This veggie and protein packed lasagna is completely allergy friendly and low FODMAP. Everyone will love and be able to eat this dish!
You honestly won’t believe that this lasagna recipe is gluten free and dairy free. My gluten and dairy loving dad even gave this homemade lasagna high marks. It’s packed with three different vegetables along with ground beef making this dish a complete meal. It’s the perfect dinner party meal, family dinner option, or meal prep choice. This lasagna produces 8 servings and can be frozen in portions.
I love sneaking vegetables and protein in wherever I can. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know my goal is always to create healthy and allergy friendly versions of your favorite recipes. I thought lasagna would be a tough one due to the cheese and FODMAPS, but it ended up being much easier than I anticipated! This recipe does take some time and since the cheese is made from scratch, you do need to plan ahead (the cheese is super easy, though, don’t worry!).
I get so excited to eat this nutrient dense gluten free lasagna any chance I get. I honestly could probably eat it every night, it’s just that good. This homemade lasagna is proof that you can eat delicious, healthier, and allergy free versions of classic dishes! I can’t wait to hear what you think of this one.
The Best Veggie Packed Lasagna
The layers:
- The first key to this dairy free lasagna is dairy free cheese of course! We are going to make a completely vegan and allergy friendly cheese that has no weird additives. This cheese is also fully Paleo and I love using it in lots of other recipes! The cheese does need to be made ahead of time, by at least 3 hours, or even the day before. This vegan cheese is made from coconut milk, nutritional yeast, tapioca starch, garlic infused olive oil, and salt. It’s super easy to make, it just needs time to set before using it in the lasagna.
- The next important layer is the noodles. I love using the Jovial gluten free noodles. They are made from rice with no corn involved!
- Of course, we need our filling. This delicious lasagna is made high protein and nutrient dense with a mix of ground beef and three different veggies PLUS tomato sauce! Fennel (or onion if you can handle it), zucchini, and carrots add lots of nutritious fiber and micronutrients to this classic dish. Shredded carrots are added to the ground beef and tomato sauce so you can’t even taste them! Fennel and zucchini taste pretty mild once sautéed and mixed in with the rest of the ground beef mixture, keeping this dish picky eater friendly.
Ingredient notes:
- Cheese: make sure to use full fat coconut milk from the can to make the cheese. I also use garlic infused olive oil to keep this recipe low FODMAP, but I provide alternatives if you don’t have an infused oil and prefer to use garlic powder.
- Tomato sauce: I love using Rao’s Sensitive Marinara as it doesn’t contain any garlic or onion. This helps keep the lasagna stomach problem girl friendly!
- Noodles: feel free to use whatever noodles you prefer, but as mentioned above, my favorite brand is the Jovial noodles since they are completely allergy friendly and no-boil.
- Fennel: I use fennel over onion since fennel is low FODMAP, but you can always use onion instead!
Also, it just occurred to me that lasagna is a casserole… right? Leave a comment and let me know if you think lasagna counts as a one. If so, then here’s to a delicious gluten free and dairy free casserole!
The Best Gluten & Dairy Free Lasagna
Ingredients
Diary Free Cheese
- 2 cups full fat coconut milk from the can
- 1 Tbsp garlic infused olive oil see notes below for alternatives
- 6 Tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- 6 Tbsp tapioca starch
- 1/2 cup water
Lasagna
- 1 large fennel, diced or an onion
- 3 zucchini, chopped
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 3 carrots, peeled and grated
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 2 boxes gluten free, no-boil lasagna noodles
- 2 jars 24 oz tomato sauce I use a low FODMAP sauce
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp basil
- 1 tsp oregano
Instructions
- *Please keep in mind the cheese needs to be made ahead!
Cheese
- To make the cheese, combine the coconut milk, olive oil, nutritional yeast, salt, and lemon juice together in a saucepan and whisk to combine over medium heat.
- Whisk together the water and tapioca starch in a measuring cup. Pour this into the saucepan with the other ingredients, whisking often, until the cheese thickens.
- It will take about 5 minutes to start noticing it thickening and another 5-10 to reach the desired consistency. You'll know the cheese is done because it starts to pull away from the side of the pan. It should drip off a spatula like a pot of melted cheese would.
- Remove the cheese from the heat and transfer to a heat safe, glass container. Let cool at room temperature for 15-30 minutes, before adding the lid and transferring to the fridge to set for at least 2-3 hours or overnight.
Lasagna
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add 2 Tbsp of olive oil. Sauté the fennel for 5 minutes then add the zucchini and sauté for about another 5 minutes until soft and veggies are slightly browned.
- You can cook the beef at the same time in a separate large frying pan if you have one, or set the veggies aside and brown the beef in the same pan. Brown your ground beef then add in the carrots, 1 1/2 jars of tomato sauce, zucchini, fennel, salt, basil, and oregano. Mix to combine and set aside.
- To assemble the lasagna, keep in mind that we will be making 4 layers. In a large 9×14 dish, spread a quarter of the meat and veggie mixture over the bottom. Arrange 4 lasagna noodles in a single layer on top of the mixture. Then use your hands to spread a quarter of the homemade vegan cheese over the noodles. This is messy and the cheese may seem a little runny, but it's okay! It may not cover ever inch of noodles perfectly and that is alright. Just use your hands the stretch the cheese over as much as you can.
- Now, take the next quarter of meat mixture and spread it evenly over the cheese. Add your noodles. Add your cheese.
- Repeat 2 more times.
- Take some of the leftover sauce and spread around with the cheese on the top layer, being sure to get the edges of the lasagna noodles (they need liquid to cook!). Cover the dish with tinfoil and place in in the oven for 50 minutes.
- Uncover the noodles and pat them down gently to make sure they are flat and covered in some sauce and cook for another 10 minutes until golden and bubbly.
- Let cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing and serving!
- This lasagna will stay fresh in the fridge for up to 4 days and can be portioned and frozen if needed!
