility. I have made it with both ricotta and cottage cheese depending on what I have. Have also used cauliflower in the veggie mix which is also tasty.
Made this today. Didn’t have cottage cheese and only had half the amount of marscapone. So made up the amount with some cream cheese and crumbled goats cheese with a bit of parmesan. Wasn’t sure if it would work but was delicious. Will Def make this again. Thanks
I made this lasagne for girlfriends recently and they loved it! Could I make it a day in advance without it going mushy?
I find it’s best right away. Others have tried it and didn’t mind the results. I do find it makes great leftovers.
Huge fans of this one! We live in a half vegetarian / half meatitarian household and both people are so so happy with this… finally a lasagna with focus on delicious fresh veg and light tasty cheese…! We hate mushrooms around here (I’m actually allergic) so this was filling and without trying to make it a “mushroom approximation to meat”) … I’ve made this maybe 10x now and it’s a favorite of guests too— I’ve passed on the recipe multiple times. I’ve subbed out veg, greens, cheeses, structure of the recipe still stands beautifully. Seriously, thank you for this one!
You’re welcome, Liz! I’m glad you enjoy it.
Can you freeze this recipe?
Others have and didn’t mind the results. I find it releases some moisture.
Love this lasagna. It’s my go to recipe that is a staple in our home!
I love to hear that, Courtney! Thank you for your review.
Hi! I’m hoping to make this lasagna for a bereaved friend. Would it be possible to freeze this? If so, would it need any modifications, and how long should/what temp would be best for frozen to oven? Thanks so much!!!
Hi Sarah, I find it does release liquid once frozen. But, others have done it and didn’t mind the results. I don’t have a go-to reheat method once frozen. Sorry!
I made this before, once or twice, and it was delicious. I need to make it again but will need to do so ahead of time to bake on July 4th. Do you know if the lasagna could be put together the day before, then put in the fridge and cooked the next day? Or have you tried making the filling, refrigerating it overnight and compiling it the next day? Fully ready for the oven would be better as I’ll be really tight on time but I don’t want do something that hasn’t been tried. And it’s always best fresh from the oven the first time so I’ll rather not cook it a day early then reheat.
Hi Sara, sorry for my delay. What did you end up doing?
Earlier I had searched the comments for someone else asking the same thing and couldn’t find anyone. But I came back and manually went through them and found a few where you responded not recommending. So I made the sauce and cooked the veggies ahead of time and then combined everything the day of to save time.
Was my first time making this, and it turned out fab! thank you!
You’re welcome, Tunali!
This is fabulous! So very flavorful! Thank you! Thank you!
You’re welcome, Ressie!
Made this recipe on Tuesday and had an impromptu lunch for friends on Wednesday as it was raining and cold (12°C in July). Delicious
Everyone loved it. I will make it again. I added mushrooms also.
We have been making this recipe for 4 years- it’s our go-to for meal trains and guests. Most people hear “vegetable lasagna” and are not impressed, but after they eat it we get rave reviews! The first time I made it my husband said: “I think this is my favorite meal we’ve ever made.” Thanks Kate for the BEST vegetable lasagna.
I love to hear that! Thank you for taking the time to comment.
I am making this recipe for the 2nd time. The no bake lasagna noodles from Whole Foods has a much longer cooking time per the package plus it says to bake the pasta totally covered. I am really having a problem with that. The noodles are not cooked in the amount of time you gave in the recipe. It is delicious once finished but I have found that it takes much longer than 30 minutes to prepare to bake. Then, the pasta is not done. Any suggestions other than preparing the past ahead of time and not use the ones suggested in the recipe.
I made this tonight. Turned out fantastic! I ddn’t have a food processor or a blender, so I just chopped up the veggies very fine and just manually blended the cottage cheese. Still turned out perfectly fine! I used Rao’s tomato basil sauce instead of meaking the sauce, but everything else was made to the recipe. I’ll definely make this again! Thank you!
You’re welcome, Shannon!
I have made this numerous times now, adding mushrooms to the mix and probably tripling the recipe. I make several at a time, freeze them, and feed friends and family. Freezes well (I freeze after cooking), they always ask for more. Only thing different I do is used crushed instead of diced tomatoes in the sauce and I don’t drain. The key is the sautéed veg + cottage cheese layer. So good.
I love to hear that! Thank you for sharing, Mikell.
So glad I found this recipe! Decent amount of protein and vegetables, and tastes amazing…We (kids, me and hubby) LOVE this recipe and is now in our rotation of “go to” meals.
Great to hear, Aqua!
Made it for guests. 3 adults and 2 kids and we could have used more. Making it tonight and doubling it. This recipe is perfection! We did have fresh mozzarella so I put slices of that on top.
Hello, I’ve been making this lasagna for a few years and I love it. I wanted to share some modifications I made to lighten up the dairy. Instead of mozzarella cheese within the lasagna, I added layers of soy milk cashew cream (1 cup raw cashews + 1 cup soy milk (no sugar in the soy milk) blended + italian dried herbs and some fleur de sel in the cashew cream. I put a layer of sharp cheddar and parmesan on top (as that’s what I had on hand) and then towards the end of cooking, placed it under the oven grill to brown. It came out wonderfully. Although it’s not dairy free, it did reduce the amount of cheese for anyone watching their saturated fat intake. No-one noticed as the cream just melded beautifully with the cottage cheese and vegetable filling- like a bechamel sauce inside.
I’m happy to hear you have been making it for so long! I appreciate you sharing how you have been able to change it up. I know others will find this helpful.
This is my go to lasagna for new mamas, when the family needs a vege boost or I want something comforting and delicious!
It’s super tasty and easy to make.
I do have a question – is it suitable for freezing?
I know others have froze it and didn’t mind the results. I find it releases some moisture.
This was great! I’ll for sure be making it again in my home . I’d have never thought to use cottage cheese. It is a very clean tasting lasagna . I didn’t feel heavy or slow after eating it.
Great to hear, Megan! I appreciate your review.
love the innovative way of this recipe. I use Jovial brand from Italy for no cook pasta – the best Gluten free I’ve found out of many tries. However they don’t get done enough so I par cook them for about 7 minutes. Hope you can find this brand for all of noodles.
OMG this is my new & best recipe since beginning my plant based life style. Many thanks and even though takes time to prepare so worth it. Do you have any fall veggie versions of this recipe?
Hi Shelley! You can just mix up the vegetables to fit what you are looking for. Be sure to follow measurements and cooking recommendations. Let me know what you try!
Can you make this Lasagna without onions?
Sure, if you prefer. I do find onions provide great flavor.
Making to bring to aLabor Day bbq. Can I make a day ahead & refrigerate or will it become watery?
It is good leftover. I would suggest baking and then reheating.
Hi Kate, is there a video for this recipe? It says ‘watch’ but i can see no video play button or link?
I have made this before – and it was fabulous – but it has been awhile and I do love a video.
Thank you.
Best Vegan Lasagna Recipe Here you go!
This is the absolute best vegetarian lasagna that I’ve ever made. Followed instructions exactly and only added broccoli. Thank you!
5th time making it!
You’re welcome, Mona!
I am going to make this today.
I may add sweet potato as I remember a Linda McCartney recipe with that years,ago.
It does sound great though. I can taste it already
Thanks for this recipe
Made this quite a few times now and everyone loves it. We add whatever veggies we have on hand. Today we had sweet potato and butternut squash instead of carrots. To make it less work, I usually double up on the veggies and freeze half before cooking.
Incredible lasagna! I appreciate the tip about cooking Gluten free noodles for longer – I left it in another ten minutes and it came out perfect.
Only changes I made: ricotta instead of cottage cheese, home grown tomatoes instead of canned, and i added a little red wine to the sauce. Flavorful, tender, delicious!
Thank you for sharing, Atlas!
This is the best vegetarian lasagne. Everyone in my family uses it. The prep time, including doing the dishes, is more like 2 hours start to finish. But it’s worth it!
I’m glad you love it, Margaret!
While this recipe is delicious, it took me an hour longer than you quoted. I was cooking for my husband and my toddler so the extra delay was stressful. My half asleep toddler definitely still found it delicious!
That’s great to hear, Holly!
Thank you this is a great recipe. How many days in advance can it be made/baked before eating.
I don’t recommend leaving it uncooked as I find it releases liquid. However, others have tried it and didn’t mind the results. I find it is great leftover, though!