Dairy Free Lasagna With Butternut Squash Noodles
Dairy free lasagna is a vegetable-forward dish with butternut squash noodles, and cashew ricotta. Although it's gluten free and dairy free (with a plant based option), the whole family will love this incredibly delicious lasagna.
Ingredients
- 1 large butternut squash
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion, diced about 1 cup
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 1 pound ground beef or substitute, see notes below
- 5 ounces fresh baby spinach
- 25.5 oz jar pasta sauce set aside 1 cup
- 1 ½ cups cashew ricotta divided
- kosher salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C.
- Prep butternut squash. Cut a thin slice off the top to remove the stem then peel the whole butternut squash with a vegetable peeler. Use a knife to cut just above the bulbous end. Set the bulb end aside to use for something else.
- Make squash noodles. Slice the long neck lengthwise into four quarters. Run each of the four quarters of butternut squash with the flat side down through a mandoline slicer until you have several thin butternut squash sheets. Side note: Mandolines are very sharp, so either use a safety guard or safety gloves to ensure you keep all your fingertips.
- Cook aromatics and meat. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, cook the onion and garlic until the onion is translucent, about 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the meat and cook until browned. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add spinach and sauce. Add the fresh spinach. It'll look like a lot at first, but it'll drastically reduce in size once cooked. Stir it throughout the meat mixture then remove from the heat, and add the tomato sauce (minus the 1 reserved cup).
- Assemble. Layer the lasagna by adding ¼ cup of the reserved sauce to the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish, followed by a layer of squash noodles that are slightly overlapped. Add half of the hearty meat sauce on top of the butternut squash, followed by ricotta dollops (only to this first meat layer, reserving the rest for the top). Repeat this process with the noodles and meat sauce until you've used them up.
- Add topping. Spread the remaining ¾ cup of reserved tomato sauce and the rest of the vegan ricotta over the top layer of "noodles" to form a crust over the top of the lasagna.
- Bake. Bake uncovered for 1 hour. Allow to cool to room temperature for a few minutes before serving. Enjoy!
Notes
See the blog post for step-by-step photos, helpful tips about layering the lasagna and getting thin, consistent butternut squash slices, and storage.