Vegetarian Spinach Eggplant Lasagna

From a former eggplant hater this recipe has converted me 🍆

I used to hate eggplant. I thought it was tough and dry, just a generally unpleasant vegetable. Little did I know I was just cooking it incorrectly and it’s actually a buttery delicious veggie packed with fiber and antioxidants.

You guys went crazy for a version of this lasagna on my Instagram story last week. I’ve fine-tuned it, and it’s such a hit in my house. I was going to send it out this weekend, but I’m genuinely so excited to share it that I can’t wait.

This eggplant lasagna is conveniently vegetarian with meat prices lately …🙃. But this lasagna is truly knock-your-socks-off. I genuinely prefer it to traditional meat lasagna. It also packs in a full pound of spinach! This would be perfect for sneakily feeding kiddos a hearty serving of vegetables. As a former eggplant hater, the key to getting it so buttery soft is to cook it twice. As we learned in culinary school, ALWAYS COOK EGGPLANT TWICE.

I use gluten-free lasagna noodles. The pan-ready ones from Taste Republic are my favorite! Hope you guys enjoy and as always; let me know any recipe requests for next week!

Vegetarian Spinach Eggplant Lasagna

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Ingredients

• 2 large eggplants

• 1 box of gluten-free pasta noodles

• 2 large bunches of spinach (about 1 lb of spinach)

• 12oz ricotta cheese

• 12 oz shredded mozarella cheese

• Big pinch of sea salt

• 1 tsp garlic powder

• 1 jar of tomato sauce

• 1 ball of mozzarella cheese

• 8 oz shredded parmesan

• Fresh chiffonaded basil to garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 400ºF/200ºC .Cut the ends off of of your eggplant and slice lengthwise into about ½ inch thick slices. Lay the slices out on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes until it turns toasty brown. Pull the eggplant out of the oven and let it cool while you prepare the rest of the lasagna.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and generously salt. Add the spinach and boil for about 30 seconds until it turns bright green. Remove with a strainer and squeeze out all of the water.

3. Add the dried spinach to a large bowl with the ricotta, mozzarella, salt, and garlic powder. Mix until fully combined.

4. I like to use no-bake noodles, but if the box says to boil them before baking, cook them according to the box's instructions. Drain the cooked noodles, drizzle a tiny bit of oil on them to prevent them from sticking to each other. And set the noodles aside to assemble.

(The lasagna will cook differently if you’re doing this in a metal pan lasagna pan as opposed to porcelain, metal conducts heat differently and will make the edges crispier. I reccomend porcelain but If you’re doing this in a metal pan reduce the heat to 375º/190ºC)

To assemble:

5. Pour a little bit of the tomato sauce on the bottom of a 9x12in porcelain lasagna pan. Then do a layer of noodles.

6. Spread a layer of the spinach cheese mixture over the noodles then do a layer of cooked eggplant.

7. Repeat this process with noodles, cheese mixture, then eggplant.

8. On top of the last layer of noodles, spread a thin layer of tomato sauce. Cover the sauce with an even layer of parmesan cheese. Ensure the corners are thickly covered in cheese; otherwise, the noodles will burn. Slice the mozzarella and evenly distribute the slices over the parmesan

   I’ve added a visual aid of my layering technique below.

   

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9. Cover the pan tightly with tinfoil and bake at 400ºF/200ºC for 1 hour. Remove the tinfoil and bake for another 10-15 minutes until the cheese is a bit brown and crispy at the edges.

10. Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 20 minutes before serving. This allows everything to gel together a bit and slice more easily.

11. Garnish with fresh basil and enjoy!

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I hope you guys have the best weekend! For anyone in San Francisco, I’m going to the Marcello Hernandez comedy show on Friday. I love when people come perform in SF it makes me so happy for my little hometown 💕. If anyone’s coming, I always love saying hi and hope to see you all!