Vegetarian Lasagna With Cottage Cheese

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Make this vegetarian lasagna with cottage cheese when you’re craving a lighter version of your favorite Sunday dinner and need leftovers for the week ahead.

What This Recipe Entails

To make lasagna, you’ll first have to boil the lasagna noodles and prepare the sauce and cottage cheese mixture. Once that’s done, you’ll simply assemble, bake, and serve!

• Prep time: 10 minutes
• Cook time: 75 minutes
• Set time: 15 minutes

If you’re planning on eating this for dinner, plan to start cooking about 2 hours before you want to eat. You can prep the sauce and cheese while the noodles boil, but you’ll need some time for the noodles to cool before assembling the lasagna. Then, it needs about an hour in the oven and at least 15 minutes to set before you can slice and serve.

Note that the sauce in this recipe is quite thin, so this lasagna doesn’t hold its shape quite as well as a traditional lasagna. That doesn’t make it any less delicious, though!

Vegetarian Lasagna Ingredients

We use cottage cheese in this lasagna for a healthy alternative to ricotta cheese. Since this recipe is also vegetarian, it features a simple tomato sauce rather than a hearty meat sauce.

Here’s what you’ll need to make our cottage cheese lasagna recipe:

• Lasagna noodles
• Canned diced tomatoes
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Garlic
• Fresh basil
• Crushed red pepper flakes
• Sea salt
• Low fat cottage cheese (2%)
• Shredded parmesan cheese
• Shredded mozzarella cheese

How To Make Vegetarian Cottage Cheese Lasagna

To make this easy vegetarian lasagna, you’ll need a blender, food processor, 9×13 baking dish, and a little bit of patience! Although time consuming, lasagna is also super easy – and makes a big batch of food that you can enjoy for lunch and dinner all week long.

Here’s how to make our vegetarian cottage cheese lasagna:

1. First, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Boil the lasagna noodles until al dente, according to package directions. Once cooked, drain and carefully lay the noodles flat on a large cutting board or sheets of parchment paper to cool.
2. In the meantime, make the tomato sauce and cheese blend. To make the tomato sauce, combine tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, basil, red pepper flakes, and sea salt in a blender and blend on low speed until smooth, about 30 seconds.
3. To make the cheese blend, add the cottage cheese and shredded parmesan to a food processor. Pulse until smooth, pausing to scrape the sides as you go to ensure a smooth consistency.
4. Next, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Once the lasagna noodles are cool enough to handle, you can start assembling the lasagna.
5. In a 9×13 baking dish, add a thin layer of sauce to the bottom and spread evenly. Then, add 3 noodles to cover the bottom surface of the pan, overlapping slightly if needed. Top with half of the cheese blend, spreading it evenly over the noodles, and then sprinkle ½ cup shredded mozzarella over the top.
6. Then, add another layer of 3 noodles. Top with a layer of sauce, then the remaining cottage cheese blend, then another ½ cup of shredded mozzarella. 
7. Finally, add another layer of 3 noodles, followed by a layer of sauce and the remaining shredded mozzarella on top.
8. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Then, remove the foil and switch the oven to the broiler. Broil until the cheese is golden brown and bubbling, about 5 to 10 minutes.
9. Allow the lasagna to set for at least 15 minutes before slicing and serving. Optionally garnish with fresh basil.

Blending the cottage cheese with the parmesan creates a smooth and creamy blend that really reminds us of the ricotta, which is typically used in lasagna. Paired with a simple tomato sauce and mozzarella, the cottage cheese really shines in this recipe!

When covering the baking dish with foil, try to make sure the foil doesn’t touch the cheese. It’s not the end of the world if it does – it just means some cheese may stick to the foil as it melts.

Note that you may end up with a little bit of extra tomato sauce, depending on how saucy you want your lasagna to be. When we make this dish, we usually end up with anywhere from a quarter to half cup of sauce leftover. Save it and use it for dipping breadsticks, mozzarella sticks, or focaccia later on (or as a side with dinner)!

Serving Suggestions

We like to slice this lasagna into 12 squares. Depending on what sides you want to serve your lasagna with, 2 to 3 squares makes a good serving size for one person.

Here are some of our favorite sides to go with lasagna:

• Freshly baked bread or focaccia
• Breadsticks
• Dressed greens or a simple salad

Lately, Alex has been baking us artisan bread and focaccia using recipes from our copy of Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish. It’s by far our favorite side dish for Italian dinners and pasta nights! If you’ve ever wanted to start baking bread at home, we highly recommend checking out Ken’s cookbook and giving it a go.

Storing and Reheating

You can store leftover lasagna in the fridge for up to 5 days. We love making this recipe in our 9×13 glass baking dish with a lid so that we don’t have to transfer leftovers to a separate container for storage! This also makes cleanup so much easier.

Reheat single servings of lasagna for about 2 minutes in the microwave. Serve with your favorite sides, like salad or breadsticks, and enjoy again and again for easy lunches or dinners all week long!