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If you love lasagna, but are now plant-based, you are in luck! This easy vegan spinach lasagna recipe is whole food plant based, dairy free, oil free, and super yum! It’s the best healthy version and is super simple. Using whole grain noodles, your favorite marinara sauce, veggies, and topped with zucchini and nutritional yeast it doesn’t need cheese! You’ll never know the ricotta is made from tofu it tastes so good! #forksoverknives #plantbased #wfpb #vegan #lasagna #spinachlasagna #nutritarian

I have revamped my lasagna recipe! This easy vegan spinach lasagna is so much faster, easier, and more delicious! Win-win in my book! The prep time is only about 20 minutes and total bake time is 40 minutes. Dinner in 1 hour!

This plant-based spinach lasagna recipe is completely vegan and 100% whole food plant based. But is super yum and tasty. My tofu ricotta is full of flavor – you won’t even miss the cheese!

The sauce can make or break your vegan spinach lasagna

First of all, the most important part (besides the tofu ricotta) is the sauce. The sauce can really make or break your lasagna success. If you already have a favorite sauce you use for spaghetti, then you can go with that.

You also want a sauce that is not too chunky, so you can spread it easily.

I recommend you use a low-fat/fat free and low sodium marinara or pasta sauce to keep this super healthy. You want to read the ingredients and make sure it doesn’t have a bunch of added oil. That’s just added fat calories your hips don’t need.

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at NO additional cost to you. It’s a win-win! You get great recommendations and I get to keep blogging!

Whole Foods has a couple good brands that taste great and are fat free/lower sodium – 360 Organic Fat Free Marinara and Engine 2 Pasta Sauce. The Engine 2 is best because it is lowest in sodium and no added sugar or oil.

If you can’t find a fat free version, look for one with no more than 1 gram of fat per 50 calories and lowest sodium possible.

Vegan Tofu Ricotta is so easy to make and your omnivore friends won’t know the difference

Tofu ricotta is really easy to make and with the right spices tastes BETTER than cheese ricotta IMO.

To make tofu ricotta really smooth and creamy, use a food processor to blend it with the spices. You can do it by hand in a bowl, but it will be a little chunky. I don’t have an expensive food processor – just a cheap Hamilton Beach with 2 speeds. That’s all you need!

Make sure you choose FIRM or EXTRA FIRM tofu, NOT silken Tofu which is too soft and used more for smoothies & dressings usually. Although now I see there is a brand called Silken and they have Firm Tofu. LOL. Not confusing at all! I just used Firm Tofu when I made this.

Related Reading –

Look for Whole Grain Lasagna Noodles

You also want to use whole grain lasagna noodles. Which unfortunately, has been harder for me to find lately! My store had a Barilla brand of lasagna noodles that had higher fiber content than the regular ones, but wasn’t completely whole grain like I usually find. So I did have to go with those for this time around. This brand has 3 grams of fiber per serving which is a little better than 1 or 2 per serving.

Whole grain pasta is much better if you can find it and usually has 6 grams of fiber per serving – DOUBLE! I did find the Barilla Whole Grain Lasagna noodles on Amazon and I may have to start ordering them, if my grocery stores aren’t going to keep their shelves stocked.

I don’t use the no-bake noodles because they are usually more processed and they don’t come in whole grain. It really doesn’t take long to boil them though and while they are boiling you can be making the Tofu Ricotta and slicing the zucchini.

After you boil your lasagna noodles

After you boil your lasagna noodles, you will want to drain them and then put them in a large dish filled with cold water. This will help them to cool off so you can handle them with your fingers AND so they won’t stick to each other and tear. Learned that from experience….

Fresh or frozen spinach?

I used fresh baby spinach right out of the bag for this recipe to save time. You can saute it before if you want, but I just let it cook in the lasagna in the oven – I did not cook it before. You can use frozen spinach, but make sure you thaw it first and squeeze out the excess moisture. Otherwise your lasagna is going to be very runny!

Related Reading

easy vegan spinach lasagna

Vegan Spinach Lasagna Topping – no cheese needed!

Since this is a whole food plant-based (WFPB) recipe, I didn’t want to use non-dairy cheese. We don’t really like the flavor anyways. But I did want some kind of topping, so I decided to use thinly sliced zucchini and a good sprinkling of Nutritional Yeast (“nooch”) to give it a little crispy, cheesy flavor to the top.

If you aren’t familiar with Nutritional Yeast, it is NOT the same thing as Baker’s Yeast. You can find Nutritional Yeast in your spice/baking aisle at your store and sometimes in the bulk section at places like Whole Foods. It has tons of vitamins & B12 and adds a “cheesy” flavor to recipes.

My kids never even asked about the cheese. Maybe they are starting to come around! My youngest son ate 3 pieces of it and even my picky older son ate his whole serving….with a little prodding to finish the greens. LOL

How to layer your Vegan Spinach Lasagna

There are lots of different variations on how to layer a lasagna depending on what you are using and how many different ingredients you have, but this is what I did for THIS version.

From the bottom to the top:

  • 1 cup of marinara
  • 5 noodles
  • 1 cup marinara
  • 2 cups spinach
  • 5 noodles
  • tofu ricotta mixture
  • 1 cup marinara
  • 5 noodles
  • 1 cup marinara
  • 2 cups baby spinach
  • 5 noodles
  • 1 cup marinara
  • thinly sliced zucchini
  • sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast.

1 cup sauce

vegan spinach lasagna

Layer of Noodles

plant based spinach lasagna recipe

1 cup sauce

whole food plant based lasagna

2 cups baby spinach

whole food plant based lasagna recipe

Layer of noodles

whole grain noodles

Tofu ricotta mixture

non-dairy, tofu ricotta

1 cup sauce

easy vegan lasagna

2 cups baby spinach

simple plant-based lasagna recipe

Layer of noodles

whole food plant based lasagna recipe in 1 hour

1 cup sauce

low sodium, fat free sauce whole food plant based

Thinly sliced zucchini

vegetable lasagna zucchini topping

Sprinkle with nooch (nutritional yeast)

nutritional yeast to add cheese flavor to vegan lasagna

Cover with foil – Bake for 30 min @ 375º, then uncover & bake for 10-15 minutes more

bake vegan lasagna

It does depend on your box of lasagna and how many noodles are in there, but mine only had 19! So annoying! LOL So I made my first layer 4 since that part of the dish is slightly smaller and then did 5 for the other layers. Drives my OCD crazy….

The 5th noodles you put perpendicular and will probably be too long for your dish. I just use my kitchen shears to trim it to fit.

Easy Vegan Spinach Lasagna Ingredients

easy vegan spinach lasagna recipe

If you try this recipe please comment below to let me know how it turned out for you! Share on Facebook or Pinterest, if you liked it!

Easy Vegan Spinach Lasagna Recipe

This easy vegan spinach lasagna recipe comes together really quickly with your favorite marinara sauce and simple tofu ricotta!
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time40 minutes
Total Time1 hour
Course: Dinner
Cuisine: Italian, Nutritarian, Vegan, Whole Food Plant Based
Keyword: dairy free, no oil recipe, spinach lasagna, tofu ricotta, vegan lasagna, wfpb lasagna
Servings: 12
Calories: 234kcal
Author: Kim Murphy

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375º. Bring a large pot of water to boiling and boil lasagna noodles about 8 minutes or until tender.
  • While noodles are cooking, place tofu, 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast, dried basil, dried oregano, garlic powder, dried minced onion, salt, & pepper in a food processor and blend until smooth. Or you can mash & blend in a bowl with a fork if you don't have a food processor (it just won't be as smooth and creamy).
  • When noodles are done, drain and lay flat in a large baking dish full of cold water. This will keep them from sticking to each other and cool them off so you don't burn your fingers.
  • Slice the zucchini into 1/4 inch thin slices.
  • In a 9 X 13 baking dish from the bottom up: layer 1 cup of marinara, 5 noodles, 1 cup marinara, 2 cups spinach, 5 noodles, tofu mixture, 1 cup marinara, 5 noodles, 1 cup marinara, 2 cups baby spinach, 5 noodles, 1 cup marinara, thinly sliced zucchini and then sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast.
  • Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until zucchini is lightly browned.

Nutrition

Calories: 234kcal | Carbohydrates: 44g | Protein: 13g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 231mg | Potassium: 624mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 1434IU | Vitamin C: 15mg | Calcium: 93mg | Iron: 4mg

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