Garden Lasagna

Cooking the lasagna noodles before assembling and baking the lasagna always seemed like far too much work to do.  The wonderful thing about vegetable lasagna is that vegetables release a lot of water for dry noodles to absorb.  This is an easy vegetable lasagna dish that can be made with either fresh vegetables in the Summer months, or any time of year with frozen vegetables (or a combination of both). 

Feel free to substitute whatever vegetables you like or are available to you.  Lasagna typically isn’t a cheap dish to make.  I find that frozen vegetables can be less expensive than fresh.  In the summer months you can grow your own or receive free tomatoes and zucchini from others who have gardens.

Ingredients:

¼ cup olive oil

3 tomatoes sliced (use the tops and bottoms too!) or 1 can diced tomatoes with juice

½ onion diced

1 medium sized zucchini sliced into half-moons

2 bell or sweet peppers sliced or diced

5 mushrooms sliced

1 bunch of fresh spinach leaves or 2 cups frozen chopped spinach

8oz uncooked lasagna noodles (1/2 of a box)

About 4 cups of marinara sauce (or about 32oz jar spaghetti sauce) homemade or store bought

1 cup water

Optional - 8 ounces (1 cup) of shredded mozzarella, parmesan, or cheddar (or sour cream if you’re out of cheese)

Bottom layer:  Spread olive oil evenly on bottom of 9X13 baking dish; and lay tomato slices and diced onion out evenly.  Mix marinara sauce and water to thin sauce. Cover tomatoes with ½ of sauce and ½ of the lasagna noodles.

Middle layer:  Spread out zucchini half-moons, peppers, cheese (if you’re using it), and ½ of the spinach evenly.  Put second layer of lasagna noodles on.

Top layer:  Spread out mushroom slices and the rest of the spinach evenly.  Cover with the rest of the marinara sauce and lightly sprinkle parmesan on top.

Bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour.