Easy Vegan Lasagna (Overnight)
This overnight Easy Vegan Lasagna was inspired by our other overnight Vegan Gluten Free Lasagna recipe, but with a few changes to make things easier and cheaper. However, you can mix and match the main ingredients depending on your taste preferences and the amount of work you want to put into it.
Lentil Ground “Beef”
Let’s start with the “meat” mixture. Our original recipe uses Beyond Meat Beefy Crumbles as the meat substitute. This meat sub is tasty, but it’s not available everywhere and it’s also a processed food with added canola and sunflower oil. If you’re an oil-free eater, this won’t do.
Amelia made us a delicious Vegan Lentil Loaf awhile back, so that gave me the idea to use lentils as the ground beef substitute. And they work great! I cook them in our pressure cooker, but you can also boil them on the stove.
Our pressure cooker instructions say to cook them for 9 minutes, but we’re at high altitude so I cook them for 12 minutes. They need to be slightly overcooked and a little mushy so you can mash them into a ground beef texture. Then I stir fry them without oil or liquid in a large skillet to smash them up more and dry them out a bit to give them more of a ground beef look.
Our pressure cooker instructions also call for 1 tbsp of vegetable oil to keep the lentils from frothing too much and clogging the steam vent, but we never do this and haven’t had any issues. To keep this recipe oil-free, we recommend skipping the oil. You just may need to clean your pressure cooker steam vent more often.
Tofu Ricotta
Now for the Tofu Ricotta. Our original recipe uses Cashew Ricotta made from our Vegan Cashew Cream recipe. While this is less processed than tofu, cashews are also a lot more expensive. You can buy a package of organic tofu for less than $2, but it’ll cost you about $8 to buy enough cashews for this recipe. If you’re soy-free, you can swap the Tofu Ricotta with the Cashew Ricotta.
This recipe has quite a bit of salt so if you have heart disease or high blood pressure, please omit the salt. Salt substitutes are also best to be avoided if you have these health issues or kidney disease.
Tomato Sauce
Now for the sauce. Our original lasagna recipe uses our homemade spaghetti sauce for the lasagna sauce. This sauce is delicious, but it also takes quite a bit of extra ingredients and time to prepare. To keep things cheap and easy, we’re using jarred of spaghetti sauce in this new recipe. We recommend using a fat-free variety like Prego’s Lower Calorie Light Smart Traditional sauce. But you can always make your own sauce from scratch if you want to.
The Easy Vegan Lasagna Part
Finally, we made our original recipe gluten-free by using rice lasagna noodles, but we just used regular wheat noodles for this recipe. We prefer a whole-grain noodle, but those options are limited here in Ecuador. To make it gluten-free, just swap the noodles for your favorite gluten-free variety.
Since this recipe doesn’t use vegan cheese (which is mostly oil), it has more than 100 fewer calories per serving than our original recipe. It’s also oil-free since we’re using lentils instead of the beefy crumbles.
Like our original recipe, this one is also “overnight” so you don’t have to cook the noodles. It only takes about 15 to 20 minutes of actual work to prepare this Easy Vegan Lasagna, which is nothing compared to a conventional, non-overnight lasagna. It makes 8 servings so you’ll have lots of leftovers (unless you’re feeding the whole family).
It’s also a great option to take to a friend’s house since you prepare it the day before and just pop it in the oven for about an hour before you’re ready to eat.
Enjoy with a simple side salad and some Vegan Garlic Bread. Save some sauce and heat it up on the stove to pour over the lasagna just before you serve it. We didn’t do that this time, but we will the next time we make it.
If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 8 servings | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time |
| 90 minutes |
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This overnight Easy Vegan Lasagna recipe is oil-free, nutritious and delicious. It only takes 15 to 20 minutes of work to prepare & makes lots of leftovers.
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- 46 oz spaghetti sauce Prego Fat-Free Traditional or your favorite vegan oil-free variety
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 1/2 cups dry lentils cooked
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp salt (optional)
- 14 oz tofu organic firm or extra firm (1 block)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp oregano
- 1 tbsp basil
- 1/2 tsp salt (optional)
- 15 pieces lasagna noodles
- 1/2 tsp garlic salt (optional)
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
- Cook the lentils in a pressure cooker according to the pressure cooker instructions, about 10 to 15 minutes. Or cook on the stove according to the package instructions. You want to slightly overcook them so they're very soft.
- Once the lentils are cooked, use a potato masher to mash them up. Or, stir fry them without liquid in a large skillet to mash them up and dry them out so they take on a ground beef texture and consistency.
- Stir in the onion powder and salt. Set aside.
- Pour the sauce into a large saucepan. Add the fennel seeds, oregano and red pepper flakes. Stir to combine.
- Bring to a simmer and cook covered on low for 5 minutes to release the flavors.
- Drain the tofu and place the tofu block in a large mixing bowl. Using a fork, crumble the tofu into small ricotta size pieces. Add the lemon juice, oregano, basil and salt to the tofu crumbles.
- Stir to mix well. Add more lemon juice or a little water if the consistency is too thick. Set aside.
- In a non-greased 9"x13" casserole dish, add 3/4 cup of the spaghetti sauce and spread evenly to completely coat the bottom of the dish.
- Add a layer of uncooked lasagna noodles and press into the sauce.
- Spread 1/2 of the Tofu Ricotta mixture evenly over the lasagna noodles.
- Spread 1/2 of the Lentil mixture evenly over the Tofu Ricotta.
- Cover with 1/3 of the remaining sauce.
- Add another layer of noodles, Tofu Ricotta mixture, lentil mixture, 1/2 of the remaining sauce and the final layer of noodles.
- Top with the remaining sauce and spread evenly. You can add extra sauce if needed to cover the noodles.
- Cover the baking dish with a lid or aluminum foil and place in the refrigerator overnight.
- Remove the lasagna from the refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking to allow the baking dish to warm up a bit.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Bake the lasagna covered for 45 minutes.
- Remove cover and sprinkle with a little garlic salt, oregano and nutritional yeast.
- Bake uncovered for another 15 minutes or until it bubbles in the center and/or around the edges.
- Let stand 15 minutes before serving. Top with extra warmed sauce to give it some moisture and plate appeal (we didn't do that this time).
Serving size is 1/8th of the Easy Vegan Lasagna, about 3"x4".
Quick, easy, freezes well, and delicious!!! Thanks for sharing!
Great! Glad you liked it!