Go Back
–+ servings
No ratings yet

Best Ever (Vegetarian) Lasagna

This is my favorite EVER traditional lasagna recipe. Except it's vegetarian! I wouldn’t call this a light dish, but with my tofu ricotta and Beyond Meat Substitute, this lasagna somehow feels decadent without the guilt trip. So go ahead and enjoy a second helping of this protein packed lasagna!
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time50 minutes
Total Time1 hour 20 minutes
Servings: 6
Print Recipe

Ingredients

For the Sauce

  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • ½  onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 ¼  tsp sea salt
  • 10 oz cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
  • 14 oz tomato sauce
  • ½ cup water
  • 1½ Tbsp brown sugar
  • ¼ tsp pepper
  • ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • ½ tsp Italian seasonings

For the Meat Substitute

  • 10 oz Beyond Meat Beef Crumbles
  • ½ tsp sea salt
  • ½ tsp garlic powder

For the Tofu Ricotta

  • 16 oz block of tofu
  • ½ tsp sea salt
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • ½ tsp Italian seasoning

Everything else

  • 8-10 oz mozzarella, freshly grated
  • 1 cup Parmesan, freshly grated
  • Oven Ready/No Boil lasagna noodles, I use about 5 sheets
  • Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish

Instructions

Make the sauce

  • In a large skillet, add 2 Tbsp olive oil, the onion, garlic, and ½ tsp sea salt. Cook over medium heat for 3 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium low, and continue cooking for another 3 minutes.
  • Keeping the heat on medium low, add the halved cherry/grape tomatoes. Cook for 5 minutes until the tomatoes soften and begin to break down.

Add the tomato sauce, water, and seasonings

  • Now add the tomato sauce, water, remaining ¾ tsp sea salt, brown sugar, pepper, fresh parsley, garlic powder, and Italian seasonings.
  • Turn the heat up to medium and bring the sauce to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat back down to low, and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The tomatoes should be soft to the bite, but not mushy. Sauce is done!

Cook the Beyond Meat

  • In a small to medium sized skillet, cook the Beyond Meat Beef Crumbles with the sea salt and garlic powder over medium low heat until heated through, about 10 minutes. Crumbles are done!

Make the tofu ricotta

  • While your Beyond Meat cooks, make the tofu ricotta. Take your block of tofu and press as much water out of it as you can. Do this by simply holding the tofu block over the sink, and use you hands to literally press/squeeze the water out! Just get as much water out as you easily can.
  • Now crumble the tofu into a medium sized bowl so that it looks like ricotta. Just use your hands. Add the sea salt, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning, and mix it together. Done! Set aside.

Layer the lasagna

  • Oil or spray a 9 inch by 9 inch glass pan. To make this as easy to follow as possible, I’m going to make each layer its own line in the recipe. The layers go:

Order of layers

  • 1/3 of the sauce
  • Lasagna noodles (see my note on the lasagna noodles below!)
  • ½ of the tofu ricotta
  • 1/3 of the mozzarella
  • 1/3 of the Parmesan
  • ½ of the Beyond Meat crumbles
  • 1/3 of the sauce
  • Lasagna noodles
  • The rest of the ricotta
  • 1/3 of the mozzarella
  • 1/3 of the Parmesan
  • The rest of the Beyond Meat crumbles
  • The rest of sauce
  • The rest of the mozzarella
  • The rest of the Parmesan

Bake the lasagna

  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
  • Cover the lasagna with foil, and bake covered for 45 minutes.
  • After 45 minutes, uncover the lasagna.
  • Leaving the lasagna in the oven, turn the heat on your oven up to broil.

Broil that cheese!

  • Broil the lasagna for 2-4 minutes. This step goes FAST! So really watch your lasagna: we want to brown the cheese on top, but not burn the dish!
  • Start with two minutes. After broiling for 2 minutes, check on the lasagna. If the cheese has browned on top, remove the lasagna from the oven immediately!
  • If it hasn’t browned yet, leave it in for an additional minute or two, checking after each minute to ensure you remove the lasagna from the oven before it burns.

Serve!

  • Remove the lasagna from the oven, and let it rest and cool for about 20 minutes before serving. Garnish with a little more parsley if desired, serve with a nice salad, and enjoy!

Notes

When it comes time to layer your lasagna, slightly overlap the lasagna sheets. In my pan, I did two full lasagna sheets per noodle layer, and then filled in the remaining gaps with pieces of a lasagna sheet I broke up.)
Make this gluten free by using gluten free lasagna noodles!
Make this vegan by using your favorite vegan cheese in place of the mozzarella and Parmesan!