Zucchini Lasagna with Turkey Recipe
Thinly sliced summer zucchini replace the noodles for a low carb, gluten-free homemade zucchini lasagna with turkey, that still feels indulgent and seasonal.
Why You’ll Love This Zucchini Lasagna
Once I saw the zucchini in my fridge I immediately thought of the turkey lasagna I’ve made a few times before. The beauty of making a lasagna recipe is that you can add any vegetable or meat to the combo of pasta sauce, ricotta, parmesan, mozzarella and basil and it will still make a terrific lasagna.
Here is what you need to make this recipe:
- ground turkey
- olive oil
- large onion, chopped
- cloves of garlic, minced
- can of your favorite tomato sauce
- chopped fresh basil
- zucchini, sliced 1/8″ thick
- part-skim or low-fat ricotta
- parmesan cheese
- egg
- shredded part-skim or low-fat mozzarella cheese
- Salt and pepper to taste
How to Make Vegetarian Zucchini Lasagna
To make a vegetarian lasagna skip the ground turkey meat for hearty medley of vegetables. You can add mushrooms, spinach onions or even eggplant can make a zucchini vegetarian lasagna.
To create a vegetable filling, simply saute the vegetables in olive oil with a little salt and pepper until tender and then drain, so that your vegetarian lasagna won’t be soggy.
For this recipe I use ground turkey meat. But you can certainly substitute for ground beef or even chicken.
Zucchini Lasagna Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 large yellow onion, chopped3
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 28 oz tomato sauce
- 1/4 cup chopped basil leaves
- 4 large zucchini, sliced
- 1 1/2 cup low fat ricotta cheese
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
- 1 egg
- 16 oz bag of shredded low-fat mozzarella cheese
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Slice your zucchini into 1/8 " slivers and salt lightly. (They should resemble
pasta lasagna noodles, duh!) Set aside on a paper towel to "sweat." - In a medium saucepan sauté garlic and onion until translucent (about 2 minutes). Then add ground turkey. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Cook until the meat has browned.
- Add your tomato sauce to the meat mixture. Allow to simmer on low while you prep everything else, about 15-20 minutes.
- In a medium bowl mix ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese and egg. Stir well.
- Remove the meat sauce from the pan with a strainer ladle, this way your sauce won't be too watery.
- Spray your casserole dish or rub with remaining olive oil. Start layering by first adding 1/2 cup of meat sauce on the bottom. Then add a layer of zucchini, followed by the cheese mixture, and then sprinkle the mozzarella cheese. Keep layering until you've used up all the things!
- Stop with the last layer with sauce and zucchini.
- Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes covered.
- Uncover, add mozzarella cheese and cook for another 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted.
- Let stand about 5 minutes before serving. Top with fresh basil and parmesan cheese!