The start of the year is for many the time to pursue New Year’s resolutions. One of the most common ones is trying to live a healthier lifestyle, manifested by attending the gym and eating nutritious, home made foods. Another popular trend is Veganuary, where lots of people try to follow a vegan diet in the month of January.

In this post, I’m going to share a versatile, adaptable recipe that will work for both goals. It’s one of my favourite recipes to make these days. Healthy, nutritous, and high in protein – yet still delicious and comforting, like traditional lasagne is. What’s not to love!

What makes this lasagne healthier

I made some swaps to turn a classic lasagne into a nutritious meal that you can enjoy guilt-free any day. I typically make this recipe in a vegetarian version, but you’ll find tips for making it fully vegan later in this post.

I make sure to use veggies in the bolognese sauce, with mushrooms being a great way to bulk up the volume and add extra protein. Spinach in the white sauce also adds fibre and nutrients.

In the white sauce, I use Philadelphia lightest. It’s a high protein, low fat cream cheese option. As topping, I use reduced fat cheese. The brand I use (I live in the UK) is eatlean. Their cheese is almost fat-free, extremely high protein, and melts just like regular cheese does! Sounds like magic, but there aren’t any nasty additives in that cheese at all. I’m not affiliated with the brand in any way, but I absolutely love the product. It helped me transform countless comfort foods into healther meals.

Ingredients to make healthy, lean, high-protein vegetarian lasagne

Ingredients for vegan bolognese:

• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 3 garlic cloves, pressed
• 250g vegan mince
• 400ml passata
• 125g sliced mushrooms
• 1 small carrot, finely diced
• spices: smoked paprika, chili powder, salt, pepper, mixed herbs

Ingredients for vegetarian spinach white sauce:

• 80g baby spinach, washed
• 80g Philadelphia lightest cream cheese
• spices: garlic powder, salt, pepper, nutmeg

Also:

• lasagne pasta sheets
• grated reduced fat cheese

This recipe will make 3-4 servings of high protein lasagne in a loaf tin.

How to make lean lasagne

First, prepare the vegan bolognese. Note: it’s not authentic bolognese, so don’t come at me for using the name! To be more specific, this recipe will make a delicious, tomato and veggie sauce with minced meat alternative.

In a non-stick pot, fry the diced onion with pressed garlic until soft. You can add a little bit of vegetable oil for frying, but it’s optional if your pot is truly non-stick.

Add the sliced mushrooms and fry them until they’ve softened and wilted. Add the mince to the veggies and fry for a few minutes.

Add passata and the carrot to the pot. Cook on low heat until most of the water from passata has evaporated and the carrot has softened. Season to taste with mixed herbs, chili powder, smoked paprika, salt and pepper.

While the “bolognese” is cooking, prepare the express spinach white sauce. In a bowl, mix spinach with cream cheese. Season with a sprinkle of salt, pepper and nutmeg. And that’s it, the white sauce is done!

How to assemble the vegetarian lasagne

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.

In a loaf tin, start assembling the lasagne in layers.

First, line the bottom of the tin with lasagne pasta sheets. Next, spread a layer of the vegan bolognese. Then, make a layer of the spinach white sauce. Continue with layers of pasta, bolognese and spinach white sauce until you’ve run out of the sauces. I typically make 4 layers.

Finally, sprinkle a handful of grated cheese on top of the lasagne.

Bake for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Swaps to make it a vegan lasagne recipe

In order to turn this lasagne recipe completely vegan, you only need to make a couple of changes:

• Swap Philadelphia for a vegan cream cheese alternative, and the low fat cheese used as topping for vegan one. Keep in mind that the cheeses I use in my recipe help make this lasagne lower in fat and higher in protein. Vegan cheese is typically low in protein and high in fat. Still delicious though!
• Make sure that the pasta and mince you’re using are vegan. Some of the meat-free minces are vegetarian, but not vegan.

Swaps to make it a meaty recipe with simpler ingredients

If you prefer to stick to simple, widely accessible, cheaper ingredients and aren’t too concerned about the fat contents, feel free to make some swaps!

• Instead of Philadelphia lightest, use any cream cheese you like.
• Instead of high protein, reduced fat cheese as topping, use regular cheddar or mozzarella.
• Instead of vegetarian mince, use beef or pork mince.

Also see:

• Food
• Savoury