I bought a new slow cooker! I?m so excited about it. I?ve been wanting a tiny 2-qt one for ages because the size is more suitable for 1-3 people. Target has round 2qt Crock-Pots for $11.99 and I picked one up last week. First recipe: veggie lasagna. Vegetable lasagna is truly one of my favorite foods ever (lasagna in general, really) and it’s so easy to toss in whatever vegetables you have around. Feel free to mix it up. If I’d had any frozen broccoli florets I would’ve added those too.
I?m trying to cut down on dairy and not do anything too fattening, so I really didn’t want to follow the typical ricotta-heavy formula. (Plus, ricotta is expensive considering how much you use in a casserole.) This is less cheesy than most lasagna recipes, but still really delicious.
– 1/2 summer squash, 1/2 a zucccini
– 1/2 a portabello mushroom or a big handful regular white.
– 1 (thinnish) carrot
– 1/2 white or yellow onion
– 2 cloves garlic (or equivalent paste or powder)
– 1 can diced Italian-style tomatoes
– 1/2 package no-boil lasagna noodles
– about 2.5 oz baby spinach (or you can use 1/2 pack thawed frozen)
– 1 bag shredded Italian 6-cheese blend
1. Give all your veggies except the spinach a good medium-small dice or julienne.
Mix the squash/zucchini/carrot and the mushroom/onion together. (Yes, I also had some leftover tomato, so I tossed that in above.)
2. Break up your lasagna noodles so that they fit to mostly cover the bottom of the crock pot. You?ll have gaps, and you?ll want to overlap the pieces. It?s okay.
3. Cover your lasagna with a thin layer of spinach and top with a sprinkling of cheese. You could also mix cheese into the spinach if you want.
4. Mix your chopped garlic into your can of tomatoes. I used a garlic-onion powder spice blend to make it easier to incorporate. Spoon a thin layer of tomatoes over the spinach.
5. Top your tomato layer with the squash mix, then the mushroom-onion mix. Top those with cheese.
6. Start over again with noodles-spinach-tomatoes-squash-mushrooms-cheese layers. Feel free to mix as much cheese as you want throughout. You?ll probably only be able to fit two ?stacks? into a 2qt. crockpot, so finish off with a layer of spinach (I love spinach!), another layer of pasta, and cover with cheese.
7. Cook on high for about 3 hours. Your cheese on top will be browned and you can poke a knife in there to be sure it?s all cooked through in the middle.
The hardest part about this is chopping the veggies, but if you have a food processor it goes a lot faster. I have a Le Chef gondola slicer so it hardly takes any time at all. You could just as easily bake this in the oven at a higher temp (like 350) for shorter time (an hour and a half?) and it would come out wonderfully. I forgot to season my squash and mushrooms with pepper or anything, but I actually prefer it; The squash soaked up the garlic and herbs in the spiced tomatoes and the natural mushroom and onion flavors very well. I?m not missing the ricotta cheese at all!
Bon apetit!