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I made this dish especially for Cam who was craving a good classic lasagna with white sauce and cheese. This recipe is essentially a classic beef lasagna recipe with lentils instead of beef mince and is wonderfully scrumptious comfort food.
The flavours and texture work great together; try it out on your meat eating friends or family and see if they can taste the difference!! A great dish for those new to vegetarianism or anyone wanting to reduce meat from their diet; it sure hits the spot as far as lasagna cravings go : )
I used ready-made lasagna sheets but if you would like to make your own pasta the recipe here will work a treat!!
Preparation time: 55mins
Serves 4-6
- 1½ cup brown lentils
- 3 cups water
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 brown onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, diced
- 1 large carrot, grated
- 250g (9 oz) of cherry tomatoes, halved
- 2 vegetable stock cubes (I used no animal content ‘beef’ stock cubes)
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 tbs red wine
- ½ cup tomato paste
- 50g (2 oz) butter (dairy or non-dairy)
- ¼ cup plain flour
- 350ml (12 fl oz) milk (diary or non-dairy)
- ½ cup vegetarian parmesan or sharp tasty cheese, grated
- 8 lasagne sheets
Rinse the lentils until the water runs clean. Bring the lentils, water and bay leaves to the boil; simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 210°C (410°F)
Meanwhile heat a small amount of olive oil in a large frypan. Add the onion and cook for 1-2 minutes until soft.
Add the garlic and cook for a further minute until fragrant. Add the carrot and cherry tomatoes, stock cubes, sugar, wine and tomato paste and simmer over low heat for 5 minutes.
Add the lentils to the sauce with remaining liquid and continue to simmer for 10-15 minutes; season with salt and pepper to taste.
To make the white sauce melt the butter in a medium saucepan over a low heat; add the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes until combined. Remove from the heat and gradually add milk, stirring until smooth. Return to the heat and slowly bring to the boil over a gentle heat, cook for 10 minutes until sauce starts to thicken. Season with salt and pepper.
In a large baking dish layer the lentils with the sauce and cheese and then top with lasagna sheets. Continue to layer finishing with a layer of cheese.
Bake in the pre-heated oven for 30-35mins until golden on top.
Serve with a simple green salad for a delicious main meal.
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Thank you for the wonderful recipe, Trudy!
I was looking for a good, healthier lasagna to make yesterday evening. This one was perfect. Everyone raved and went for seconds. I love how “rich” the lentil sauce turned out. The only things I changed to the recipe were to substitute tomato sauce for the fresh tomatoes and to add freshly grated nutmeg to the bechamel. Delish!
Sounds great! But is 210 not too low of a temperature?
Claudia so glad you all enjoyed the lentil lasagna, it really is just as good (or better) then the traditional meat variety :) Thanks so much for the feedback, I love to hear how people have adapted and cooked the recipes to their liking!! Cheers!!
Oana I forgot to include the temperature in Fahrenheit, sorry, I have amended the recipe, hope this is helpful!! :)
Tried this recipe tonight, it was wonderful. Thanks for the recipe!
Really good :)
So glad you both like the Lasagna Jessi & Saga :)
I loved this so much I had two servings for dinner – yummy
Made this tonight. While the flavors were outstanding, I found it to be a little dry. I didn’t pre-cook my noodles (I never do in lasagna, the filling always cooks them for me) but in this case the filling didn’t have enough moisture and the noodles didn’t fully cook.
I’d recommend putting more wine into the lentil mixture to give it some more juices, and pre-cooking your lasagna sheets.
Otherwise, really excellent recipe.
Hi Conor, thanks for the feedback. Always very useful to hear from other people and their experiences with the recipes!! Cheers and I hope it turns out perfect next time :)
I made this lasagne and it went down a storm with my entire family including my very fussy vegetarian daughter. I used tinned chopped tomatoes and added some nutmeg to the bechamel. I would add a little more milk to the bechamel next time and put some over the top layer of pasta prior to the parmesan to ensure it cooks properly. This is now firmly in my family favourites pile – it’s healthy and economical too. Thank you.
Hi Sally! So great to hear you and your family enjoyed the veggie lasagna, it is a favourite in our house too :) and thanks for the great feedback on your own version of the recipe!!
This recipe turned out deliciously!
I served it to a meat-eating friend of mine and he had nothing but good things to say. Rich, tasty, filling, looks beautiful when cooked, and not a bother to prepare! I will definitely be making this again. Thanks!
That’s wonderful to hear Christina, this dish really is one of those great options to serve to non-veggies, very happy to hear you both enjoyed it and thanks so much for the great feedback :)
Hi, new to cooking and vegetarianism so really keen to try out some of your recipes! Sorry for being ignorant, but what exactly do you mean by tomato paste?
Hi Jessie, welcome to Veggie num num :) hope you find lots of inspiration for simple and delicious veggie cooking here! Tomato paste is a tomato sauce concentrate that should be readily able to buy from your local grocery store/supermarket in the sauce section. It is usually available in bottles or in single (2tbs) serves. I’m sure you will be able to locate some and I hope you enjoy this and lots of other Veggie num num recipes!!
I think I’ve made 3 of your recipes in a week’s span haha! Made this for dinner tonight but cheated a bit with a jar of good quality passata…ran out of lentils :( but added a layer of thinly sliced roast pumpkin and spinach instead! yum yum yum!!
This lasagne was great. I made a few changes- used a tin of cherry tomatoes instead of fresh ones (which were sweet and delicious), and added about 2/3 cups red wine. I also used green lentils instead as I didn’t have any brown ones and 3 heaped teaspoons of vege stock powder instead of the beef cubes. Next time I would add an additional jar of tomato sauce, as I think it could be even more saucy than it was. I also doubled the amount of (soy) milk for the cheese sauce, and added a handful of parmesan and pinch of nutmeg in it as well. I baked at 180 degrees fanforced for 25 mins and this was just right. Excellent dish!
Thank you for the inspiration. I made a huge pot of Lentil Bolognese in the slow cooker today and turned half of it into lasagna tonight. Perfect for another cold winter night. I get inspired to cook when I visit your blog. Thank you.
I’ve been eating and cooking vegetarian for about a year now and have been looking for some new ideas and inspiration. I made this lasagna tonight and it was absolutely delicious, a big hit in our household. Your recipes all look amazing and I can’t wait to make some more. Thanks for the inspiration!
Hi Trudy I’m 14 and recently became a vegetarian and i just wanted to say thank you so much for this recipe! I cooked it for all my little siblings and they all enjoyed it except i used non-alcoholic red wine :)
I was at first hesitant to make this as i had never enjoyed eating lasagne but WOW i really liked this!! I’ve written it into my recipe book and tonight I’m making another meal from your site. Thank you :)
Hello lovely people and thank you so very much for the great feedback on this recipe!! Makes me super happy to know you are all enjoying this and other recipes here on Veggie num num!! Hope you’ll continue to find lots of veggie inspiration in all the new recipes :D xo