This Vegetable Lasagna features many layers of pasta, Mediterranean vegetables, tomato sauce and cheese. This dish is indulgent - soft, cheesy and rich.
Vegetable lasagna is a perfect make-ahead meal. Great for a special occasion. It only needs a simple green salad to complement it. After all, you’ve already got your carbs, veg (lots of them) and protein from the cheese, all in one dish.
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🤷♀️ What's so good about this recipe?
There are tons of vegetarian lasagna recipes out there. But not like this one. I spent ages looking for the ‘perfect’ vegetarian lasagna (the one in my head). Most of them feature cubed veg, cooked together and thrown between pasta sheets. You know what they say.... ‘if you want something done; do it yourself’. I realised that – if I wanted to eat the vegetarian lasagna of my dreams – I was going to have to create it myself:
- caramelised vegetables prepared with love
- olive-oil rich
- the perfectly slightly sweet, slightly spicy tomato sauce to cut through the richness
- needs no béchamel sauce
- holds it's shape when cut into generous portions
❓ Overview of recipe
- make a beautiful thick tomato sauce with a handful of basic ingredients
- thinly slice eggplant, pumpkin and zucchini. Brush these with olive oil and sauté (fry briefly in a little oil) to bronzed perfection
- layer the sliced veg and sauce with lasagna sheets, mozzarella and parmesan
- bake for 35 minutes
🤔 Why would you eat vegetarian lasagna?
All meat eaters know and love the beef version of lasagna. Surely it’s a staple in every household? This recipe is not trying to be (merely) the veggie counterpart to this classic. It’s better than that. It’s that rare type of veggie main meal that ‘even’ a carnivore would eat. They probably wouldn't even notice there was no meat. Put it this way; my husband ate this, said it was really nice and didn’t follow up with ‘….but it would be better with meat’. #winning
🥘 Ingredients
- tomato sauce - two batches of my recipe, or any good pizza/pasta sauce
- eggplant/aubergine
- zucchini/courgette
- pumpkin – Kent or butternut
- olive oil - plenty required to brush all the veg on both sides
- mozzarella - NOT pre-grated!
- parmesan
- lasagna sheets - fresh or dried sheets are fine
Nothing complicated about these ingredients, nothing fancy.
The vegetables in this lasagna are the MAIN EVENT, not an afterthought. We take care preparing them. We slice them thinly, brush them with olive oil and cook until soft and a little caramelised.
Each beautiful vegetable gets its own layer; its chance to shine. But where’s the béchamel sauce I hear you cry? I assure you there’s no need for it here, there’s enough creaminess from the soft pumpkin. The olive oil and cheese provide richness.
🔪 Instructions
Slicing
Slicing the zucchini and eggplant into long strips is quite easy until you've sliced half of each one. It then gets a bit tricky to hold the remaining bit to slice further. Try laying the cut surface down and cutting parallel to the chopping board, from one end to the other.
Don’t throw away any imperfect slices! If the slices tear a bit, it will be fine. They'll need a bit more attention when you’re browning them - the raggedy edges will burn a bit more easily. Try keeping the thinner part away from the hottest parts of the pan. When it comes to layering, we just patchwork slices together. You won’t be able to tell in the finished dish.
Oiling
When it comes to oiling the slices, a light spread of oil on both sides is all you need. Once you get going, there will be residual oil in the pan anyway. We can always brush a bit more oil on the slices while they’re cooking too. Eggplants will take any oil you offer them; they soak it up like a sponge. You might not use all the oil I’ve suggested here (about a cup). It’s a guideline.
Browning
We sauté the slices over medium heat, until they are uniformly browned and softened. Stick with cooking one type of vegetable at a time, you'll build a rhythm for knowing how long they take to cook and when to turn them. Also, keeping the pumpkin, zucchini and eggplant in separate piles will make it easier to assemble your lasagna later. Don’t be afraid to turn them as many times as you need to get them evenly coloured on both sides. Keep adding new slices to the pan as you remove and create space.
Sounds time-consuming?
Whilst there’s no denying that the sautéing of the veg is time-consuming; it’s not taxing. Get the tunes on/get up to date with your audio book or podcast and surrender to it. It’ll be worth it, I promise. It takes me about half an hour to get all the veg sautéed. This is with two large frying pans going at the same time. I oil the slices as I go, just before adding them to the pan.
Fresh or dried pasta?
The advantage of using fresh pasta is that you can more easily trim it if it's too large to fit your dish exactly (and this bothers you). Want to trim dried sheets? Place them in a large dish filled with hot water until soft enough to cut through without shattering. Try not to soften too many sheets at once; they’ll stick together.
📖 Recipe
Equipment
- Baking dish, rectangular, roughly 30x20cm
Ingredients
- Two serves of Tomato & Basil Sauce (or 800ml any good quality pizza/pasta sauce)
- 2 eggplant/aubergine about 700g
- 450 g zucchini/courgette approx. 2-3
- small wedge pumpkin about 300g once peeled
- 250 ml olive oil
- 250 g mozzarella
- 100 g parmesan
- 5 layers lasagne (the number will depend on the size of the sheets and baking dish (note))
Instructions
- Slice Veg – thinly slice the zucchini, eggplant and (peeled) pumpkin.2 eggplant/aubergine450 g zucchini/courgettesmall wedge pumpkin
- Sauté Veg - brush the sliced veg with olive oil on both sides and soften/brown in a pre-heated frying pan. You can oil the slices as you go. You’ll need to frequently tend to the cooking slices and stay close to the stove top.250 ml olive oil
- Preheat Oven - to 180°C
- Build Layers – assemble the layers in a baking dish. Start with a layer of one type of veg. Follow with both types of cheese, some freshly ground black pepper, tomato sauce and a layer of lasagna. I’ve allowed for two layers of zucchini, one layer of pumpkin and three layers of eggplant. We finish with a layer of eggplant and cheeses. See the notes below if you want me to tell you exactly how I do mine.250 g mozzarella100 g parmesan5 layers lasagneTwo serves of Tomato & Basil Sauce
- Cover & Bake - cover the finished lasagne with a sheet of baking paper (you’ll lose half the cheese otherwise), then cover with foil). Cook for 15 minutes. Then remove the paper and foil layers. Bake (uncovered) for another 20 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling and the top is nicely browned.
- Rest (important!) - leave to sit for 10 minutes before serving up. The resting time is important to allow the lasagna to 'settle'. It will be much easier to portion neatly, and will taste better too.
Notes
- (bottom layer) Eggplant, both cheeses, freshly grated black pepper, tomato sauce, lasagna.
- Zucchini, both cheeses, freshly grated black pepper, tomato sauce, lasagna.
- Pumpkin, both cheeses, freshly grated black pepper, tomato sauce, lasagna.
- Eggplant, both cheeses, freshly grated black pepper, tomato sauce, lasagna.
- Zucchini, both cheeses, freshly grated black pepper, tomato sauce, lasagna.
- (top layer) Eggplant and both cheeses.
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