This is a low carb, vegan eggplant lasagna (or aubergine depending where you live) and it is super hearty and packed with flavour! It’s also gluten free! Sometimes vegan lasagnas get a bad rap for not being filling or flavourful but I can tell you this one filling and flavour packed vegan lasagna! Everything is made from scratch including the marinara sauce and the vegan ricotta, but it is so worth it.
Vegan ricotta? Yup! It’s made with tofu! I used tofu as
1. It’s low carb, and
2. As long as you don’t use silken tofu you end up with a texture which is kind of similar to ricotta!
And it’s so insanely quick and easy to make you just blitz all the ingredients up in a food processor. As mentioned you cannot use silken tofu to make this ricotta. I have tried that in the past but the consistency is wrong and it comes out super smooth and not thick enough and just not really like a ricotta at all. I used Bean Supreme organic plain tofu, which is pretty close to a firm tofu and works really well.
So, what makes this vegan lasagna low carb? Eggplant slices make up the lasagna sheets rather than traditional carby pasta sheets. Just thinly slice 2 eggplants and use the slices in place of where you would use lasagna pasta sheets. I ended up using about 5 slices per layer. Due to the eggplant not being square or having straight sides, you will get a few gaps between slices but don’t worry it’s totally fine and by the time it’s cooked you won’t even notice!
This lasagna recipe also uses a homemade marinara sauce. I love homemade sauces, you know exactly what’s gone into them and can control the amount of sugar and salt plus you can make them to your liking! I’ve added a decent amount of wine to mine as I love a good red wine and tomato sauce, and also a hit of chilli. But if you aren’t a fan of red wine sauce or chilli, it’s totally fine to omit these and make the sauce to suit your tastes. It does take a little bit of time to make your own sauce as it needs to simmer and thicken, however if you make the sauce one of the first things you start on it can then just simmer away while you do everything else and will be good to go by the time you want to start assembling your lasagna.
As well as a vegan ricotta, eggplant lasagna sheets and a homemade marinara, this low carb vegan lasagna includes some other tasty elements. The first layer is roasted pumpkin which is mashed and seasoned with dried thyme and salt and pepper. As with all veggies, roasting the pumpkin rather than steaming or boiling really helps to intensify the flavour and bring out the sweetness. I used a butternut pumpkin, but use whatever variety is in season and available to you, you could even use squash instead.
The second layer is the aforementioned tofu ricotta mixed with some sauteed onions, garlic and spinach, then a layer of fresh tomatoes.
As this lasagna is so full of a variety of veggies it’s also packed with vitamins and nutrients. There’s lots of vitamin C and fibre from well, all of the veggies, iron in the spinach which can be easily absorbed thanks to the vitamin C, vitamin K and magnesium in the eggplant, vitamin A and potassium in the pumpkin, honestly the list just goes on. Oh and of course protein in the tofu. Overall this is a really nutritious and healthy lasagna AND it’s delicious!
Now as I said everything is made from scratch, which means it does take some time to make. Around 2 hours all up. And you gotta multi-task. You know, start on the sauce while the pumpkin is in the oven, then make up your ricotta while the sauce is simmering, etc. You could also make some things in advance if you like. The pumpkin can be roasted earlier on the day of or even the day before and then refrigerated, same deal with the sauce and the ricotta. You could also cook up the spinach mixture in advance too.
But basically it’s not a meal to make from scratch on a busy mid-week day. Plan it for a weekend, or just an evening where you know you’re going to have a bit more time.
This lasagna is huge, I was struggling to get it all into the baking dish! It’ll do about 8 serves and refrigerates and reheats well. One serve is only about 7g of carbs. Told you it was low carb! Of course that may vary a little bit depending on brands you use (e.g. plant milk for the ricotta and vegan cheese for on top).
I hope you enjoy my vegan eggplant lasagna and if you’re after more low carb vegan dinner options try my Low Carb Satay Tofu Burgers or Cauliflower and Broccoli Cheese!
Ingredients
- Sauce
- Tofu Ricotta
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 190℃
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Cut the pumpkin in half then use a spoon to remove all of the seeds. Once the seeds are removed roughly cut into chunks.
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Put onto an oven tray with a drizzle of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Put into the oven and bake for 30-40mins until soft and starting to caramelise.
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While the pumpkin is in the oven, start the sauce. Dice the onion and garlic for the sauce and put into a medium sized pot on a medium heat with a dash of oil. Cook until soft.
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Add the chilli flakes then cook another minute before adding the wine. Cook the wine for about 5 minutes.
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Add the tinned tomatoes and oregano then turn the heat down and leave to simmer, stir occasionally
- Once the pumpkin is cooked take out of the oven and leave aside to cool. Turn the oven down to 180℃.
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While the pumpkin is cooling and sauce is simmering, move on to making the tofu ricotta. Put all ricotta ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend until combined but so it isn’t completely smooth and has a sort of ricotta like texture. Set aside.
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Dice the first measure of onion and garlic cloves and add to a frying pan with about 1tbsp oil on a medium heat. Cook until soft.
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Add the spinach to the pan and cook until wilted.
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Combine your prepared tofu ricotta with the spinach and onion mixture then set aside.
- By now the pumpkin should be cool enough to handle. Remove the skins, you can do this however you find the easiest, for me using a teaspoon to scoop the flesh away from the skins works well.
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Put the pumpkin flesh into its own bowl and mash using a potato masher. Once the pumpkin is mashed, add the dried thyme and season with salt and pepper and mix together.
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Slice the eggplants lengthways about ½ cm thick. Put a frying pan on a medium heat with about 1tbsp cooking oil. Cook the eggplant in batches for about 3 minutes on each side.
- Thinly slice the tomatoes
- By now the sauce will be ready, so turn it off the heat and it’s now time to assemble the lasagna.
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Spread a couple of spoonfuls of the sauce into the bottom of a large baking or casserole dish then put one layer of eggplant slices on top of the sauce. This should be about 5 pieces. Don’t worry too much if the entire bottom of the dish isn’t covered, due to the shape of the eggplant that will be quite difficult.
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On top of the eggplant spread over ⅓ of the pumpkin mash, then on top of that spread on ⅓ of the spinach and ricotta mixture, followed by some slices of tomato.
- Top with another layer of eggplant slices then repeat the rest of the previous step, add another layer of eggplant and repeat again, so you have 3 lasagna layers.
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Finally add one more layer of eggplant slices, using the rest of the eggplant you have. Pour the remaining sauce over top then sprinkle with some grated vegan cheese and a good handful of sunflower seeds.
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Put into the oven and bake for about 45mins until hot and eggplant is cooked through.
Good stuff!