No-Boil Vegetarian Lasagna on the table in just over an hour
A few years ago, my sister-in-law let me in on the little secret that you don’t have to boil noodles to make awesome lasagna. Life Changing! I have a veggie version I make frequently, but every so often, I don’t have time or don’t feel like sautéing veggies. So I make this super simple No-Boil Meatless Lasagna. For another meatless lasagna recipe, try this Roasted Red Pepper Lasagna next.
I went from making lasagna once every three years to making it at least monthly. It’s a simple meal I can throw together in a matter of minutes, and it only needs to bake for 45-60 minutes. Awesome weeknight dinner!
Italian Recipes You’ve Gotta Try!
- Authentic Italian Tomato Sauce
- Italian Sausage and Peppers Recipe
- Authentic Eggplant Parmesan
- Easy Baked Tortellini Casserole
- Minestrone Soup
- Olive Garden Pasta Fagioli Soup
You can use whatever sauce, homemade or store-bought, that you want. I have started making this Amazing Homemade Spaghetti Sauce in large batches and freezing it in 4-cup portions. I’m not kidding. It really is amazing, and it makes fabulous lasagna or stuffed shells.
The filling is also very versatile. You can use cottage cheese or ricotta cheese for the base. My kids like cottage cheese better, but I prefer ricotta.
All right. I think that covers all the important stuff. Let’s get to the recipe.
Oh, wait…don’t forget to check out the Amazing Homemade Spaghetti Sauce recipe.
How to Make No-Boil Meatless Lasagna
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium-sized bowl combine spaghetti sauce, can of tomatoes, garlic, 1 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp basil, or Italian seasoning. Mix well and pour half of mixture into bottom of a 9×13 pan.
- Arrange 4-5 noodles over sauce. You will need to break one into pieces to get it to fit on one side.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine cottage or ricotta cheese with one egg, parmesan cheese (optional), 1 tsp sugar, and 2 tbsp dried parsley (optional). Mix well and spread over dry noodle layer.
- Top cheese mixture with remaining dry noodles in same manner that you put down the first noodle layer. Pour remaining sauce over the dry noodles. Cover with tin foil and bake for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees.
- After 40-45 minutes remove foil and sprinkle mozzarella cheese evenly on the top of the lasagna. Return to oven for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and noodles are soft and tender when poked with a fork.
- Let sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting.
Enjoy!
Cook’s Tools for Meatless Lasagna:
If you love Meatless Lasagna, you'll love these...
- 10 dry lasagna noodles
- 1 bottle or can of your favorite spaghetti sauce or 3-4 cups of homemade sauce
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 1 large clove garlic, crushed or ¼ tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp sugar, divided
- ½ tsp basil or Italian Seasoning
- 1 (16 ounce) container of cottage cheese or Ricotta Cheese
- 1 egg
- 3 tbsp Parmesan cheese (optional)
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp dried parsley (optional)
- 2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium-sized bowl combine spaghetti sauce, can of tomatoes, garlic, 1 tsp sugar, ½ tsp basil, or Italian seasoning. Mix well and pour half of mixture into bottom of a 9x13 pan.
- Arrange 4-5 noodles over sauce. You will need to break one into pieces to get it to fit on the one side.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine cottage or ricotta cheese with one egg, parmesan cheese (optional), 1 tsp sugar, and 2 tbsp dried parsley (optional). Mix well and spread over dry noodle layer.
- Top cheese mixture with remaining dry noodles in same manner that you put down the first noodle layer. Pour remaining sauce over the dry noodles. Cover with tin foil and bake for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees.
- After 40-45 minutes remove foil and sprinkle mozzarella cheese evenly on the top of the lasagna. Return to oven for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and noodles are soft and tender when poked with a fork.
- Let sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting.
- Enjoy!
Other Meatless Lasagna Recipes
If you use the spaghetti sauce recipe from the previous page do you need to add additional spices to the sauce for this recipe???
Good question. No you don’t need to, I don’t. But you can if you want. It won’t make a huge difference.
Thank you for sharing this recipe – I’ve assembled lasagne with cooked noodles ahead of time (and refrigerated for a day or two until baking). Can I do the same with the uncooked noodles?
Yes, you totally can!
Thanks! 2nd time making this. Couldn’t find any pre-made lasagna is store without meat anywhere. Turned out amazing. Used Ricotta and fire-roasted tomatoes 😀
Hi, Ryan. So glad you liked it! Using fire-roasted tomatoes sounds delicious! For another meatless lasagna, this Roasted Red Pepper Lasagna is meatless and has fire-roasted tomatoes in it.
Why only one layer of noodles? Will they cook if you do several layers?
Hi Megan, there are actually two layers of noodles. Because this is a no boil recipe, the noodles need to be touching sauce to cook properly. If you want to add more layers you can, you will need to make sure to have sauce right next to the noodles. Does that make sense? This recipe only makes enough sauce for two layers of noodles so you would need to make more sauce if you wanted to have more layers. Hope this helps.
What size can of tomatoes?
Hi Diana, sorry that wasn’t clear on the recipe. I use a 15 ounce can.
i’m very confused at the amount of ricotta cheese. 116oz? or 1.16 oz?
Sorry about that! It’s one 16 ounce container of cottage cheese or ricotta.
Can you double the recipe in the same pan?
Hi, Amy. If you want to double the recipe, we recommend using two 9×13 pans.
Just made this tonight for a 2 year old, a 13 year old, one vegetarian and one picky eater.
All of them said “keep this recipe”!
Yay! I absolutely love hearing that! Thanks for leaving a comment Sarah!
If I freeze this after its cooked, what kind of re-heating instructions do you think I need to give. I am making it for a friend who’s son just had surgery.
Good Question, I have never reheated this from frozen after it has been cooked. It might be better to boil the noodles and freeze it uncooked in this situation.
I have no idea what I did wrong as I followed this recipe to a T. It literally came out like lasagna soup. It was yummy tasting but can’t figure out what went wrong
Hi, Lisa. Sorry to hear you had troubles. We recommend letting the lasagna sit 5-10 minutes before serving it so the noodles will soak up the sauce.