You're seeing a trend, aren't you? Meatless Monday vibes spilling all over every post. I'm having to eat less meat and *gasp* drink less coffee, so my recipes for the next couple of weeks may be a little vegetarian heavy. This recipe, y'all... it's the bomb. Stouffer's used to make a vegetable lasagna, in fact they may still make it and it just isn't sold in my grocery store anymore. It's just different than any other vegetable lasagna. Most of the others you find have either zucchini as the noodles, a red sauce, or large hunks of veggies. This one still uses noodles, has finely chopped veggies, a white sauce, 5 cheeses, and is absolutely delicious.
Now, don't get confused and think, "Oh! Vegetable lasagna, it must be healthy!" This one is probably not that for you. It still uses lasagna noodles, has 5 different cheeses, and a wonderful heavy white sauce. Let's also not forget about the crunchy topping. It's buttery, crunchy, and salty. So perfect!
One trick I have learned with this lasagna (as with all lasagnas), be sure to let it cool! If you let it cool, the sauce will thicken and it cuts perfectly from the pan.
The ingredients may seem a little intimidating since the list is long, but I promise if you buy some already shredded cheeses and just take it one step at a time, you'll find out it's a breeze to put together!
Vegetable Lasagna
Equipment
- skillet
- saucepan
- baking dish
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
Ingredients
- 9 whole lasagna noodles
- 2 cups matchstick carrots finely chopped
- 2 cups baby spinach finely chopped
- 3 cups broccoli finely chopped
- ¼ whole yellow onion finely chopped
- 7 tablespoons butter keep 4 tablespoons + 3 tablespoons separate
- 4 tablespoons flour
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ¾ cup vegetable broth
- ½ cup 2% milk
- 1½ cup heavy cream
- ½ cup part skim ricotta
- ½ cup Parmesan shredded
- ½ cup Romano shredded
- ½ cup Asiago shredded
- ½ cup mozzarella shredded
- 1 cup Ritz crackers crushed
- 2 teaspoons all purpose seasoning I use Mrs. Dash
- Salt & Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375°F.
- Cook lasagna noodles to al dente (they will finish cooking in the oven).
- Melt 4 tablespoons of your butter in a large, deep skillet.
- Add chopped onion and saute until softened and translucent.
- Add garlic and onion powder, stir quickly to combine.
- Add flour and whisk constantly until completely combined and not lumpy (about 2-3 minutes).
- Raise heat to medium.
- Slowly add in vegetable stock and continue to whisk.
- Continue in adding the milk and cream one at a time while continuing to whisk. You want the sauce to thicken.
- Reduce heat and continue to whisk slowly until the sauce is about the consistency of gravy.
- Remove from heat and add the carrots, spinach, and broccoli, to the sauce mixture.
- In a separate bowl, combine the ricotta, Parmesan, Romano, Asiago, and mozzarella.
- In a separate bowl, melt the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter.
- Add in the Ritz crackers, all purpose seasoning, and about 3 tablespoons of the shredded cheese mixture to the melted butter.
- Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with nonstick spray.
- Place 3 noodles on the bottom of the dish.
- Add ⅓ of the vegetable mixture and spread across the top of the noodles.
- Cover the vegetable mixture with ½ of the shredded cheese mixture.
- Cover this with 3 more lasagna noodles, ⅓ of the vegetable mixture, and the remaining ½ of the shredded cheese mixture.
- Lay the final 3 lasagna noodles across and top with the remaining vegetable mixture.
- Sprinkle the top of the lasagna with the Ritz cracker topping.
- Bake for 25 minutes.
- Cool for 10-15 minutes. Enjoy!
Amanda
This lasagna is delicious! Looks like a lot of effort, but it really isn't. The first time I made it, I made it exactly as the recipe states. The second time, I had different veggies on hand so I subbed those and it's still delicious. I love the white sauce and the fact that it's not too thick and rich.
kara
Amanda, thank you so much for your comment! That's so kind of you. I'm so happy you enjoyed it!
Suzi
I made this for my boyfriend because he’d never had a vegetable lasagna before, after looking up about 30 vegetable lasagna recipes this is the one I chose. It was phenomenal! We had leftovers for days and we were looking forward to those lunches everyday.
One thing I noticed is your recipe says to use 4 tablespoons of butter, then on the first step of the sauce it says to use all 4. Later on it says to use “the remaining 3 tablespoons” definitely not a big deal, just thought you might have missed that 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing! I can’t wait to have this again!
kara
I love hearing that, Suzi! I'm so glad you guys enjoyed the recipe!
I didn't realize about the butter in the recipe. Thank you so much for pointing that out! I got it updated 🙂
Banders
I'm cooking a stouffers one rn but I'm trying this recipe next! Thanks-
kara
Wonderful! Hope you love it!
Brittany
Absolutely the best vegetable lasagna I have ever made. Every time I make this for company, everyone asks for the recipe. It's so good!!
Heather
Should the vegetables be raw or steamed ahead of time?
kara
Hi Heather! The carrots, broccoli, and spinach go in raw.
Cat
I'm cooking this lovely dish as we speak. Only thing I can say so far is in the directions you state add ricotta and veggies to sauce, then next step is to add ricotta and cheese in separate bowl. Which is it?! to the sauce or the Cheese. I had to guess in hopes that adding it to the sauce was accurate as i don't make pasta dishes often and just had to assume.
Can't wait to eat this day after Christmas!!!
Catherine.
also the butter issue someone had brought up still was not clarified, so i have double the butter. but who can be mad at that, lol!!
kara
Hi Cat! The ricotta should be added to the cheeses. I'm so sorry for that miscommunication. I thought I had fixed it. The butter is divided - 4 tablespoons are used to cook the onion in and the 3 tablespoons are mixed with the ritz cracker topping. Hopefully, it still came out okay 🙂 Sorry for the confusion.
Molly Kendrick
I’m so excited to try this recipe! I want to add chicken though. Do you have any advice on that? I’m thinking to pre-cook the chicken first. Should I cut some of the veggies out so it doesn’t get overloaded, or should I just go for it?
kara
Hi Molly! If you plan to add some chicken, I would precook the chicken and use shredded or diced. You could go one of two ways... you could add it to the veggie/sauce mixture and in this case I would cut down on the amount of vegetables. You could also add it as its own layer when layering the lasagna. In that way, I wouldn't cut back on the veggies. You'll just have a bit taller of a lasagna! Hope you enjoy!!
Jacqueline Klug
Can I make this the day before?
kara
Yes, but I'd recommend keeping the ritz topping separate and adding it the day of and just popping it in the oven for a little bit to crisp it up.