This is probably the easiest vegan lasagna you’ll ever make and one of the most delicious! No need to pre-cook the noodles – they soften as it bakes.
Last night I had the pleasure of having dinner with a group of people taking a Civil Rights Tour through the South. The menu for the night was barbecued pork sandwiches and pork-and-beans, the idea being to give them a little taste of local cuisine (which revolves around pork, apparently).
The only problem: Several of the 30 participants were vegetarian. When the planners of the dinner realized this, a call went out for vegan dishes, and I was happy to oblige with my potluck standard, vegan lasagna.
I’ve been making this recipe for years, and I can’t bring myself to change it. I keep thinking I should do something to fancy it up, but it’s my daughter’s all-time favorite food, so I never want to risk ruining a batch. (This is a kid who has written several essays this year about her love for lasagna; her hero is Garfield the cat.)
The Easiest Vegan Lasagna
Recipes for vegan lasagna abound, and I’m sure you can find fancier, richer tasting versions, but for sheer easiness of preparation and basic yumminess, this one can’t be beat. You don’t need to pre-cook the lasagna noodles, and you can make it super-easy by using jarred spaghetti sauce.
Check out just how easy it is in my short video.
You can make this as light or decadent as you want. Your choice of spaghetti sauce will determine how much fat it has. (For the lowest-fat version, use a sauce with no oil added; Whole Foods has one.)
For some special occasions, I sprinkle the lasagna with vegan cheese during the last 5 minutes of cooking. This option is, of course, not fat-free, but it really helps “sell” it to any omnivores you happen to be feeding.
But the plain, uncheesified lasagna seemed to be a hit at last night’s dinner. The pan returned home empty (and not just because E. ate 4 pieces!) I regret that I never got the opportunity to find out who the vegetarians in the group were, but it felt good just to know that they were there.
Easy Vegan Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound fresh mushrooms sliced
- 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 24-oz jars spaghetti sauce or your favorite pasta sauce
- 9 uncooked lasagna noodles (regular lasagna noodles NOT no-boil noodles)
- Vegan Parmesan such as my almond parm, optional
- Sliced black olives optional
Filling:
- 10 ounces frozen chopped spinach thawed and drained
- 1 pound firm or extra-firm tofu not silken!
- 1 teaspoon salt optional
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast adds a cheesy taste
- 1 1/2 teaspoon oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon basil
- 1/2 teaspoon rosemary crushed
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Sauté the mushrooms and garlic over medium heat in the 2 tbsp. water until tender; cover between stirring to keep them from drying out. Remove from heat and add the spaghetti sauce.
- Place the tofu and thawed spinach in the food processor and process briefly. Add the remaining filling ingredients to the processor and blend until smooth. (You may do this without a food processor by using a potato masher on the tofu.)
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Spread half of the sauce in the bottom of a 9×12-inch pan. Place a layer of noodles over the sauce, using three dry noodles and leaving a little space in between them. Spread half of the tofu mixture on the noodles (you can drop it by spoonfuls and then spread it or hold each noodle in the palm of your hand and spread the tofu on it before placing it in the pan). Cover with another layer of 3 noodles and then spread the remaining tofu mixture over them. Top with a final layer of noodles, and pour the remaining sauce over this.
- Cover the dish tightly with foil, and bake for 30 minutes. Then, remove the foil and bake for another 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with vegan Parmesan or cheese and sliced black olives if you want. The lasagna will cut better if you allow it to cool for 15 minutes before serving.
Notes
Nutritional info is approximate.
Please share:
Itza-Elena
I have made My Favorite Lasagna twice and I have to say family members that came to visit who are not Vegan absolutely loved it. I will continue to make this delish and delightful lasagna for my family. If anyone visiting this site is wondering if they should attempt this meal, please do so, you wont regret it.
Shawn
Delicious! This is a solid recipe for lasagna that is highly customizable. I made it exactly as the recipe stated this time, and it was so good that I had it for breakfast the next day. This one is going straight to my recipe box. Next time, I may try adding some homemade vegan pesto and more veggies.
Megan
I made this for me and my vegetarian mum and we both loved it! Which is a difference as my mum often doesn’t like my vegan meals. It is surprisingly so quick to prepare and is very easy, making it a great meal to make after coming in from work. It was really tasty and tasted even better microwaved the next day! Next time I’m definitely adding more mushrooms (I didn’t have enough that the recipe stated) and using more sauce as I only used one jar 😀
Kristin
I love this recipe. It is so yummy. That said, I try not to eat too much processed soy because it can really upset my stomach. So I tried substituting the tofu with mashed chickpeas and it still turned out really yummy. I even used the filling to make lasagna roll-ups. I just cooked some lasagna noodles, spread the mixture over each noodle, rolled them up and then poured some organic pasta sauce over top. I find these a great way to freeze small portions to have for quick dinners and lunches. Thanks again for a great recipe!
Elizabeth
Hi Susan!
I was curious as to what type/brand of lasagna noodles and spaghetti sauce you used?
Catherine
I discovered your website by chance while searching for another recipe through Google. I must say this is a wonderful site. I made this lasagna dish last night and it was a huge hit! I have never cooked with tofu, so I was a bit apprehensive about using it for the first time in such a big dish. However my husband loved it, needless to say he has no idea what is actually in it. I also added follow your heart mozzarella cheese in between the layers as well as Parma! Parmesan flakes. Thanks for posting such a great recipe. I plan to use many many more!
Ann
I made this last night for a Christmas progressive dinner where there were also meat and vegetarian versions of lasagna. The vegan one was a hit and I came home with an empty pan. I loved watching faces after tasting and explaining to them that, no in fact, there is no cheese in it. I used no boil noodles and Delgrosso Sunday Marina (my favorite jarred sauce). I also used less sauce but other than that stuck to the recipe. Very easy and will become a standby recipe in my house.
joy d
Can this be prepared the night before baking?
SusanV
Yes. Just bring to room temperature before baking or add extra time.
April at Kitchen-Blender-Reviews
I made this recipe for lunch today and it was wonderful.
I am not sure why it was said to not use Silken. That was all I had and it worked fine. I also used my blender to mix up the filling, instead of a food processor (don’t have one).
After it cooked I sprinkled a little “YUM” on it before serving. YUM is what we call a mixture of equal parts nutritional yeast and cashews + garlic powder to taste. Blend these ingredients together and sprinkle it on spaghetti, lasagna or whatever. Great flavor!
Jennifer
Just wanted to let you know that I have made this recipe several times now and my family loves it. I have often added vegan cheese to it (to add some fat for my 3 year old), but it always turns out great! Oh, and I add lots of nutritional yeast too! Love that stuff. Thanks so much!
Francine
I took this to a potluck and no one knew it was vegan…It was gone! Wow- So delish!
Shannon
Before to this, the only tofu I could get my omnivorous brother to eat was in brownies and chocolate peanut butter pie, but he loved your lasagna. It’s definitely going to be a regular in my kitchen. Thank you!
Cat B.
This recipe passes the ultimate test: my tofu-hating omni husband loves it. He went back for seconds and asked me to pack some leftovers in his lunch tomorrow. Thank you, Susan. Thank you so much.
Sarah
This was so good! I am still relatively new to being vegan, so I haven’t tried too many things with tofu. The two recipes that I have tried from your website have been great and help to overcome my hesitation with tofu!
Bert
Susan, never have I made a lasagna that was this straightforward! I almost couldn’t tell it was vegan and the tofu looked and substituted ricotta remarkably well. This was dinner last night, lunch today, and it will probably be a late night snack this evening. Super tasty, super easy, and definitely a keeper. I don’t know how you do it!
-Bert
Danielle
AWESOME recipe! Like several others, i have never made a lasagna before. But this was very easy and sooo tasty. I used my mom’s famous recipe for the sauce (also super easy and the best italian red sauce i’ve ever had- email me if you want the recipe). I LOVE authentic italian food and this definitely made the cut. My meat and dairy loving husband LOVED it as well. Thank you!
Kristi Link
I made this last week and it was awesome! Since our girls are quite small, I made it in two square pans and froze one. I assembled it the night before and then put it in the oven when I got home from work. I spent my time making a beautiful salad while this cooked.
I had some no-cook noodles on hand, so that is what I used. Have you done this with whole wheat noodles? Would they need to be cooked ahead?
Thanks!
SusanV
Kristi, I keep meaning to make it with whole wheat noodles but haven’t gotten around to it. I think they will work fine. Just be sure you completely cover all exposed noodle surfaces with sauce and keep the foil on until they soften. That part of the cooking may take a little longer with whole wheat noodles, so plan for the whole thing to take 10-15 minutes longer.
Brenda
Susan–Could you use fresh spinach in this recipe w/o messing it up?
Thanks,
bmr
SusanV
Sure! You can either blend it with the spinach or just layer it in the pan.
Brenda
Thanks! I think you might mean blend it with the tofu….
Do you think it will change the cooking time? I’m going to use whole wheat pasta, can’t buy eggplant right now w/o taking out a small loan…
🙂
SusanV
Oops, that’s exactly what I meant! I don’t think the spinach will change the cooking time, but the whole wheat pasta might. Also, you may need a little bit more liquid to make sure the noodles get done. Just add a couple of tablespoons of water to the tofu, and add more time if the noodles don’t seem tender. If it starts to get dried out, put the aluminum foil back over it for the last few minutes.
Anna
Delicious! I really didn’t miss the cheese at all. I added a big head of fresh broccoli (cooked it with the mushrooms) and it was a great addition.
Martha Ross
I have made this many times and it is wonderful. My husband loves it and we can eat about three meals on this. I would love to make it to take on vacation and have read all the comments about freezing portions, but wondered how it would turn out if I bake it (in those glad baking pans) and freeze the entire pan. The tofu is my concern with freezing, but it will be cooked. Thank you for your recipes. My husband and I would starve, if we didn’t have them 🙂
SusanV
Thanks for your kind words! I haven’t frozen a whole pan of it, but I can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work. I think that once the tofu is blended and cooked, freezing it doesn’t change the texture a lot. Please let me know how it turns out if you try it.
Get Skinny, Go Vegan.
Seems like one thing everyone loves, a good lasanga! It used to be my “staple” dish for meat eaters! When I used to have meat eater people to my house, before I was a vegan recluse & screened my friends more !! 🙂
Kim bailey
Sounds great, going to try this tonight. Thanks x
Danae @ CookingInCambridge
Tofu filling? Genius. I made it today for non-veg friend and it went over SO well. My gosh, couldn’t STOP eating it. Now my tummy is painfully (but happily!) full 🙂
Kat Stoltz
Can you use fresh spinach instead of frozen? If so, how much?
This recipe looks really good an I’m excited to try it!
SusanV
You can use 10 ounces of fresh spinach or as much (or little) as you like.
erin
Hi there – I am making this tonight, and just noticed that it calls for “26 oz” jars of spaghetti sauce. All the sauce I have in my cupboard are in 10 oz jars … 26 oz seems like it would be pretty huge to me?? do I really need 4 jars of sauce??
(ps Susan I love your recipes – thank you!!)
SusanV
Hi Erin, yes you reall need that much sauce because it’s used to moisten the dry pasta. If you cooked the lasagna noodles first, you could probably get away with less, but I think 20 ounces would still be too little.
erin
I ended up using 2 jars plus about 2/3 of a cup of water and left it covered for the whole hour, then cooked it about 15 minutes uncovered (I was using whole wheat noodles so I thought it would take longer anyway) and it was PERFECT. My omni husband liked it better than his mother’s (non-vegetarian) recipe 🙂
I love every recipe of yours that I try – thanks again!!
Jessica
I used this recipe last night, FABULOUS!!! Thank you! 🙂
Christa
I just love this recipe! I have been a vegetarian going vegan for a year now and have been looking for great recipes to replace what I used to make.
I invited all of my friends over (none of who are vegetarian) and they were all a little hesitant about “lasagna” being made with tofu and no cheese. Needless to say they all loved it and have started cooking it regularly in their homes!
Thanks for all the recipes and ideas I love reading them!
Jessica L
Wow. On occasion I still have cheese on pizza or manicotti at the local Italian restaurant. The reason I admit to this is to tell you that I have the taste of cheese fresh on my mind. I’ve made many lasagnas but this was my first vegan one.
This was amazing! Seriously. Wow! I’m just — wow. It’s really, really good. Thank you so much for posting this 🙂
http://www.flickr.com/photos/digifoo/5728099625/in/photostream/
Jessica
Brought this to a baby shower this weekend. Nobody there (except me) was vegetarian at the party much less vegan. I “warned” people that is was a vegan dish just so they wouldn’t expect cheese. The lasagna was gone in no time flat (before the chicken tetrazzini). Everyone was shocked at how good it was.
gwendolyn lewis
Susan, thank you so much for this recipe!! Thanks to you, I made my very first ever Lasagne and it was simple and delicious. I had everything on hand except the correct amount of spinach. So I used the tiny amt of a long forgotten bag of spinach combined with some frozen chopped broccoli. I will be making this on a regular basis. Thanks for a fantastic website and blog.
Dawn
Hi Susan–I made this delicious lasagna last night for my inlaws. They loved it. It was so delicious. I used whole-grain noodles and just left the foil on about 10 minutes more. They were just right! I used two small cans of fire-roasted tomatoes in my sauce. I know from reading that you like these too. It was all so yummy!
I served it with crunchy baguette chunks and a big salad. I made your Easy Vegan Buttermilk Dressing and they loved that too. Then for dessert we had lime pie made following your recipe for Calamondin Pie. Oh so refreshing. I increased the sugar by 1/4 cup and we all thought the sweet-tart combo great. I have made that Fat Free Oatmeal Cookie Crust twice now and it is for sure one of the best pie crusts I have ever made. Even including traditional made with fat. Thank you so much for the inspiring recipes!
Barb
Hi, Susan, I just recently discovered your blog, and was anxious to try your favorite lasagna recipe. I also made it last night for my husband for Father’s Day. He loved it. To the sauteeing mushrooms, I added 3 small eggplants, in abouth half-inch dice, and that was a nice touch. Next time I might reduce the amount of the sauce just slightly. Very good–by far the best vegan lasagna I’ve made to date and will def. make again!
Robin
We got a ton of spinach in our first CSA box, so I was excited to try this! I’ve seen it many times in my recipe searches… It was my first attempt at lasagna ever, and man is it delicious! And easy!
I always love reading your recipes, and I appreciate that you use simple ingredients and are very explicit in your instructions.
Thank you!
michael
Hi Susan,
Found your blog in a Google search for vegan lasagna. Except for the mushrooms, we had the fresh ingredients in our garden, so this was my first choice. Tried this and loved it. I did substitute a portobello mushroom for the button ones to give the dish a meat texture.