The Best Vegan Lasagna Recipe

The best easy vegan lasagna made with real food ingredients. No one can tell this lasagna is dairy, egg, and soy-free.

This vegan lasagna recipe tastes just like the classic recipe we all know and love. It’s warm, bubbly, and comforting. Almond based ricotta is nestled between layers of lasagna noodles, eggplant, zucchini, and marinara.

Whether you’re vegan, plant-based, paleo, have a dairy-intolerance (most people have trouble digesting lactose after infancy, according to Physicians Committee), or want to eat a little greener, this vegan lasagna recipe is one you need in your repertoire.  If you’re looking for a vegetarian, rather than vegan, lasagna, head over to my Heirloom Tomato & Greens Lasagna, Spring Vegetable & Goat Cheese Lasagna, Pumpkin and Chard Lasagna , or Veggie Lasagna Cupcakes.

Making vegetarian lasagna is easy, right? Just leave out the meat. In fact, I almost forget that anyone puts meat in lasagna at all. The real question is how to replace the cheese in traditional lasagna. The ricotta filling has been an important part of all the lasagna recipes I’m made in the past.

Enter my vegan almond based ricotta cheese. Remember I said this lasagna was made with real food, not processed ingredients? That’s because this ricotta is made with raw almonds! If you don’t have a good blender, or want to take a shortcut, I recommend Kite Hill’s ricotta but you’ll probably need 1-2 packages.

For this vegan lasagna recipe I like the ricotta to have even more flavor, so I double the truffle oil and salt, toss in a couple of garlic cloves, and a little fresh parsley. This vegan ricotta is so good, that I can’t resist licking the spoon. When I made this homemade vegan ricotta again for this lasagna, I was reminded that you’ve got to keep blending longer than you think to get a really cream consistency. Just keep going until it’s just like ricotta.

I make this vegan lasagna just the way I usually made my vegetarian lasagna – with lots of beautiful vegetables like roasted eggplant, zucchini, and roasted red peppers. I slice the zucchini thinly with a vegetable peeler, so it doesn’t need to be roasted like the eggplant does. A jar of drained roasted red peppers ads flavor and I also love to add some capers (not shown) for a salty, briny bite.

To assemble the lasagna, spread tomato sauce on the bottom of a baking dish. Next we top with a layer of the veggies.

Then the lasagna noodles. I used no-boil noodles because I’m lazy so busy, but you have options here. You could use whole wheat noodles, gluten-free noodles, or simply use zucchini slices instead of the noodles for a paleo lasagna. I never thought I’d hear the words paleo and lasagna together, but there you have it.

I have also used store-bought marinara sauce here, again, to keep this recipe as easy as possible. If you find yourself with an abundance of tomatoes, you must try my Fresh Tomato Marinara! As the sauce adds a lot to the flavor of this lasagna, you’ll want to make sure to use a good quality one. I prefer a sauce that’s not too chunky here. If you have a good local marinara you love, go with that!

Can we just take a moment to look at that creamy, spreadable, dreamy ricotta that’s actually almonds? It’s so exciting to me to learn how to make comforting favorites with new ingredients.

Once we have finished layering the lasagna with sauce, vegetables, noodles, and vegan ricotta, it goes into the oven for about an hour until nice and bubbly.

This vegan lasagna can be made ahead and reheated until warm. Leftovers make a delicious lunch the next day.

Don’t miss the short video!