Roasted Vegetable Lasagna is perfect for this time of year. Since it's when we have an abundance of fresh veggies to harvest and enjoy. Roasting the vegetables brings out an extra depth of flavour in them, however you use them.
Any Vegetables Will Work for Lasagna
You can make this with any vegetables. I'm using some of the late summer harvests in this one with butternut squash, zucchini and sweet red bell peppers. Other options are spinach or kale, mushrooms, or sweet potato. Really the sky's the limit with whatever veggies you want to use. You can even use broccoli, cauliflower, or cabbage here.
Roasting Vegetables for Maximum Flavour
My favourite part of making this veggie lasagna is roasting the veggies first. You can do this a day ahead, or you can make extra roasted veggies to save just to make this. Butternut squash is so easy to use if you just roast the whole squash, and then you don't have that painful cutting up of the raw squash to deal with. Personally, I can really do without cutting up raw squash; it's just not fun.
Bechamel Sauce; Creamy & Delicious
A bechamel sauce in this dish lets the veggies be the star and shows off their beautiful veggie colours. This delicious lasagna has three kinds of cheese; ricotta, mozzarella, and Romano. But feel free to sub Parmesan for the Romano, and if you like you can lighten it up by using cottage cheese in place of the ricotta. I like to make this on a weekend and double the recipe so that I can make two; one to eat now and one for the freezer. It's a wonderful thing to have a freezer stocked with meals all ready to go for when life gets busy, right?
Lasagna is a pretty versatile dish and one that most everyone loves. So if you are looking for some other delicious ways to do lasagna, check out this one for Chicken & Mushroom Lasagna, or this Classic Lasagna with Meat Sauce.
Roasted Vegetable Lasagna
Ingredients
- 1 small butternut squash
- 4 red bell peppers
- 1 medium zucchini
- 4 tablespoon butter
- 4 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 4 cups milk
- 2 cloves garlic peeled and smashed
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 12 lasagna noodles or 4 sheets fresh lasagna noodles
- 3 tablespoon fresh rosemary finely chopped
- 3 tablespoon basil chopped
- freshly ground pepper
- 2 cups ricotta cheese
- 3 cups grated mozzarella cheese
- 2 cups grated romano cheese
- 2 tablespoon thyme leaves
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 400 °
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Prick butternut squash all over with a fork and place on the baking sheet.
- Core, seed and cut peppers in half, and place them cut side down on the other baking sheet.
- Roast squash and peppers about 30 minutes or until peppers have started to blacken, and squash can be pierced with a fork.
- Put peppers straight from the oven into a covered container for about 5 minutes. The steam will make the skins easy to remove.
- When cooled enough for handling, remove seeds from squash and remove skins from peppers and squash. Cut the squash into ½ inch slices.
- Slice zucchini into ¼ inch rounds
- If using dried pasta, in a large pot of rapidly boiling water, cook noodles for a couple of minutes less than package directions. Drain and lay noodles out on a clean kitchen towel to dry.
Make Bechamel Sauce
- In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter.
- Whisk in the flour and cook for about 5 minutes or until it's a light sandy colour, (not brown).
- Whisk in hot milk, one cup at a time, whisking constantly until smooth.
- Add garlic cloves and bring to a boil, cooking and stirring for 5-6 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in rosemary, basil, thyme, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Your sauce should be thick and smooth, but pour-able. If the sauce is too thick, you can thin it by whisking in some white wine.
Assemble the Lasagna
- Pre-heat oven to 375°
- In a 13 x 9-inch (3 L) baking dish spread 1 cup of the bechamel sauce.
- Arrange 3 lasagna noodles over the sauce. Arrange squash slices over noodles and sprinkle with half of the mozzarella cheese.
- Top with 1 more cup of the bechamel sauce, then 3 noodles, arrange the roasted peppers, then the ricotta mixture, 3 noodles, zucchini slices, 1 cup of the bechamel sauce, 3 noodles, then remaining sauce and mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle with Romano cheese.
- Cover with foil. Bake 45 minutes. Uncover and bake until cheese is golden, about 15 minutes. Loosely cover with foil and let stand for 15 minutes before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Gabrielle @ eyecandypopper
I love this recipe and how it includes delicious vegetables. Yum, roasting does make everything tastes that much better. I wish I was having this for dinner! haha
Colleen
Thanks Gabby, I also like that you can use any veggies you like. 🙂
Nicoletta
Who doesn't love a good vegetarian lasagna?? We do, very much. This one look so flavorfu, cheesey and beautiful. Great tip to make 2 and freeze 1 for later use!
Colleen
Thanks Nicoletta, lasagna is great for the freezer, and I love the occasional, "I don't have to cook" night 🙂
Hazel
This looks fabulous! Definitely something I want to try this Fall!
admin
Hey thanks Hazel! I hope you do because it turned out great, and I love to hear how people adapt or change things up when they try out the recipes and even when they just stick to the recipe, it always turns out differently for different cooks. I have been enjoying your blog, by the way! Cheers.