Think of a traditional, hearty, and delicious lasagna. This lasagna with cashew ricotta, is just that! Made with a dairy free cashew (vegan) ricotta “cheese”, gluten free brown rice lasagna noodles, and of course our homemade spaghetti sauce.
You can’t even tell that it’s a gluten and dairy free lasagna either. At least according to our 5 kids. They love it, and look forward to lasagna night.
Converting Favorite Comfort Foods To Health Foods
When I had to go both gluten free and dairy free for health reasons, one of my biggest struggles was finding recipes to all of my favorite comfort foods that I could convert into a health food without losing its comforting heartiness and at the same time, making it more nutritious. The task seemed impossible. So I took it upon myself, and just started throwing ingredients together. And this is what I’ve come up with.
A few tricks I’ve found with this recipe, and I learned that I’m pretty picky about my pasta. I don’t want it to taste like gluten free pasta, and I don’t want the texture to be like most gluten free pasta. So I only use Jovial Brown Rice Lasagna for my pasta. This brand, the flavor is like a traditional pasta, and the texture, if not overcooked, is like traditional pasta.
To Boil, Or Not To Boil
On the box it gives two options. First option is to boil. The problem with this is that you have to boil each noodle individually. If you dump the whole box in the water, the noodles will stick together so hard it’s like a brick. So that process is too time consuming for me to boil each noodle separately. And no one wants a brick of noodle.
So then comes option two, a no boil option. Just put it in the lasagna dry and let the sauce cook it. Well, this option was easy. However, each time I tried this, after baking the noodles seemed gummy in the middle and still crunchy on the sides. So I came up with an easy solution that works!
Since neither the pre-boil method, and the no-boil method were favorites of mine, I tried rinsing them. This was the winning method for me. Before placing the noodle in the pan, I rinse each noodle quickly under hot tap water so that every inch of the noodle got rinsed. This worked!
I suppose if you add more sauce to the recipe, that would work too. But we aren’t fond of soupy lasagnas, so the rinse is what we prefer.
Making The Lasagna With Cashew Ricotta
To Prepare the lasagna, you’ll need to make sure you soak the cashews in a bowl in hot water for about a hour before starting everything else. This will soften the cashews so they aren’t gritty and chunky in your ricotta. Do not skip this step.
When ready, brown the ground beef. Once the beef is browned and crumbled, it’s time to add the vegetables, starting with the celery (optional) and carrots. There celery and carrots take a little longer to cook than the other vegetables.
I like to chop all of the vegetables. The smaller the better. Especially the mushrooms. I’ll get into this in a minute.
Once the chopped celery (if using) carrots are half cooked, add the mushrooms. Now, as I mentioned I chop the mushrooms in small pieces. This is because I have some in my family that don’t particularly care for mushrooms. I like the mild flavor the mushrooms add, but mostly I like to add them because mushrooms are rich in nutrients. And honestly my pickier eaters can’t even tell they are in there. And this is why I chop them small. They blend in with the burger, and they also bulk it up to seem meatier than it is.
Ground beef, mixed with cooked vegetables for lasagna.
Then add the onions, chopped spinach and salt and pepper. Once it’s cooked, set aside to cool. This is when I start making the ricotta with cashews that I soaked earlier.
Cashew Ricotta
In your blender, add the cashews, and all remaining ingredients. Blend on high for about two minutes. If you have a “spread” setting on your blender, use that setting.
Lasagna with beef, vegetables, and cashew ricotta.
Add the “ricotta” to the meat and vegetables, and mix well. This keeps it super simple for layering. Since there is only 3 steps to layering. Noodles, sauce then beef and vegetable mixture, repeat.
It’s totally understandable, if you don’t make Homemade Spaghetti Sauce For Canning.
In this case feel free to use your favorite sauce. My preference for sauce if unable to use my homemade, is Rao’s Marinara. I like this store bought sauce in a pinch, because of course it’s gluten free, but it’s not as sweet as other sauces and it’s nice and thick compared to other popular brands.
Now your lasagna with cashew ricotta, should be ready to bake! I like to cover with parchment paper. You can use foil to aid in keeping in the moisture. But I’m just not someone who wants to use foil around my food. Place a cooking sheet underneath to prevent any bubbling over, and bake at 375°F for 55 minutes.
Enjoy!
xoxo
Lasagna with Cashew Ricotta
Ingredients
Cashew Ricotta “cheese”
- 1 cup raw cashews soak in warm water
- 15 oz Navy beans (white beans) or cannellini, great northern or butter beans
- 4 tbsp lemon juice
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
- ½ tsp dried basil
- 1/4 c almond or oat milk
Other ingredients
- 1.5 Lbs organic grass-fed ground beef
- 6 large fresh carrots chopped
- 4 celery stalks chopped (optional)
- 1 large onion chopped
- 8 oz Baby Bella or cremini mushrooms chopped
- 16 oz frozen chopped spinach or kale thawed and drained
- 32 oz your favorite marinara sauce
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place cashews in a heat safe bowl and cover with HOT water. These need to soak for a solid 30 minutes. If you have the time, soak for an hour before needed.
- Preheat oven to 375°F, and prepare a 13x9 inch baking dish by spraying with olive oil or avocado oil spray. Then add a thin layer of marinara sauce on the bottom of the pan.
- Brown ground beef on stovetop on medium/high heat, then add carrots and celery. Cook together until carrots and celery are sautéed.
- Add onion, mushrooms and spinach, salt and pepper to taste. Cover and lower heat to a simmer.
Prepare Ricotta
- Drain cashews and place in blender.
- Add beans, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, non dairy milk and basil to cashews in the blender. Blend on HIGH until smooth, about 2 minutes. Ricotta should be thick and creamy. If it’s too thick, feel free to add a splash more liquid if needed.
Combine the Lasagna
- Remove beef and vegetables from heat. Combine Ricotta to the pan with beef and vegetables. Mix well.
- Start rinsing the lasagna noodles for the bottom layer of the lasagna. Then layer the lasagna by layering in order: noodles, beef and vegetables, sauce. Then repeat until all ingredients are used. To finish, sauce should be over the last layer of noodles.
- Place 13x9 pan on a cookie sheet to prevent any boiling over. Cover with parchment paper or foil.
- Bake for 55 minutes
