This vegan lasagna is the real deal—hearty, full of protein and a vegan spinach ricotta.
Absolutely delicious for vegans and omnis alike :)
Despite the fact that I call myself “The Viet Vegan”, there are many aspects to me that are very Canadian. Having grown up here, I experienced a bit of both worlds—some Canadian and some Vietnamese.
There was a period of time where it was just me and my mom at home. I think I was 13 then. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my mom spent a lot of time working trying to support the two of us and I spent a lot of time home by myself reading or writing fan fiction because I was that kind of nerd. I ate a lot of TV dinners and boxed lasagna, which I was 100% okay with at the time, mostly because my mom didn’t have the time or resources to go to Toronto to get Vietnamese groceries.
There are so many things we don’t realize that our parents do for us when we’re younger. It wasn’t until I made this vegan lasagna and was feeling nostalgic that I realized that I ate these kinds of TV dinners and frozen meals because she was working so hard for us. It’s so fascinating to rediscover these memories or re-see them through my mother’s eyes as I make these foods I once loved.
I hope you enjoy this recipe and appreciate those who helped you become who you are today. <3
Check out the recipe video I made, it might help you see how I made the ricotta, but also I make a bunch of goofs you might enjoy =P
Vegan Lasagna with Spinach Tofu Ricotta
Ingredients
For the meaty pasta sauce:
- 1 tbsp cooking oil of choice
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- ~1 1/2 jars tomato basil pasta sauce (my jars are 739 mL each)
- 1 bag of beefless crumbles (I used gardein 13.7 oz / 390 g, but you can use two packets of the Yves brand original too)
For the tofu ricotta
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- 2 tbsp tahini
- 1 tsp white miso (I use a low-sodium one)
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder/granulated garlic
- 1 block firm tofu* (454 g)
- salt to taste (I used about 1/4 tsp kosher salt)
- 3 cups frozen spinach (loosely packed, or about 1 1/2 cups thawed spinach)
To assemble:
- 1 box lasagna noodles (10 oz/280g) I used gluten-free pasta
- 1 cup vegan cheese (add more if you like it super cheezy)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400ºF.
To make the pasta sauce:
- In a medium pot over medium heat, cook diced onion in oil until lightly browned. Add 1 1/2 jars of tomato sauce (maybe lower the heat to reduce splattering) and heat through.
- Add beefless crumbles and cook until just heated through. Set aside.
To make the tofu ricotta:
- Mix to combine lemon juice, tahini, white miso, nutritional yeast, and garlic powder. Crumble in the tofu and mix well to combine.
- Defrost the frozen spinach and add to the tofu mixture. Stir well to combine.
To assemble:
- Cook pasta noodles according to the package and drain well.
- Spread some of the sauce reserved from that 1/2 of the jar on the bottom of a 9x13 glass casserole dish.
- Arrange and layer noodles, meaty sauce, ricotta and repeat. Top with noodles, meaty sauce (if there's any left, if not use the rest of that jar of pasta), and layer of vegan cheese. Be sure to cover all noodles in sauce or else it'll dry out while baking
- Cover with aluminium foil and bake for 30 minutes covered, then 15 minutes uncovered.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
*I used one that had herbs in it, but you can add 1/2 tsp each dried oregano, thyme, and parsley to add extra flavour.
Also, if you'd prefer not to use the beefless crumbles, you can leave them out completely, but if you want a nice, bulky lasagna I'd recommend adding cooked lentils, TVP, or beans.
Julia says
YUUUM I MADE IT and I’m eating it right now yummm. One thing I did was bake it longer because I like the top to be crispy/chewy and almost burnt on the edges :D 5/5
Lisa Le says
Hahah glad you liked it and tailored it to your own tastes! :)
Leo Sigh says
Don’t care about it being gluten free, but as a vegan this looks amazing, and soooo easy. Will definitely be trying it. Thanks for the recipe :) Nice photos too!!
Lisa Le says
Hahah thanks Leo. You can definitely use regular ol’ wheaty lasagna sheets too :)
Yeshua says
I’m in love with your recepies. Specially this one. Can not wait to get home and cook it!!!
Michelle Frasier says
It’s my oven now
Michelle Frasier says
Enjoyed it really good, liked the twist play on the flavors
Lisa Le says
Glad you enjoyed it! <3
Emma says
Made it. Tweaked it. LOVED IT!!!! Thank you so much for the awesome recipe! We are all so stuffed- was amazing!!!!
Lisa Le says
So glad you liked it!
Lavata Omni says
I tried this recipe and it tasted absolutely great. My boyfriend isn’t a fan of vegan cheese or beef less crumbles, I wish he had liked it, but I truly did, thanks for sharing this.
ZumWohl says
ZumWohl loves lasagna when it is vegan. Looking forward to making this one. Thank you.
Gabriel says
I’m new to making vegan dishes and honestly wasn’t that excited to eat it, but after my family and I did we all agreed it tasted delicious! Would make again. Thanks for the recipe. Added some fresh garlic and mushrooms to the sauce.
Scarlett Herrera says
Can you assemble and bake with uncooked noodles? If so does it change the time at all?
Lisa Le says
I haven’t done it myself yet, but I’ve seen others use oven-ready noodles work just fine. Just make sure you coat them in sufficient sauce and follow the instructions on the package of the noodles since they may vary, brand to brand :)
Cat says
Just became an almost Vegan…I still love cheese! I cannot eat meat anymore because it hurts my stomach. I still LOVE Lasagna…and this recipe looks amazing. Can’t wait to try it!
Alycia says
Made this tonight exactly as you instructed and it was delicious! My boyfriend and I are calling it a definite make-again. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
Craig says
Made this tonight, was very very good.
We could not tell this was vegan. If you really wanted to hide the fact this was vegan you could sprinkle some real cheese on top and then sit back and wait for people to guess it does not have meat.
Very good recipe – thank you!
Lisa Le says
Hahha well I’m glad you enjoyed it! I wouldn’t recommend adding cheese on it though, just tell people its a veggie lasagna :) It’s like the ones I used to buy at the store!
Daisy says
Just made this and at two huge pieces! So delicious and will definitely make again. You are making my transition to veganism so much easier!
Pamela says
You should watch FOOD INC. I was in Iowa for awhile, 3 houses away from the cornfields. Isolated in a small town, 3 hrs.from Des Moine. It was truly life changing, how they grow the corn and soybeans.
I,m looking at your tofu spinach ricotta cheese recipe and I like it alot. I check out almost all tofu recipes just to see how other people prepare tofu. I make the tofu from scratch, using only organic soybeans.
Organic soybeans are like organic vital wheat gluten, very hard to find here in America. I see you are in Canada. That is where I found my wheat, Organic Gem Of The West.
Like you I write vegan recipies. I’ve been doing vegan since 1969.
Don’t forget to look at the FOOD INC. Documentary on NET FLIX.
With much love,
Pamela
Lisa Le says
That was one of the first docus I watched when I started my vegan journey :) I’m pretty sure I buy all my tofu organic, not intentionally but most of the soy products I see are organic anyway.
Caitlin says
I made this a couple weeks ago and we loved it. I was wondering if I could make two this week – one to eat and one to freeze?
Lisa Le says
Hmmm I’ve never tried it myself but I don’t see why not!
Asia says
I made your vegan lasagna for dinner tonight and it was DELICIOUS!!! Thank you so much for the yummy recipe! ❤️
Jessica says
We take this lasagne to dinner parties with omnivores and everyone ends up asking us for the recipe. So good and most people can’t even tell it’s vegan. Thank you, Lisa!
Lisa Le says
That’s awesome!! Thank you so much for coming back to let me know :D
Melanie Hutsell says
Well, it’s in the oven and it smells good! I’ll let you know how it tastes. I think I combined your recipe with Cheap Lazy Vegan recipe. The last time I made vegan lasagna, I used the no boil lasagna noodles and didn’t have near enough sauce and it was kind of dry. Tonight I made double the sauced, but used noodles you have to boil. Hope I didn’t over do it on the sauce. Anyway! Very excited to try this!
Angie says
Anything you can sub for miso? Or could you leave miso out?
Lisa Le says
You can leave it out but it does add that cheesy tangy funk that fermented cheese has
Astrid says
Hi Lisa, I made your lasagne last weekend and had the leftovers yesterday. I think it is a very good recipe. I adapted the ingredients for the ricotta because for me it needed much more extra’s to get it tasty, but I always need to do this when using tofu. I think I at least doubled the miso, nutritional yeast and of course added quite some salt and pepper. No problem, it turned out great! I used Vegusto Classic cheese. Yummie. This lasagne turned out really firm so I could slice beautifull pieces that stayed well on the plate. Thank you for the recipe!
Brittany says
My new go to ! My boyfriend begs me to make it we love it thank you !
Jess says
My LANTA, what a delight! I haven’t had lasagna in years since going vegan, and this truly hit the spot. I made a few alterations (extra spinach, more salt, garlic, mushroom marinara, etc.), but overall stayed true to the recipe. Immediately sent it to my mom and friends for them to try out. :)
Lisa Le says
Yay I’m so glad you enjoyed it! More garlic and veg is always a good thing :)
Jenny says
Hello! I want to make this for dinner tonight, but I don’t have any frozen spinach, but I do have fresh, would that work? If so, what should I do differently?
Lisa Le says
Yep it would work just fine! You could either blanch it before it goes in or just chop it up and put it in the ricotta filling as usual :)
Kaitlyn says
This is my families FAVORITE recipe, we make it for holidays and just random days without the year during the cold seasons. Cannot thank you enough ?? Been loving it for 2 years!