Lentil Lasagne

If you need a vegetarian casserole dinner to bring somewhere, save this recipe. My Lentil Lasagne has all the hearty flavors of lasagna, but it uses lentils in place of meat. Plenty of cheesy deliciousness, but without the meat! Vegetarian lasagna to the rescue!

Since we have made lentil tacos with zero complaints about the missing meat, I decided it was time to try lentil lasagne! I have a few tricks for making lentils taste meaty and hearty in a recipe otherwise devoid of meat.

This lentil lasagna has all of the delicious components of a regular lasagna: layers of rich tomato sauce, pasta sheets, creamy ricotta, and melty mozzarella. However, instead of ground sausage or ground beef like you normally find, we're using lentils!

We're keeping this recipe for vegetarian lentil lasagne super simple by using 2 cans of already cooked lentils.

How to Make Lentil Lasagne

First, we have to make the tomato sauce that includes the lentils. After sautéing the onion until golden, we quickly add the garlic and tomato paste and seasonings. This extra step of making the sauce from scratch is something I really recommend. We're laying Italian seasoning with red wine, crushed fire-roasted tomatoes and vegetable broth to bring a meaty taste to the lentils.

The homemade tomato sauce bolstered with lentils is basically a lentil bolognese, and it gives so much flavor to the overall dish. Please don't swap out a jar of pre-made sauce.

Ingredients

• Olive Oil. Just two tablespoons of olive oil for sautéing the vegetables. It does not need to be extra virgin olive oil, since we're cooking it. Save the extra virgin stuff for salad dressings, like my edamame white bean salad.
• Onion. One large onion, chopped, is roughly 1.5 cups of onion. It is the foundation flavor to our sauce, so please don't skip it, even if you think you don't like onions. You can always puree the sauce with an immersion blender before using, if you don't like chunks of onion. Be sure to chop the onion finely for even cooking.
• Garlic. Four cloves of fresh garlic, freshly minced. For the best flavor, use the fresh garlic you peel from the bulb; the jarred stuff just doesn't have the same flavor.
• Tomato Paste. An entire 6-ounce can of tomato paste brings so much richness to the sauce. This is what is going to make our sauce taste like it simmered all day.
• Italian Seasoning. We're using this seasoning blend so you don't have to buy 6 different spices individually. It usually contains oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram, rosemary and sometimes sage.
• Lentils. You'll be happy to know that we're not cooking lentils from scratch here (like we do for our lentil cauliflower soup). We're using 2 15-ounce cans of already cooked lentils. Go ahead and drain the lentils, but do not rinse them.
• Crushed Tomatoes. We need the big 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes. The fire-roasted crushed tomatoes are my preference for extra flavor. If you can't find them, regular crushed tomatoes are fine, too!
• Red Wine. Using ⅓ cup of dry red wine brings a depth of flavor to the sauce, but if you don't like to cook with wine, replace it with extra vegetable broth.
• Broth. To keep this vegetarian lasagna, we're using 1 cup of vegetable broth. This thins out of the sauce and makes it easier to spread in the pan.
• Ricotta Cheese. I detest cottage cheese in lasagna, so I always use ricotta. We need the 15-ounce container of it, just shy of 1 pound.
• Mozzarella Cheese. To make the layers of our lentil lasagne extra cheesy, we need 4 cups of shredded mozzarella. My preference is fresh mozzarella, because it melts more smoothly.
• Parmesan Cheese. A small amount of Parmesan cheese for the topping to help it become golden brown in the oven.
• Lasagna Noodles. To save an extra step, try to find the no-boil lasagna noodle sheets. You will need 10-12 sheets to fit in your 9x13-inch pan.

How to Layer Lentil Lasagne

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Have ready a 9X13-inch baking dish.

Cover the dish lightly with foil, and then bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes to brown the cheese on top. Let rest for 10-15 minutes before attempting to cut and serve so that it holds together when slicing.

Other Lentil Recipes for You:

• Lentil Meatballs
• Yellow Moong Dal
• Moroccan Stew
• Red Lentil Chili
• Lentil Enchiladas