Friday Recipe: Hearty Gluten-Free Veggie Lasagna

By Lana Buseman

This recipe comes from my aunt, who has always inspired me to find my inner “gourmet.” She definitely has a knack for making food elegant in any capacity and has recently been working hard to keep her diet clean and as healthy as possible.

I love this recipe because it is full of veggies, it can easily be made gluten-free and it is just a great hearty meal. You can easily adapt it to fit your own food and diet goals. I was nervous that my version of her recipe wouldn’t turn out as great as it did when my aunt made it, but was very happy to discover that I was in fact easily able to recreate it!

It’s is a great dish for Meatless Mondays, and can be made dairy free as well. The recipe also sneaks in some extra veggies for an added bonus!

Ingredients

• One package of gluten free lasagna noodles (I like the ones from DeBoles, readily available at Whole Foods) or other lasagna noodles of your choice
• One carton of fat free cottage cheese (for a dairy-free recipe, substitute dairy-free cottage cheese)
• 2 egg whites
• 1 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
• 1 carton frozen spinach, thoroughly drained
• 2 zucchini*, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 package of shredded mozzarella (for a dairy-free version, use rice or tapioca cheese)
• 1.5 cartons of tomato sauce
• 1 package ground soy meat (or substitute additional veggies such as mushrooms if you prefer)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix the soy meat and sauce together in a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the cottage cheese, egg whites, parsley, spinach, shredded cheese, salt and pepper.
4. Steam the zucchini until tender.
5. Drain the frozen spinach in the sink under pressure and blot excess water.
6. Add a layer of noodles (uncooked), cheese mixture and slices of zucchini.
7. Add a layer of sauce and soy meat mixture.
8. Add noodles again and repeat for three layers.
9. The last layer should be the remaining sauce.
10. Bake for 50 minutes, covered.
11. Enjoy!

 *This recipe would also be great with eggplant, carrots or all three veggies!