BEST Vegan Lasagna Recipe | How To Make Easy Meatless Lasagna (2024)

FAQs

What can I use instead of meat in lasagne? ›

A: For the meaty ragu, vegan lasagnas can be made with a vegan meat alternative or simply with finely minced mushrooms and lentils. Crumbled tempeh works great too! For the creamy white sauce, the milk and butter can be replaced for non-dairy alternatives. Try soy milk and vegan butter instead.

Layered with a rich marinara, creamy ricotta, spinach, noodles and topped with ooey-gooey vegan mozzarella cheese. No need to pre-cook the noodles! After 400+ 5-star reviews, it's safe to say that this is the BEST vegan lasagna recipe ever!

For this recipe, we help reduce excess moisture by using no-boil noodles, cooking the mushrooms, onion and bell peppers before adding them to the lasagna, and squeezing the liquid out of the cooked spinach with a kitchen towel. You want your veggies as dry as possible so you are not adding more moisture than necessary.

What can I use in place of ricotta cheese in lasagna? Instead of ricotta cheese, use cottage cheese, cream cheese, shredded cheese, or mascarpone.

Note the difference in the last letter of the name. Lasagne is plural and refers to the noodles themselves, also plural. Lasagna is Italian American parlance and refers to the aforementioned cheesy composition, the dish in toto.

At its most basic, dried, storebought pasta is usually made from durum wheat semolina flour, water, and sometimes salt. So, when you're shopping for it, you probably aren't giving the ingredients much thought. Aside from egg noodles, most pasta is considered safe for vegans to consume.

So while mozzarella is not traditionally vegan because of its basic ingredient, cow or buffalo milk, it is often not even vegetarian – because it contains rennet. Cheese rennet is a mixture of different enzymes, which is produced in the stomach of calves, for example, and is used to make cheese.

Expert tips: The eggplants need time to sweat out their juices before cooking or else the dish is too watery. Sprinkle a little salt over the slices and place in a colander over the sink - the eggplant will sweat out the additional liquid. Skip this step and you will have a watery lasagna!

Cornstarch is cheap and widely available at most grocery stores with the flours and baking products. To use cornstarch as a thickening agent for lasagna sauce, add it in a slurry to the sauce as it simmers. A slurry consists of equal parts cornstarch and cold liquid.

How long does homemade veggie lasagna last? ›

Leftover vegetarian lasagna keeps well in an airtight container or covered dish in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Reheat it in the microwave or a 350°F oven. To freeze vegetable lasagna: Assemble the lasagna in the baking dish. Cover tightly with foil and store in the freezer for up to 3 months.

In Italian cuisine, ricotta cheese is a popular ingredient in many dishes, but when it's not available, Italians may substitute it with other soft cheeses like mascarpone, stracchino, or crescenza. These cheeses offer a similar creamy texture and mild flavor to ricotta.

Mascarpone: Another Italian cheese, mascarpone makes a great ricotta substitute. However, since mascarpone is more tart and flavorful, you should only use it in dishes with other strong flavors.

Adding egg to ricotta cheese helps to bind the cheese for lasagna so that it doesn't ooze out of the casserole when you cut it. Basically, the egg helps all the cheesy goodness stay intact. So what happens if you don't put eggs in your lasagna? It'll just be a bit runnier, but omitting the egg won't affect the taste.

There are many traditional lasagne pasta bakes, some require meat and some don't. Lasagne alla modenese are made with green pasta (it includes some very finely minced spinaches in the dough) and a ragù made with minced meat. Neapolitan lasagne di carnevale include tiny meatballs.

In southern Italy lasagna is generally made with dried sheets of pasta layered with rich meat ragú, ricotta and mozzarella. In the north, especially in Bologna, the most popular version of lasagna features fresh egg pasta colored green with spinach and layered with ragú, bechamel and Parmigiano Reggiano.

Lentils. Brown lentils, due to their small shape and similar color, make an excellent stand-in for ground beef. These legumes can be cooked from dry or use the canned variety for extra convenience. Left whole, lentils can make a hearty addition to shepherd's pie and meatless meatloaf.

Tofu, Tempeh, Seitan, and TVP

The meat in any recipe can be replaced with one of these plant-based options. Tofu makes the perfect swap-out for chicken whether you want Crispy Tofu Nuggets, Moroccan Cutlets in a Lemon-Olive Sauce, or chunks for Chinese food like Kung Pao Tofu.