Broccoli and cauliflower Lasagna

This broccoli and cauliflower lasagna is my kids’ favourite dinner. And who can blame them? It’s full of flavour, cheese and pasta! While it does take time to put together a lasagna, it is a perfect weekend meal.

Here’s why:

• It is a great way to get more vegetables into your diet.
• Get the kids involved! Even young children can help with grating vegetables and cheese. Older kids can help make the pasta sauce and ricotta. And even the littlest helpers can layer lasagna noodles.
• Make a double or triple batch and freeze lasagnas for a quick week night meal. The trick is to use a smaller square container, no larger than 9” x 9” so that it can defrost quickly.

Style your own lasagna

I’ve written this recipe with layers of a vegetarian tomato sauce between the layers of cauliflower and broccoli cheese. However, you can switch out my simple tomato sauce for your favourite meat sauce or white sauce.

Broccoli and cauliflower Lasagna

Print Recipe

★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

This cauliflower and broccoli lasagna has a rich vegetable and cheese layer that tastes like cannelloni filling. It is a hearty and satisfying meal. It’s also a great way to get more vegetables into your diet!

• Author: Emillie
• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 50 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
• Yield: 9" x 13" pan 1x
• Category: Main Dish
• Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 package of lasagna noodles (cooked according to the package -see notes for more info)
• 1/2 cup grated mozzarella

Tomato Sauce

• 1 x 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, diced
• 1 tbsp of Italian seasoning or mixed basil and oregano
• 1 tsp salt and pepper, to taste

Broccoli and Cauliflower Filling

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 2 heads of broccoli
• 6 cloves of garlic
• Olive oil
• 2 cups of ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp salt, to taste

Instructions

1. Saute the onion until soft. Add all of the remaining tomato sauce ingredients and continue to cook for 15 minutes.Taste and adjust the salt as needed, then set aside.
2. Grate the cauliflower and broccoli, including the stems. Saute the grated vegetables in a little olive oil with diced garlic until fully cooked, about 5-6 minutes. Salt to taste.
3. Allow the vegetable mixture to cool, then mix in the egg and ricotta cheese.
4. Put the lasagna together by putting a small amount of sauce on the bottom of the pan followed by a layer of noodles. Add another layer of sauce, broccoli filling, then noodles. Repeat these 3 layers a second time, topping the final layer of noodles with a bit more sauce and mozzarella.
5. Bake at 375 F. Keep the lasagna covered for the first 25 minutes, then cook it uncovered for another 25 minutes, until the cheese is browning and the sauce is bubbling.
6. Allow to cool for 10 minutes to set the layers before serving.

Notes

• If you haven’t made cheese before, then I recommend making homemade ricotta. It’s easy and affordable! I usually use homemade kefir cheese for my lasagna. If you are using homemade cheese, the salt will need to be adjusted depending on whether you’ve salted your cheese.
• I typically mix 1 cup of cooked lentils into the tomato sauce to add a bit of protein and bulk for this recipe. However, you could also add 1 cup of crumbled veggie ground round (affiliate link) or cooked ground beef.
• Most noodles are oven-ready. However, pre-cooking is necessary for certain brands of pasta, particularly gluten free pasta. One option is to simply soak the noodles in a pot of hot water, rather than actually cooking them. They will soften after about 10 minutes of soaking.

Keywords: cannelloni, from scratch, affordable, delicious, fancy, vegetarian, vegetable, kefir cheese, gluten free, kid-friendly, fall, winter, holiday