This Vegetable Lasagna is hands down the BEST veggie lasagna that I have ever made or tasted! It is 8 Points on the Weight Watchers Points plan.
It's tasty, it's packed full of vegetables (that's got to be good hasn't it!), it's filling & best of all it's relatively low in Points! A perfect Weight Watchers vegetarian dinner recipe.
Please be aware that this post was written prior to Weight Watchers changing to the WW Points Plan. Scroll down the page to check how many Points it works out on the 2023 - 2024 WW Points Plan, as well as some of the older Weight Watchers plans.
As I said, this recipe is the best vegetarian lasagna that I have ever made.
But the recipe isn't mine!
I wish I had developed it ..... but unfortunately I didn't.
It's actually a recipe that I have adapted from Cookie & Kate . Check out her website for more delicious recipes.
I adapted the recipe to make it more Weight Watchers friendly & fiddled around with other bits and pieces to make it more to my taste.
I used a lot less olive oil than the original recipe in order to reduce the Points.
And as I like my lasagna to be really cheesy I swapped the mozzarella for a reduced fat mature cheddar to get that deep cheesy taste.
I have made this recipe many times now and it has become a real staple in my diet over the lockdown.
Tips for making this recipe
- Instead of using pre-made marinara sauce (which can contain added oil which would hike up the SmartPoint value) use canned tomatoes.
- Drain the tomatoes through a sieve then blend with garlic, some salt and some red pepper flakes. (Picture 1)
- Dice the vegetables into similar size pieces. (Picture 2)
- Wilt the spinach bit by bit by stirring it through the vegetables. I tend to mix in about ⅓ of the spinach, let it wilt a little before I stir in the next lot. (Picture 3)
- Use baby spinach if you can and try not to cook it for too long as overcooking it can lead to it becoming a little watery. (Picture 4)
- Blend half of the low fat cottage cheese until it is smooth and creamy. (Picture 5)
- Add the cooked vegetables into the bowl of your blender and pulse a few times to break them down. You don't want a puree, you want a mixture with a little bit of texture still so four or five pulses will do. (Picture 6)
- Scrape the vegetables into the bowl with the blended cottage cheese, stir and then fold in the remaining (non blended) cottage cheese. (Picture 7)
- Layer approx ½ cup of the tomato sauce on to the bottom of a dish approx 9inch x 9inch. (Picture 9)
- Layer with three of the lasagne sheets (Picture 10). It doesn't matter if the lasagna sheets overlap.
- Use ready to cook lasagne sheets not the ones that need to be softened with boiling water.
- Spoon on half of the vegetable mixture (Picture 11) and smooth out to the edges of the dish.
- Dollop approx ½ cup of tomato sauce on top (Picture 12) and spread it out as best you can.
- Now for the cheese 😀 Sprinkle about one quarter of the grated cheese over the top (Picture 13). Sprinkling cheese throughout the layers gives this lasagna such a lovely cheesy taste.
- Layer on three more lasagne sheets before adding the remaining vegetable mixture. (Picture 14)
- Sprinkle over another ¼ cup of grated cheese (Picture 15)
- Now for your last layer of lasagne sheets. It really doesn't matter if you overlap the sheets or if you prefer to break up the sheets to fit the dish. (Picture 16)
- Spoon on the last of the tomato sauce and spread to the edges of the dish. (Picture 17)
- Lastly, sprinkle over the remainder of the cheese before cooking. (Picture 18)
Cooking the lasagna
Loosely cover the top of the vegetable lasagna with kitchen foil, making sure that the foil doesn't touch the top of the lasagna.
Place the lasagna on the middle shelf of the oven and cook for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, take it out of the oven and remove the kitchen foil. Place the dish back in the oven and cook for a further 10 - 15 minutes until the cheese has melted and the lasagna is piping hot.
What Lasagne Sheets can I use
Most lasagne sheets nowadays do not need pre-cooking.
However, just to be on the safe side check the box states that they are 'no boil' 'oven ready' or 'no pre-cooking required' before using.
If the brand that you are using does suggest pre-cooking, just follow the packet instructions before using.
Use wholewheat lasagne sheets when following the Purple plan to reduce the SmartPoints to 4 per portion.
I have used the WW brand Yellow Lentil Lasagna Sheets to make this vegetable lasagna and they were really good. I'd definitely use them again.
However, it won't reduce the SmartPoints unless you are following the Purple plan, in which case it works out at 4 SmartPoints per portion.
What Vegetables can I use in this Lasagna
I would suggest sticking with the pepper, spinach, zucchini (courgette) and onion in this recipe.
However, I have used a mixture of other diced veg to make this dish.
I really just go with what is on offer in my local food store at the time!
However, I would suggest that you use vegetables that don't soften or fall apart with cooking.
So for example, sometimes I use diced carrot, sometimes I use a mix of carrot and rutabaga (swede) and sometimes I just use preprepared diced root veg from the freezer department of my local store.
Can I freeze this Vegetable Lasagna?
Yes you can freeze this dish.
However, I did find that the portions that I put in the freezer where a little watery when they were defrosted and recooked.
It still tasted great though!
Reducing the SmartPoints
If you are following the Weight Watchers Purple plan, you can reduce the SmartPoint value of this recipe by using wholewheat lasagne sheets.
If you use wholewheat lasagne sheets on the Purple plan, it reduces to 4 SmartPoints per portion.
WW Points in Vegetable Lasagna
Over the years, I have used the official WW Recipe Builder to work out the Points for all of my recipes. See below for Points for a serving of this tasty vegetable lasagna for the most recent WW plan and some of the older plans.
- WW Points Plan (2023 / 2024) - 8 Points per serving
- myWW Blue Plan - 6 Points per serving
- myWW Green Plan - 6 Points per serving
- my WW Purple Plan - 6 Points per serving
- Freestyle / SmartPoints - 6 Points per serving
More Weight Watchers Dinner Recipes
Looking for more dinner recipes to inspire you on your WW journey, then you may like this Creamy Chicken Casserole or this very popular Zero Point Chili. These Swedish Meatballs are a real favourite of mine and work out at 6 SmartPoints per generous portion.
Vegetable Lasagna | Weight Watchers
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 large can diced tomatoes 1 x 28oz can or 800g can
- 3 cloves garlic crushed
- 2 pinches red pepper flakes
- 2 tbsp olive oil divided
- 1 cup root vegetable such as carrot, swede, rutabaga, turnip etc or a mixture - diced
- 1 large red bell pepper diced
- 1 large onion diced
- 1 large zucchini / courgette diced
- 1 bag baby spinach approx 6oz / 170g
- 2 cups low fat cottage cheese
- 9 sheets lasagne (no boil) use wholewheat if following Purple to reduce portion to 4SP
- 2 cups reduced fat mature cheddar cheese - shredded (200g)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180°C Fan / 400°F / Gas mark 6
For the tomato sauce
- Place the tomatoes in a sieve for a couple of minutes to drain off some of the juice.
- Tip the drained tomatoes into your blender along with the crushed garlic, 1 tablespoon of oil, half a teaspoon of salt and the red pepper flakes.
- Pulse until the tomatoes are finely minced. You don't want to puree the tomatoes, just to mince them so they are spreadable.
- Pour the sauce into a small bowl and set aside for later. Give the bowl of your blender a quick rinse as you will be using in the next step.
For the cheese sauce
- Place 1 cup of cottage cheese into the blender and blend until smooth. This will take a minute or so.
- Scrape out into a large bowl and set aside.
For the vegetables
- Heat the remaining oil in a large skillet over a medium heat.
- Add the diced pepper, onion, zucchini and the cup of diced root veg.
- Cook for approx 10 minutes, stirring often to prevent sticking. The vegetables will not brown in this time but they will start to colour slightly.
- Now to add the spinach. I find this easiest to do in batches. Place about ⅓ of the spinach in the skillet with the diced veg and fold in until the spinach begins to wilt. Continue doing this until all of the spinach has wilted. You don't want to overcook it as it then has a tendency to become a bit watery.
- Remove from the heat.
Making the filling
- Spoon the vegetable mix into the the bowl of the blender along with ½ teaspoon of salt and good grinding of black pepper.
- Pulse once or twice before scraping down the sides of the blender and pulsing again. You want the vegetables to be finely minced not smooth. I would suggest only pulsing the mixture 4 or 5 times.
- Scrape the vegetables into the bowl containing the blended cottage cheese and combine.
- Fold in the remaining cup of cottage cheese.
Putting it all together
- I used a 9 x 9 inch baking dish.
- Spoon about ½ cup of tomato sauce on to the bottom of the baking dish.
- Layer 3 of the lasagna sheets on top - it doesn't matter if they overlap.
- Spoon half of the vegetable mixture on top of the lasagne sheets and spread evenly to the edge of the dish.
- Dollop another ½ cup of the tomato sauce on top and spread it out as best as you can.
- Top with a quarter of the grated cheese (about ½ cup)
- Layer three more of the lasagne sheets on top and spoon on the remaining vegetable mixture.
- Carefully spread it over the lasagne sheets and then add another half cup of grated cheese.
- Top this layer with the remaining lasagne sheets.
- Spoon over the remaining tomato sauce and carefully spread it out to cover the lasagne sheets.
- Sprinkle over the remaining grated cheese
- Loosely cover the top of the lasagna with kitchen foil (making sure that it doesn't touch the top of the lasagna or the cheese will stick to it .... and you don't want that!)
- Place on the middle shelf of the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and take off the kitchen foil.
- Return to the oven and cook for a further 10 minutes until the cheese has melted and started to bubble.
- Leave to cool slightly before serving.
Nancy says
my favorite lasagna recipe.
Arielle says
I’m not a vegetarian and this was great. I used a mix of the carrots, rutabaga, and turnip. My only note on that was to make sure to cute everything small enough because I was getting a bit too much of the root flavor I’m not used to.
My only issue was that the lasagna pasta I used had not cooked all the way. I’m thinking it probably needed another 10-15 minutes.
Still delicious!