With lots of healthy vegetables including zucchini, red peppers, mushrooms, carrots, onion, and tomatoes, all topped with a lovely white sauce, this lasagna is flavorful, but not at all heavy. And, you won’t miss the meat.
¼cupshredded Parmesanplus additional for garnishing
9no boil lasagna noodles
8ouncesricotta cheese
Instructions
Prepare veggies:
Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large pot over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add onion and cook until brown and caramelized, about 20 minutes. Add garlic and carrots and sauté an additional 3 minutes. Remove onion mixture to a large bowl, and set aside. Wipe out pot.
Heat 2 teaspoons oil in the same pot, and heat over medium heat. Add red pepper and sauté 3 minutes. Add cooked red pepper to onion mixture in large bowl. Wipe out pot.
Heat remaining oil in the same pot. Add zucchini, and cook 5 minutes. Add mushrooms to zucchini in pot, and cook 3 minutes.
Add all veggies back to the pot with the zucchini. Add tomatoes and black olives. Bring veggies to a boil over high heat. Cover, lower heat, and simmer 15 minutes. Stir in basil.
Prepare white sauce:
While veggies boil, make the white sauce.
Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour until well blended. Cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in milk. Heat to simmering (scald the milk) over medium heat. Reduce heat to low, simmer, whisking often for 10-15 minutes or until thick. Stir in salt and pepper.
Cheese:
In a medium bowl, mix shredded mozzarella, Monterey Jack cheese, and ¼ cup Parmesan cheese together.
Preheat oven to 375 ° F.
Lightly grease or spray with non-stick spray, a 13x9-inch pan.
Layer the lasagna:
Spread ½ cup veggie mixture over the bottom of the greased pan. Lay 3 noodles over. Spread ½ of remaining veggies over the noodles. Spread 1/3 of white sauce over the veggies. Sprinkle with ½ of cheese mixture. Top with ½ of ricotta. Top with 3 noodles. Spread remaining veggies over. Top with ½ of remaining white sauce. Sprinkle with remaining cheese mixture. Top with remaining ricotta. Top with 3 noodles. Spread remaining white sauce over. Sprinkle with a small amount of Parmesan.
Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown and bubbling. Let lasagna stand at room temperature on the counter for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
Recipe makes 9-12 servings depending on how much you eat