Roasted-Vegetable Lasagna

13 Reviews
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Photo: Becky Luigart-Stayner; Styling: Fonda Shaia
Yield
9 servings
By Jean Kressy
June 1999
RECIPE BY Cooking Light

No one will miss the meat in this vegetable lasagna that’s packed with sweet and mellow roasted squash, bell peppers and onion, rich cheeses and fresh herbs.

Ingredients

  • Vegetables:
  • 4 red bell peppers
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 6 yellow squash, halved lengthwise and cut into 1-inch pieces (about 1 1/2 pounds)
  • 1 large onion, cut into 16 wedges
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • Cheese mixture:
  • 2 cups 2% low-fat cottage cheese
  • 1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) grated sharp provolone cheese
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • White sauce:
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups 2% reduced-fat milk
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • Cooking spray
  • 9 cooked lasagna noodles
  • 2 cups spinach leaves, divided
  • 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
  • Fresh basil sprigs (optional)

Nutritional Information

  • Calories 275
  • Caloriesfromfat 30%
  • Fat 9.1g
  • Satfat 5.2g
  • Monofat 2.6g
  • Polyfat 0.6g
  • Protein 19.3g
  • Carbohydrate 29.3g
  • Fiber 2.9g
  • Cholesterol 24mg
  • Iron 2.3mg
  • Sodium 564mg
  • Calcium 308mg

How to Make It

Step 1

Preheat broiler.

Step 2

To prepare vegetables, cut bell peppers in half lengthwise; discard seeds and membranes. Place pepper halves, skin sides up, on a foil-lined baking sheet; flatten with hand. Broil 15 minutes or until blackened. Place in a zip-top plastic bag; seal. Let stand 15 minutes. Peel; set aside.

Step 3

Preheat oven to 450°.

Step 4

Combine oil, salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, squash, and onion on a baking sheet; toss well. Bake at 450° for 20 minutes. Remove from oven; combine squash mixture and garlic in a bowl.

Step 5

Decrease oven temperature to 375°.

Step 6

To prepare cheese mixture, combine cottage cheese and next 3 ingredients (cottage cheese through oregano) in a bowl.

Step 7

To prepare white sauce, place flour in a medium saucepan. Gradually add milk; stir with a whisk. Place over medium heat. Cook until thick; stir constantly. Remove from heat; stir in 2 tablespoons chopped basil and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper.

Step 8

Spread 1/4 cup white sauce in bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 3 noodles over sauce; top with 1 1/4 cups cheese mixture, 1 cup spinach, 4 bell pepper halves, 2 cups vegetable mixture, and 1/4 cup white sauce. Repeat layers, ending with noodles. Spread remaining white sauce over noodles. Cover and bake at 375° for 15 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Bake an additional 20 minutes. Garnish with basil sprigs, if desired.

Chef's Notes

Use a sharp, potent cheese in this dish for the most flavor. Parmesan, Romano, Asiago, or sharp cheddar will all work as well in the filling. Stick to mozzarella for the top, however, as it melts and browns the best. For extra browning, place the lasagna under the broiler for a minute or two at the end of cooking.

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Ratings & Reviews

Delicious!

JessicaNat
July 12, 2016
Needed to use up some yellow squash and found this recipe. It was delicious! I made it almost exactly as directed, and found it to be rich and full of flavor. Mine didn't turn out watery at all; I let it sit for about 10 minutes after coming out of the oven. As has been mentioned, it is time consuming, so allow yourself plenty of time, make sure you have all ingredients prepped and measured before starting, and try to do some of the other steps while the vegetables are roasting. The only two slight changes I made: I included arugula instead of spinach (had some arugula I needed to use up) and subbed ricotta instead of cottage cheese (personal preference). This could be a wonderful meatless meal in itself, but I served it with simple pan-seared pork tenderloin medallions.

hollywood7147's Review

mandapooh
July 05, 2014
Love this recipe. We used pre-cooked oven-ready noodles which made us a bit nervous as they came out very crunchy and seemed not to be cooked - but we were not planning to eat right away so after putting in the fridge for a day, they had soaked up a lot of the excess moisture from the squash, solving two problems at once (took far less time to prepare and wasn't super watery so held together well). We prepared the squash with a lot of black pepper which worked very well. Overall, the minor modifications worked extremely well and this is certainly a recipe we will be making over and over.

JessicaNat's Review

aejhnsn1
May 19, 2013
N/A

cslorraine's Review

michapok
June 14, 2012
My husband and I loved the recipe. Unfortunately, I did not read all the reviews first so I wasn't prepared for how time intensive the recipe is. A few things, if you have another set of helping hands to chop or prepare the cheese mixture, it would go much quicker. Additionally, I did the recipe one step at a time. Next time, I would boil the water while the peppers roast and then cook the noodles while the veggie mix cooks. I would also prepare the white sauce while the noodles cook. I think doing a few things at the same time would speed things up. I used half yellow squash and half zucchini, I also added eggplant that I brushed with olive oil and salt and pepper and cooked in the oven for about 10 minutes on each side. After cooking the lasagna, I let it sit for about 5 minutes or so to let it set up so it would be easier to cut. It did fall apart a bit but it was still delicious, great flavors! We loved it and will definitely make it again.

NCP060207's Review

JanineAnn
December 04, 2011
This was great but I made some modifications. I used a sauce that was jarred red with pesto stirred in. I also let this bake much longer to get rid of the excess liquid. It still doesn't hold together like lasagna but the flavors were great and I would absolutely make it again and again.

HeatherLynn's Review

hollywood7147
October 11, 2009
This recipe is terrible! Way too watery, and the white sauce is really bland. It was a real disappointment, considering all the fresh spices, cheeses and garlic going into it, on top of the rave reviews. But honestly, I've had Lean Cuisines that have tasted better and more flavorful than this. I grudgingly ate leftovers and added marinara to it, which improved it vastly. This will be my first and last experience with a white sauce lasagna.

JanineAnn's Review

NCP060207
September 16, 2009
The flavor was pretty good- quite rich cheese flavor I thought, for a 'light' recipe. I did miss the traditional tomato base a little bit. I used half yellow squash and half zucchini, as another reviewer suggested. I also used a jar of roasted red peppers, dried on paper towels, instead of roasting my own. This saved some prep time, but still took me about an hour before getting it into the oven.

tigrrrl's Review

apshine
September 15, 2009
Crazy delicious! Best lasagna I've ever had or made! Love the garlic flavor. Hard to believe it's low-calorie and vegetarian!

mandapooh's Review

HeatherLynn
August 01, 2009
This was so good. Make sure to blacken the peppers fully when roasting, it makes them much easier to peel. I made this with Pecorino Romano and 1% cottage cheese in the filling, and used half squash and half zucchini. I also used about 6 cloves of garlic and mixed it into the veggies before roasting them. This is a time consuming recipe, but well worth the effort.

shottgun's Review

tigrrrl
July 24, 2009
It is very important to leave yourself a good deal of time, but this lasagna is worth the effort. The only thing is that my family and I needed to spice it up a bit with some pepper and hot sauce, but once we did that it made for quite a delicious meal.