Whole Foods Plant Based Vegan Lasagna With No-Oil (High Nutrition, Low Calories)
This wfpb no-oil vegan lasagna is based on traditional Italian lasagna, but with a vegan cottage cheese / vegan ricotta substitute, made from tofu, basil, and lemon juice.
Fast vegan lasagna recipe that only needs 20 minutes to cook in the oven.
Need a vegan dinner recipe that is great for non-vegans too?
I have served this lasagna many times to non-vegan friends, to rave reviews. Vegetarian lasagna is a dish people are familiar with.
Jump to RecipeThis is the best cheese-free, meatless, vegetarian lasagna recipe!
I make lasagna all the time, it’s one of our family standard meals, when I have 90 minutes. I’ve tried many, many vegan variations, this one is our favourite. The reason is because of extra noodles, and the zucchini gives it more bulk. It’s not runny, but has a perfect sauce consistency. Using blended diced tomatoes and tomato paste makes a nice dark red, thick, tasty, and healthy, sauce.
Tomato paste is LOADED with antioxidants (fight aging, prevent cancer, reduce inflammation, promote healing).
There was even a study that showed people’s sunburns healed faster when they ate tomato paste daily.
See Preventing Skin Cancer from the Inside Out video.
As long as you have a food processor,
you can cook this healthy lasagna really fast – it is easy to make, think about how you can relax while it cooks in the oven.
If you don’t have a food processor, and you have mad knife skills, please try it anyways, and let me know in the comments how you made out?
Double Pasta Noodle Layers
Watching my kids pick noodles out of lasagna (to eat first) inspired me to use double layers of pasta in this recipe, so that there is more pasta for a satisfying meal and to get a great consistency. I have added the zucchini to balance out that extra starch, so you are also getting more vegetables.
I am sure this recipe will be popular with kids and your non-vegan friends too.
You can get this lasagna done in 1 1/2 hours – about 90 minutes.
Sprinkle the lasagna generously with almond flour and then salt and garlic powder – looks just like parmesan!
Zucchini and tomato paste give the tomato sauce more substance, it is thick, and italian seasoning adds great flavour.
Most italian recipes call for oil, and most people have heard and read that olive oil is healthy. In this NutritionFacts.org video, Dr. Greger looks at the research on how olive oil affects artery function. Check it out.
All oils, including olive oil and coconut oil, have been shown to cause a constant and significant decrease in artery function after meals.
Inflammation increases, and blood vessel flow decreases in your body when you eat any fat, including olive and coconut oils.
Oils hurt our arteries and increase inflammation in our body. Inflammation leads to disease.
Eating vegetables restores artery function,
since olive oil is often consumed with vegetables – in a salad for example – there can be a positive effect when eating oil, because of the vegetables – despite the oil.
Physicians studying heart disease and plant based diets recommend you skip the oil,
and just eat the vegetables – and you will have much improved arterial function.
Eat nuts and seeds instead
These physicians also recommend you eat an ounce daily of whole nuts and seeds to get the oils/fats you need – delivered in a food, not from a factory – the way nature intended!
Because this lasagna has no oil, no meat and no cheese, there is no grease, no oils when you are done.
The empty pan here is after I simply rinsed it with water – no soap required. Squeaky clean.
Think how clean this makes the inside of our bodies as well – no clogged arteries, no blocked blood flow to our brains or other important body parts (um, men).
Eat this regularly and your cardiovascular system will be in peak condition for you to run a marathon. 🙂
Vegan Lasagna - With Tofu, Spinach, Zucchini, and No Oil
Equipment
- 9 x 13 casserole dish
- food processor or blender
Instructions and Ingredients
Noodles
- 13.22 oz pasta whole grain 18 lasagna noodles - 6 layers of 3 noodles, to make GF use gluten free noodles
Tomato Sauce
- 28 oz can diced tomatoes or fresh tomatoes
- 5 .5 oz tomato paste canned
- 1 onion small, I use white sweet onions, or use green onions to make this low FODMAP
- 4 cups zucchini about 2 medium to small, about 4 cups, chopped in big chunks
- 2 tbsp Italian seasoning Such as Club House brand - it includes salt
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast optional
Tofu Ricatta
- 12.35 oz extra firm tofu 350 g package
- 2 garlic 2 small or 1 large garlic clove, minced
- 10.58 oz frozen spinach chopped, thawed and drained
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp sugar a bit of sweet is key to making the vegan ricotta taste like real ricotta
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp dried basil or 1 cup chopped fresh basil
Optional
- 4 tbsp almond flour or 2 tbsp nutritional yeast, for sprinkling on top. We prefer almond flour, it looks like parmesan.
Canadian Links
- Preheat oven to 350° F (175° C) on convection bake. You will need a 9 x 13" uncovered casserole dish.
- In a large pot, start water boiling. Add a pinch of salt, no need for oil.
Prepare the tomato sauce
- In a food processor, add the diced tomatoes, with their juice, tomato paste, onion, zucchini chunks, Italian seasoning and nutritional yeast. Process until zucchini is shredded. Add salt, to taste, if your Italian seasoning is salt free.
- Pour the tomato sauce into a medium saucepan on the stove, bring to a simmer. Cover, and cook until the tofu ricotta mixture is ready. Taste test, the zucchini should be soft / cooked.
- Rinse the food processor out (no oil means no soap required!)
Prepare the tofu ricotta
- Thaw the frozen spinach in the microwave for a few minutes. You can leave it in the package, put it on a plate to catch any drips. Drain the spinach, a bit of liquid is ok.
- This is a good time to add the 18 whole grain lasagna noodles to the boiling water.
- In the food processor, add the extra firm tofu, garlic, thawed and drained spinach, lemon juice, sugar, salt, and basil. Blend until lumps are gone.
Assemble the lasagna in this order: sauce, noodles, sauce, double noodles, tofu ricotta, double noodles, sauce, noodles, sauce
- Spread 1 cup tomato sauce on the bottom of the casserole dish.
- Place 3 noodles (single layer)
- Spread 1 cup tomato sauce over the noodles
- Place 3 noodkes
- Place a second layer of 3 more noodles (double noodle layer). Kids love this.
- Spread all the Tofu ricotta over the double noodle layer.
- Place 3 noodles.
- Place a second layer of 3 noodles (double noodle layer)
- 2 cups tomato sauce
- 3 noodles (single layer)
- Top with the remaining 1.5 cups sauce and spread evenly.
- Spread 4-5 tablespoons of almond flour generously over top, (it looks like parmesan), then sprinkle with garlic powder and salt. Also you could use my Vegan Parmesan Cheese over top, or nutritional yeast.
- Bake in preheated convection oven for 25 minutes until bubbling
Notes
Nutrition
What's Special About VeganEnvy Recipes?
VeganEnvy recipes are easy, low-fat, whole-foods, plant-based and nutrition rich. Real food my family eats, and techniques we use to cook.
- less than 25% calories from fat, and no added oils (why no-oil cooking?)
- whole-foods instead of processed foods (why switch to whole-foods? Our journey 🙂)
- whole grains (how to choose healthy grains)
- low or no sugar
- high fibre (cure IBS and digestive issues)
- high nutrient plants, including fruit, greens, beans, legumes, soy, spices, seeds and nuts.
- no animal products, dairy-free (you don't need meat for muscle)
- no tricks (I am not going to say a recipe is healthy if it isn't).
I choose ingredients that are proven to prevent and reverse disease, based on scientific studies, such as those reviewed on nutritionfacts.org and findings published by whole-foods plant-based (WFPB) experts featured in the Forks Over Knives (FOK) and What the Health documentaries FOK trailer.
Eating VeganEnvy recipes will make you lose weight, look better, feel better and live longer. PLUS spend your money to cruelty free food systems, cut your environmental impact, and likely increase your compassion for, and awareness of, lives other than your own.
What a wonderful whole food plant based lasagna recipe! Love that it’s so healthy and scrumptious – so much so that I suggested it in my latest article sharing my own plant-based lasagna 🙂
You can find it here, hope many of our readers come check out yours: https://nutriciously.com/vegan-lasagna/
Keep up the wonderful work!
I made this scrumptious meal and it exceeded my expectations! Never have I ever thought something without cheese would be so satisfying!