Vegetable Lasagna with white sauce is delicious, creamy, and easy to make. It's packed with 5 different kinds of cheese and vibrant veggies to give you the ultimate flavor.
Coypcat Stouffer's Vegetable Lasagna Recipe - Why You'll Love It
This copycat Stouffer’s Vegetable Lasagna Recipe is creamy, cheesy, and delicious. It’s easy to make while still being packed full of flavor.
Sometimes when you think of vegetable lasagnas, you think of bland, boring dishes. This recipe for vegetable lasagna with white sauce is anything but boring.
If you’re a big fan of the vegetable lasagna that Stouffer’s used to make, this is a copycat recipe for that. It’s different from any other vegetable lasagna.
While most vegetable lasagnas have zucchini as the noodles, a red sauce, or big chunks of vegetables, this one still uses real pasta, has finely chopped vegetables, a white sauce, 5 kinds of cheese, and a crunchy topping.
It makes the perfect Meatless Monday dinner or anytime you want creamy, delicious pasta.
Before You Make this White Vegetable Lasagna Recipe:
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!
White Veggie Lasagna Ingredients
- Lasagna noodles - You’ll want to use standard lasagna noodles. I do not recommend using oven-ready noodles. They tend to have a completely different texture and result in a rubbery, chewy lasagna.
- Carrots - I like to start with matchstick carrots and then chop them up finely. By starting with matchstick, it saves some times and guarantees a small dice.
- Baby spinach - I recommend sticking with baby spinach vs. regular spinach because it has a sweeter, more tender flavor than mature spinach.
- Broccoli - The key with the broccoli in this recipe is to make sure you chop it finely. You want to give it the opportunity to soften in the lasagna while it’s baking. You also don’t want to get any large chunks in the final dish.
- Onion - I like to use a yellow onion finely chopped. You can use a vegetable chopper to make this easier.
- Butter - Both salted and unsalted butter work well in this recipe.
- All purpose flour - This will help you make the roux that will thicken the sauce
- Garlic - Fresh garlic works best for the ultimate flavor. By mincing the garlic, it will release the best flavor.
- Onion powder - It seems redundant, but the onion powder adds a different flavor than the whole, fresh onion.
- Vegetable broth - You can used vegetable broth or vegetable stock here. If you aren’t strictly looking for a vegetarian dish, you could also replace it with chicken broth.
- Milk - I like to use 2%, but you could use whole milk as well.
- Heavy cream - The heavy cream shouldn’t be replaced with anything else because it is needed for the correct texture and taste. It helps it have a smooth, creamy sauce.
- Ricotta - I prefer part skim ricotta, but full fat works great as well.
- Parmesan, Romano, Asiago, and Mozzarella cheese - Freshly grated cheese works best here if you can. Pre-shredded cheese has an anti-caking agent that doesn’t allow it to melt as well.
- Ritz crackers - The buttery, rich crackers make the perfect crispy, crunchy topping.
- All purpose seasoning - Any all purpose seasoning works here, just be mindful of the salt content because it will be added to the ritz crackers that are already salty.
- Salt & pepper to taste - I always recommend coarse kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
How To Make Vegetable Lasagna with White Sauce
- Start by preheating the oven to 375°F.
- Cook the lasagna noodles to al dente according to the package instructions. Don’t go past al dente, they will continue to cook in the oven.
- Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a large, deep skillet over medium heat.
- Add the chopped yellow onion and saute until it is softened and translucent.
- Once the onion has softened, add the garlic and onion powder. Stir quickly to combine. Saute for about 1 minute, just until garlic is fragrant, but be careful not to burn it.
- Add the flour and whisk constantly until it is completely combined and smooth. It will take about 2-3 minutes.
- Slowly add in the vegetable stock and continue to whisk.
- Continue by adding the milk and cream one at a time while continuing to whisk allowing the sauce to thicken.
- Reduce the heat and continue to whisk slowly until the sauce is about the consistency of gravy.
- Remove the skillet from the heat and add the carrots, spinach, and broccoli to the sauce mixture.
- In a separate bowl, combine the ricotta, parmesan, romano, asiago, and mozzarella and mix to combine.
- 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 sauce mixture and spread across the top of the noodles.
- Cover the vegetable mix with ½ of the shredded cheese mixture.
- Cover with 3 more lasagna noodles, followed by ⅓ of the vegetable mixture, and the remaining ½ of the shredded cheese mixture.
- Lay the final 3 lasagna noodles across the top with the remaining vegetable mixture.
- Sprinkle the top of the lasagna with the ritz cracker topping.
- Bake for 25 minutes.
- Allow it to cool for 10-15 minutes before serving. You’ll want it to cool so that the pieces don’t fall apart.
Tips for this recipe for Vegetable Lasagna with White Sauce
- Feel free to swap out the vegetables for some of your favorites. Some great options include mushrooms, zucchini, eggplant, and cauliflower.
- When adding water-heavy vegetables like zucchini, you will need to release a lot of the water content to avoid a soggy lasagna. Chop the zucchini, add it to a bowl with salt to release the water, drain, and dry before adding it to the sauce.
- Do not use oven-ready lasagna noodles. They will not give you the same result.
- If you decide to make this ahead of time, I recommend keeping the ritz topping separate until you’re ready to bake so that it can stay crispy.
Serving Veggie White Lasagna
To serve veggie white lasagna, you’ll want to be sure that it cools for about 10-15 minutes before you slice into it. This allows it to stay together when you remove it from the baking dish.
Vegetable Lasagna with White Sauce goes really well with:
Storing White Vegetable Lasagna
To store any leftover white vegetable lasagna, let it cool completely. Once it has cooled, place it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It will stay fresh for up to 3 days when stored properly.
To reheat leftover lasagna, you can use the oven or microwave. I recommend taking it low and slow when using the microwave to avoid overcooking it and causing the noodles to harden.
Vegetable Lasagna with White Sauce recipe FAQs
To keep vegetable lasagna from being watery, you have to be careful with the vegetables you are using. If you are using a vegetable that has high water content like zucchini, you need to salt it first to allow it to release its water.
You’ll then drain it and dry it before using it in the veggie lasagna.
If you don’t release the water content of vegetables like this, they will release the liquid as they cook and it creates a watery lasagna.
White sauce in lasagna is made up of a roux (flour & butter), heavy cream, and vegetable stock.
More Delicious Recipes to Try
White Vegetable Lasagna
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!
Maggie
I made this for the first time and it's absolutely DELICIOUS!! I was a little intimidated by both the number of ingredients and steps, but I ended up having many of the ingredients already and the steps were easy to follow. I made 2 substitutions, I used cauliflower instead of broccoli and seasoned bread crumbs instead of Ritz. I will definitely be making this again and highly recommend the recipe!
kara
Oh my goodness what a compliment! Thank you so much!! I love your alterations too. I'll have to try them!
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.
Ana
Hi! I’m planning to use zucchini instead of broccoli and incorporating mushrooms, would I have to sauté the veggies first? I love the idea and convenience of adding them raw into the sauce, though
kara
Hi Ana,
I would not saute the veggies first. I would add them in raw. The only issue I see could be the zucchini releasing too much water during cooking. To avoid this, you could chop it, sprinkle it with salt and let the water release for a few minutes while you prep the other ingredients. Then drain/dry it and add it in. It may be totally fine without doing that though!
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.
Maria
Can this recipe be frozen without the topping and then baked another day?
kara
Hi Maria. Yes, it absolutely can be!
Kasey C
Hi. Does this taste like the Stouffer’s Vegetable Lasagna? I can’t wait to try this recipe!
kara
That's what I was trying to achieve with it! I love it too!
Megan
This was incredible! I made the mistake of buying oven ready lasagna noodles. I knew what I was doing when I did it but I had a sick kid at home and the store I went to was out of regular lasagna noodles. I couldn’t bear the thought of going to another store for one item. I was able to save the dish, but learn from my mistake! I still rate this 5 stars because aside from the lasagna noodle mishap which was my own fault, this was to die for. My daughter tasted the filling and fell to the ground. Well done!
kara
Oh my goodness, thank you Megan!! This is so incredibly nice of you to say. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Lynn Donnelly
Delicious lasagna! I made it a couple months ago and plan to make it again next week for a friend.
Candace
I’ve already made the innards and while reading the reviews came to this! Bad to use the ones you don’t cook first? Should I still cook them a bit?
kara
Hi Candace, this recipe uses standard lasagna noodles. I don't recommend using "oven-ready" noodles. They produce a weird texture result.
Betsy
The flavor/sauce is delicious! Worth the effort...took me alot longer than 20 minutes prep time! Followed recipe exactly but my veggies were not done. I had even covered with foil and left it in oven an additional 10 minutes. Let it cool 10 minutes. I will definitely make it again but bake about 50 to 60 minutes covered for most of the time. It's a keeper! Thanks.
Tori
Can I assemble this the day before, then add the ritz topping and cook the next day? I’ve done this with tomato based lasagna, but not sure how it will do with the cream base?
kara
Yes, you absolutely can!
Lisa
I googled around looking for a first course recipe for Christmas dinner. Luckily, I stumbled on this recipe.
I made it ahead of time (froze before cooking).
It was outstanding and the best part of the dinner.
I have guests coming to visit so I’m making one now!
kara
Thank you, Lisa!! This is such a kind compliment! I'm so glad everyone loved it.
Lana
I’m excited to try this recipe but I would like to make it in the crock pot. Any suggestions on how to cook it and assemble the ingredients in it?
kara
Hi Lana, I haven't personally tried it in the crockpot yet myself, but you could follow the same cooking method I use for my standard crockpot lasagna here: https://sweetlysplendid.com/crockpot-lasagna/ - I would try cooking it on low for 5-6 hours, but just follow the layering as written in the recipe.
Madeline Seabaugh
I have a gluten intolerance, but I have recently found gluten free lasagne noodles. Obviously I can’t have ritz crackers. My go to is ground pork rinds, crushed corn flakes and gluten free breadcrumbs. Which would work best here? I am really anxious to try this recipe.
PS: I am a fellow Texan from Houston, Longview and now Denton.
kara
Hi Madeline, I haven't personally tried this with gluten-free lasagna noodles. As far as the topping goes, you want a buttery, crunchy topping. I feel like the crushed cornflakes would probably be the closest option for this of the options you listed.
Trish
Hi Madeline - I needed to make a GF option as well and I used GF panko - it was fantastic! and the crowd loved it!
Judy Schell
If I am dividing this recipe between two baking containers, one about 3/4 and a smaller one with the balance, will I have enough sauce? I usually make lasagna for daughter and a smaller one for me and husband. I want to make in tomorrow morning and freeze both.
kara
Hi Judy, It should be plenty of sauce as long as you divide it between the containers in the same ratio.
Ashley
Craving a veggie lasagna today and found your recipe. It was so delicious and I enjoyed it more than Stouffers! This recipe is definitely a keeper! Thank you!!!
kara
This is such a kind compliment! Thank you so much!
Judy Schell
This is 100% delicious. I used zucchini, carrot, fresh off the cobb corn, spinach, broccoli. However, 20 minute prep, that’s a joke. It takes 20 minute plus to prep veggies! Actually I did that the day before and proceeded with the rest the next day. It takes 20 minutes to prep lasagna noodles. It takes another 20 minutes to make the béchamel. Then another 15 minutes to pull it all together. It’s worth every bit of time and far exceeds Stouffers. I will make it again. The crumbs are a nice touch but not absolutely necessary.
Brooke Howard
Hi! My husband and I had the actual Stouffer’s last night (his first time, and many moons ago I had it and loved it). So today I came across this and am SO EXCITED to try it! This way we can put our own little twist but still have that creaminess veggie splendor. Thank you! I’ll post again when I try the recipe! 🙂
Jennifer
Our family favorite lasagna recipe!
kara
I'm so glad your family loves it!
Luanne
This recipe is delicious! I divided it into four portions and froze in tin foil pans. To cook from frozen I set the temperature to 375 for 40 minutes covered with foil, then 15 minutes without foil. The vegetables weren’t done enough. Next time I’ll try 50 minutes. I also added salt and cracked pepper.
Crystal
I am making this for Christmas Eve. I'd like to make it the day before (I'll leave the Ritz topping off until bake time). What would you suggest in regards to cooking instructions for a cold veggie lasagna?
kara
Hi Crystal, if you're going straight from the refrigerator to the oven (with a baking dish that can handle that), you'll probably need closer to 55-60 minutes baking time. Hope y'all enjoy it!
Lori
I'm making this today and will freeze it. Should I defrost before baking? Or bake from frozen? Any ideas on timing? I'm really excited to try this!!
kara
Hi Lori! I would recommend thawing it before baking. If you go straight from fridge to oven (if your baking dish allows), it'll need closer to 55-60 minutes.
Judi
This recipe is a winner! Not only is it delicious, but it looks and tastes 'fancy', and can be made the day before! I made it just as it called for with one change.... I added a layer of shrimp! Perfect for company dinner.
cindy myers
I love white sauce veg lazagna. I do have a question that always confuses me. As far as the veggies go are the measurement pre chapped or post chapped?
kara
Hi Cindy, those measurements are post-chopped.
Michelle
Delicious! This is my go to veggie lasagna recipe.
Trish
This recipe was big hit at my "Italian Night" party. I was able to make it gluten free using GF noodles and GF panko instead of Ritz. It turned out great! I made the full tray a week a head of time, brought it out the day before to thaw in the refrigerator and baked as noted. It was a fan favorite and met the needs of the GF folks as well as vegetarian folks.
kara
I love hearing this!! I'm so glad everyone enjoyed it!