Eggplant and Spinach Lasagna

Eggplant and Spinach Lasagna

Ah lasagna, the coziest of all pasta dishes. This eggplant and spinach lasagna recipe is based on my family’s lasagna recipe that was one of my favorite meals as a kid. Over the years I’ve changed the sauce and added more veggies, but using sour cream instead of ricotta is a trick I learned from my mom. Yeah, you read that right, sour cream. We probably swapped out the ricotta for sour cream if ricotta was hard to find in the store and somehow it just kind of stuck. Now I prefer this lasagna with sour cream, it isn’t as dry as ricotta and has a little more flavor. Plus I like the convenience of just smearing it on the noodles with a spoon. Keep reading for more details about how to make this super tasty eggplant and spinach lasagna recipe.

Don’t I Need to Cook the Noodles?

Nope! The noodles will cook in the oven in the delicious tomato sauce. This way the noodles are not overcooked when you bake the lasagna. Just make sure that all your noodles are covered with either sauce or cheese. I like to use Bionature 100% Organic Durum Semolina Lasagna Noodles. After I finish building all the lasagna layers I like to press down on everything to make sure the noodles are submerged have enough liquid to cook. If using a glass lasagna dish, from the side you should see the liquid line about halfway up the pan. If it looks a little low on liquid add some more water because no one wants crunchy lasagna noodles.

Homemade Pasta Tomato Sauce

Try this amazing homemade pasta tomato sauce to make this lasagna out of this world delicious. It is also loaded with veggies: onion, carrots, celery, and red bell pepper. Slowly cooked with thyme and lots of garlic, this zero-sugar tomato sauce is so flavorful. You can make the pasta tomato sauce ahead of time to make things go quicker at dinner time. Or I like to make a double batch of pasta sauce and use half for one meal and the other half for another. It takes very little extra time to make a double batch and saves me a lot of time in the end. Eating healthy and unprocessed food is all about planning!

How to Make the Best Eggplant and Spinach Lasagna Like a Pro

It’s all about fresh wholefood ingredients and the layers. Start with homemade pasta tomato sauce mixed with water, so that your base noodle layer has enough liquid to cook. Next comes noodles, then sour cream, eggplant slices, shredded mozzarella, and lastly fresh spinach leaves. Repeat this two more times, or 3 times if you have a deep lasagna pan. Lastly, skip the spinach on the very top so that you end on a cheese layer. Add some parmesan and pop it in the oven. That’s it! I’ve found this process works really well and ensures you don’t end on a problematic layer, like noodles with no room in the pan for anything else. Or running out of tomato sauce for your last layer. Yeah been there, done that!

Whoa That’s a Lot of Dairy

Yeah, your right, it is a lot of dairy. If you’re like me and your body doesn’t do so well with dairy there are certainly ways to make this lasagna low-dairy. For starters, I like to use a lactose-free sour cream, or you could swap this out altogether for a vegan sour cream. I’ve tried making this with silken tofu, but I felt like too much flavor was lost. I also like to use vegan mozzarella cheese, my favorite is Violife Just Like Mozzarella Shreds. Violife also makes a great vegan parmesan cheese too if you really want to go dairy-free. I like to do about half regular cheese, half vegan cheese and that seems to work well for me.

Alright, time to get cooking!

Eggplant and Spinach Lasagna

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A delicious veggie lasagna with homemade tomato sauce, eggplant, spinach, and mozzarella. The perfect family meal.

• Author: Erica
• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 45 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
• Yield: 8-10 servings 1x
• Category: Pasta
• Method: Homemade
• Cuisine: Italian
• Diet: Vegetarian

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 5 cups of pasta tomato sauce
• 2 cup of water
• 12-ounce box of lasagna noodles
• 2 cups of sour cream
• 8-ounces of fresh mozzarella
• 1 eggplant, cut into thin rounds
• 4 cups of fresh spinach
• 1/2 cup of shredded parmesan

Equipment

• 13x9 lasagna pan (I love a good ole Pyrex glass dish)

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°.
2. Add the water to the tomato sauce. Add 1 cup of tomato sauce to the bottom of the lasagna pan. Then add the first row of lasagna noodles.
3. Using the back of a spoon, smear sour cream on each noodle.
4. Add a layer of eggplant slices
5. Rip chunks of mozzarella with your fingers and sprinkle it on top of the eggplant.
6. Sprinkle 2 cup of fresh spinach on top of the mozzarella.
7. Repeat two more times! Tomato sauce, noodles, sour cream, eggplant, mozzarella, then spinach. Skip the spinach on the last set. Push down noodles to ensure they are submerged in tomato sauce or covered in cheese. Noodles without sauce/cheese will not cook and will be crunchy.
8. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top of lasagna and toss it in the oven.
9. Bake for 45 minutes, cheese on top should start to brown. Once you remove the lasagna from the oven, let it sit for 15 minutes before serving.

Notes

Lasagna is even better as leftovers… so make extra! Lasts in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.