Zucchini “Noodle” Lasagna

Around the time our family made the decision to start ditching processed carbs I had seen some pins on pinterest.com on how to make lasagna with zucchini noodles. I was highly skeptical. The first time I made zucchini “lasagna” I also made my husband his beloved regular lasagna made with whole wheat noodles. I made myself the zucchini “lasagna” and when I had finished baking the two lasagnas I took one look at his and my mouth started to water. I was starting to regret making my own special grain free lasagna. However, as soon as I bit into my zucchini bake, I was sold!

Now, I wont lie and say it tastes entirely the same as regular lasagna. However, the lasagna “noodles” do soak up a ton of flavor and make this dish quite satisfying when I am be craving a processed carb loaded lasagna dish. And while the kids turned up their noses to it at first glance, once I was able to get them to try it they enjoyed the dish as well. My husband also tried mine and said I could make zucchini lasagna any time. It was an all around family hit!

So here is how I go about making my favorite zucchini lasagna. In these photos you will see 2 9×9 Pyrex dishes. You could use one big Pyrex dish but at the time I was experimenting with both thinner noodles cut with a vegetable peeler and thicker noodles cut with a knife. Turns out I like the thicker noodles better. They hold the (already runny) lasagna together better and I like the consistency of the thicker noodle lasagna better overall.

Ingredients:

• About 8 medium size zucchini
• 3 cans of tomato sauce (we currently use Muir Glen’s Organic sauce with no BPA in the can’s lining)
• 4 gloves of garlic
• 1 TBS oregano
• 1 TBS fennel
• 2 lbs beef (you could use less but I like more beef)
• 1 lb of cheese-shredded (we use mozzarella or raw cheddar)
• Cottage cheese (optional- I didn’t use any this time)
• 1 TBS coconut oil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Take your zucchini and use a vegetable peeler to take the top later off the zucchini.

3. Then cut the zucchini into long, somewhat thin slices with a knife.

4. Set zucchini slices (“noodles”) in a bowl.

5. Place coconut oil in a large pot with garlic cloves and sauté your zucchini “noodles” at medium/high heat. Then set the sautéed zucchini back in the bowl you originally had them in.

Note: I had leftover zucchini peels that were not thick enough for noodles. I put these in a blender with some spaghetti sauce and blended them into the sauce so not to waste them. This is an optional step.

6. Pour all of the sauce into the empty pot you just used to sauté your zucchini (the pot should have garlic oil left over in it from cooking the zucchini (mix this into the sauce) . Add 1 TBS oregano, and even more garlic (if you like garlic as much as I do) then let it simmer a bit.

7. Crush your fennel seed and add it to a pan with your ground beef and brown the beef, then set the cooked beef aside.

8. Take your lasagna pans and layer everything just like you would with regular lasagna. Start with some sauce, then add your zucchini noodles, then add more sauce, meat, and cheese (cottage cheese too if using), then more noodles, sauce, meat, ad cheese, until you have used all your “noodles”. Then top with sauce and cheese.

9. Place foil loosely over your pan and bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Then, uncover the lasagna and cook for another 25 minutes or until cheese is nice and melted.

10. Take out of oven and let it sit for 10 minutes before dishing up.

Notes:

This lasagna will be a bit more messy and runny than regular lasagna but it tastes so good that I personally don’t even care. 🙂

You could really use any regular lasagna recipe to make this (replacing your noodles with sautéed zucchini noodles). If you have a favorite lasagna recipe, feel free to share in the comments below!

I also love making “spaghetti” with my zucchini. I just use my spiral veggie slicer.

*Some of the above links are affiliate links.  Click here to learn more about affiliate links.