This vegan lasagne is guaranteed to be your new favorite. Full of flavor, purely plant-based (dairy-free) and a winner for everyone!
This position was created in collaboration with ALDI. All opinions are ours.
Are you a lasagna lover? We also. Lately, Alex and I have been wondering: is cheese essential to this classic Italian baked pasta? After many tests… turns out not! Vegan lasagna is very good. In fact, Alex and I agreed: It’s our favorite lasagna, period. You can make this giant casserole on a budget, so it’s a whole plant-based (WFPB) healthy recipe that’s affordable for everyone! It appeals to everyone (even meat eaters) and is great for holiday entertaining or a casual family meal. Ready to start?
What Makes This the BEST Vegan Lasagna?
No matter how you eat, this vegan lasagna will be a hit. The promise. We invited some friends to try it out and here’s what we heard: “Wow! It is so good. I can’t help but eat it. I need another piece! Somehow, we stumbled upon a really delicious way to make dairy-free lasagna. Even better, It’s easy to prepare and made with all whole foods. No cheese or meat substitutes here! The special thing about this vegan lasagne:
- Very good pasta sauce. We used ALDI organic pasta sauce and it has a great bold flavor. You should use the best sauce you can find (more on that below).
- Mushrooms, cashews and spinach. For a meaty filling, chop the mushrooms and cashew nuts and sauté with the spinach.
- hummus! Our secret ingredient is hummus! It replaces the typical creamy ricotta cheese filling and adds tremendous flavor.
- “Parmesan Cheese” Cashew nuts mixed with garlic powder create a Parmesan-like filling.
Check out how to make vegan lasagna
No cooked pasta needed!
This vegan lasagna is made with uncooked lasagna noodles. No cooked pasta required here: no substitutions please! No-cook pasta is different from standard pasta: it’s specially designed so you don’t have to cook it before cooking the lasagna. This shortens the preparation time. Even better, some people even claim that uncooked pasta has the superior texture for a lasagna. So win all around!
More liquid is needed in a lasagna if it is prepared without cooked pasta. This recipe is specially designed to cook pasta without cooking while cooking. Bottom line: Don’t try this dairy-free lasagna recipe with standard pasta or it might end up being too watery.
Another note about the noodles: If you have a large 9×13-inch square-sided aluminum pan, you’ll need 13 ounces of noodles. A 9″ x 13″ glass baking pan with rounded sides only needs 10 ounces of pasta! (It’s weird, we know!) Because baking pan and pasta shapes can vary, make sure you have enough pasta depending on which baking pan you plan to use.
Use a quality pasta sauce.
The only other “must” for this recipe: Find a quality pasta sauce! Alex and I made this dairy-free lasagna recipe specifically to use pasta sauce because: let’s face it! Lasagna takes time to prepare. Nowadays there are many high-quality pasta sauces, even organic ones. Find your favorite and use it for this lasagna: it really speeds up prep time. You can of course substitute your favorite homemade marinara sauce. For this recipe we used Simply Nature Organic Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce from ALDI. It had an amazing flavor and really made this vegan lasagna shine.
Is there a time saving?
Lasagna is notoriously time consuming. We’ve tweaked this vegan lasagna recipe to be as easy to make as possible. If you’re looking for ways to save time in everyday cooking, here are a few options:
- Use a food processor (optional). A food processor is not necessary for this recipe! We used ours because it’s a really quick way to chop the mushrooms and make the “parmesan” filling. If you don’t have one, you can use a regular large knife to chop.
- Prepare the mushroom filling and Parmesan ahead of time. The main preparation steps here are the mushroom filling and the non-dairy “parmesan” filling. You can prepare and cook the filling ahead of time: just keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to make the lasagna. Prepare the parmesan filling and store at room temperature.
Sides to serve with vegan lasagna
Ready to turn this vegan lasagna into a meal? The best accompaniment to lasagna is the good old standard: a green salad! Here are some we recommend:
This vegan lasagna recipe is…
Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based and dairy-free. For gluten-free lasagna, use non-cooking gluten-free lasagna.
The description
This vegan lasagne is guaranteed to be your new favorite. Full of flavor, purely plant-based (dairy-free) and a winner for everyone!
- 8 ounces Baby Bella Mushrooms
- 1 cup roasted cashew nuts, divided
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 5 ounces baby spinach
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tbsp lemon juice + 1 teaspoon lemon zest (1/2 Lemon)
- ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 25-ounce jars of tomato and basil pasta sauce or marinara sauce
- 2 8 ounces of tomato sauce
- ten at 13 ounces Lasagna pasta without cooking* (see Note!)
- 8th1 ounce hummus (or garlic hummus)
- Dried oregano for sprinkling
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Prepare the spinach and mushroom filling: Tear off the stalks of the mushrooms with your fingers. In a food processor or with a large knife, coarsely chop the mushrooms, ½ cup cashews, and rosemary. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a skillet and bring to medium-high heat. Sauté mushrooms and cashews for 3 minutes until tender but still holding their shape. Add spinach (reserve a few leaves for garnish) and sauté 1-2 minutes until tender. Remove from heat and stir in ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, a few peppercorns, and lemon juice. Leave until assembly.
- To make the dairy-free parmesan filling: In a food processor or blender, blend ½ cup cashews with the garlic powder and lemon zest until mashed to the texture of a shaker can with grated parmesan. (You can also use a knife to chop as finely as possible.)
- mix sauce: In a large bowl, combine pasta sauce and tomato sauce.
- Spread Lasagna: In a 9 x 13 inch baking dish, spread the tomato sauce over the bottom of the pan. Then cover with a layer of noodles (our mold had 3 noodles lengthwise and ¾ noodles crosswise), chop up the noodles if necessary**. Spread with half the hummus, half the mushrooms and a layer of tomato sauce. Repeat again: 1 layer of pasta, half the hummus, half the vegetables and the tomato sauce. Finally top with pasta, then again with tomato sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan and dried oregano.
- Bake: Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes, then uncovered for 10 minutes. Leave for 15 minutes before serving (this allows the lasagna to set). If desired, finely chop the spinach leaves to use as a garnish (just for looks!). Cut into pieces and enjoy.
Remarks
*Important: This recipe requires the use of non-cooked lasagna pasta! Do not replace standard noodles. The amount of sauce is formulated for no-cook pasta, which requires more liquid than regular lasagna pasta.
**If you have a large 9″x13″ square-sided aluminum pan, you will need 13 ounces of pasta. A 9″ x 13″ glass baking pan with rounded sides only needs 10 ounces of pasta! Baking pan shapes and pasta shapes may vary, so make sure you have enough pasta depending on the baking pan.
- Category: main course
- Method: Cooked
- Kitchen: Italian
Keywords: Vegan Lasagna, Dairy Free, Dairy Free, Cheese Free, Lasagna, Italian
