We don’t eat a lot of gluten-free pasta around our house. I’ve found that if I’m going to eat carbs, I prefer the taste and texture of whole quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth seed and rice. But, every once in a while, a craving rears its head.
This week, that craving was for lasagna. Jam-packed lasagna, filled with garden-fresh vegetables and some brined olives and artichokes for extra flavor. The thing I love about lasagna: you can put almost anything in it and it still tastes pretty great.
But, the noodles have to be cooked right, or it’s not good at all. Instead, it’s just soggy and runny.
The tricks, I’ve learned, to great gluten-free lasagna are:
- Do not pre-cook the noodles – the dry noodles will cook in the oven from the juices in your recipe without them falling apart.
- Limit the amount of liquid used – the vegetables and 1 jar of tomato sauce generally produce enough moisture to cook the noodles and keep the dish from being soggy or falling apart when you serve it.
- Consider waiting to serve it – letting the dish rest for 15 minutes after you remove it from the oven will help it hold together; waiting until the next day lets the ingredients combine for the best flavor. Leftovers are awesome!
For this recipe, I decided to also use a small bottle of thick roasted red pepper and eggplant sauce I had. It’s optional, but if you wanted to add something like this, try a gluten-free red pepper dip, pesto, baba ghanoush (eggplant dip with sesame flavor), or other thick vegetable/herb-based sauce.
If can’t find one at the store, try roasting a red pepper and an eggplant and then puree them with a little bit of olive oil, some salt and pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice.
As for the cheez, I used Daiya-brand dairy-free cheese substitute. If you don’t want to or can’t find a substitute that works for you, don’t worry about it at all. To be honest, it added more visual appeal than taste.
Once you’ve eaten your fill, cut the lasagna into serving-sizes and pack them in air-tight containers. Now you have lunches for the week!
Step-by-Step Photos and Recipe
| Awesome Gluten-free, Dairy-free Lasagna Recipe |
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- 1 pound ground turkey OR portobello mushrooms, sliced
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 small zucchini, sliced into thin half rounds
- 8 white cap mushrooms, sliced
- 1 ½ cups fresh tomatoes, chopped
- 1 small red pepper, chopped
- 2 handfuls of fresh greens (spinach or Swiss chard)
- cup black olives, pitted and chopped
- 1 can artichoke hearts in water, drained and chopped
- 1 bottle GF marinara sauce
- 1 ½ cups red pepper or eggplant sauce (or pesto)
- 1 box gluten-free lasagna noodles, uncooked
- Optional – 1 8oz bag dairy-free cheese substitute, such as from Daiya
- Preheat saute pan over medium high heat. Add 1 Tbsp olive oil. A) For Turkey: Saute ground turkey until just about done. Add onions and garlic and continue cooking until golden brown. Set aside. B) For Portobellos: Saute onions until translucent. Add mushrooms and garlic and cook until mushrooms have wilted slightly. Set aside.
- Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Lightly grease a 9×13” baking dish.
- Pour a shallow layer of marinara in pan. Place three uncooked noodles in pan side-by-side. Pour/spread red pepper (or marinara) sauce on noodles. Begin 1st of 2 layers, placing 1/2 of the turkey mixture and fresh vegetables on the noodles.
- Add a little marinara sauce to top of vegetables, add 2nd layer of noodles, and repeat last step.
- Add three noodles to top, pour remaining sauces on top, fully covering them. Add a layer of dairy-free cheese, if desired.
- Cover pan tightly with aluminum foil and place in oven. Cook covered for 45 minutes. Uncover pan and cook for 15 more minutes.
- Remove pan from oven and let the lasagna sit for 15 minutes after baking. Serve.
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