Recipe: Vegetarian Lasagna with a Surprise Ingredient

Lasagna is the quintessential easy–to–throw–together, comforting, affordable and satisfying dish to serve a crowd. Think of the bubbly cheesiness being cut through by bright tomato sauce and perfectly cooked noodles. It's the perfect food!

This recipe also includes my secret weapon ingredient, which lightens the richness up a smidge and no one will ever know. Can you guess what this mystery item is? Don't knock it till you try it!

The stealth ingredient here is tofu. Now before you get all riled up about how much you dislike tofu and that its inclusion in the recipe is a blasphemy on tradition, I want you to hear me out. Tofu is very good at adapting to the other flavors around it, and its texture when smashed into cheeses is firming. No one but you would actually know that there's tofu in this dish, unless you care to tell them. In this preparation, the mozzarella, ricotta and tofu mixture homogenize to become the most rapturous filling I've ever met in any lasagna. The tofu stabilizes the cheese and adds heft and shape (the pieces stay tall instead of oozing their cheesiness all over the plate). Not to mention, it sneaks in a sliver of zero-cholesterol protein, not that you are all that concerned with these sorts of things when you're sitting down to a plate of comfort food.

This recipe also calls for a jar of tomato sauce. While I'm all for making homemade sauce, occasionally I'll just use a jar I keep in the pantry to make life easier. If you want to go the distance and make your own sauce, by all means, this would be a lovely opportunity to use it but if you're in a jam, here are some recommendations for store-bought from Bon Appetíit.

Vegetarian Lasagna

serves 6-8

1 lb no-boil lasagna noodles
5 cups (usually 1 1/2 jars) of tomato sauce (I like Whole Foods 365 Brand, no added sugars or preservatives)
1 15-ounce package of extra firm tofu
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
3/4 cups shredded Parmesan cheese
1 15-ounce can jarred roasted peppers (or roast 2 red peppers yourself)
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the tofu, ricotta and mozzarella cheese with your hands. Squeeze it to get the mixture even and smooth. Add the smoked paprika and salt and pepper to this cheese/tofu mixture. This may take a few minutes and your hands are the best tool in the kitchen for breaking down the tofu and getting it to evenly incorporate with the cheeses.

Preheat oven to 400. Using a 9 x 13" casserole pan, place about 1 cup of the sauce in the bottom of the pan, smoothing it into a thin layer with the back of a spoon. Layer about 6 noodles onto the bottom of the pan, covering the sauce as best you can. Layer on 1/3 of the jarred peppers. Place 1/3 of the tofu/ricotta mixture onto this bottom pasta/pepper layer, spread it out with your fingers, don't worry if it's not perfectly even (it will melt and become one with the pasta noodles).

Lastly, pour about 1 cup of the tomato sauce onto the cheese mixture, spreading the sauce as evenly as possible (don't stress this too much, as I said before it will all melt to become one yummy slice!). Repeat this process three times, ending with a pasta top. To this final pasta layer, add more sauce and sprinkle the Parmesan cheese all over the top.

Cover in foil and bake for about 45 minutes. Remove foil and broil on high for 3-5 minutes more. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

• Related: How to Make Lasagna

(Images: Leela Cyd Ross)

Comments (18)

I have nothing against tofu, especially not tofu that well incorporated into a recipe. I do question, however, whether I want my lasagna pieces to stay tall rather than ooze all over the plate. The second sounds slightly tastier to me, though it will not stop me from giving this recipe a try.

I'm gonna keep using my lasagne recipe, but I'm giving tofu a try! I love lasagne, but hate how much cheese I have to use. Hopefully this can make it less guilt inducing!

I've made lasagne with tofu before - it's great! You can't taste the tofu and it adds protein to the dish - great for vegetarians :)

I've used tofu in lasagne several times--and no one ever notices. It doesn't affect the flavor and actually makes it seem more cheesy.

My SIL is lactose intolerant, so the (very Italian) family subs tofu for ricotta and other soft cheeses in tons of recipes. Most people can't tell the difference. It suppose it would be a great way to veganize a lot of recipes too.

I use the recipe for lasagne printed on the back of the barilla no-boil lasagne sheets. we don't mix milk and meat, so I use smart ground instead of the cooked sausage called for in the recipe. it works perfectly, and it 'feels' like a meat lasagne, but it isnt!

I lighten my lasagne by loading it with vegetables. Spinach and mushrooms in the sauce, skip a layer of noodles and replace it with zucchini or eggplant, etc. I often skimp on the cheese, as well. It ends up less gooey, but is very flavorful so I don't miss it. I usually prefer a lighter lasagne to the blocks of melted cheese that a lot of restaurants put out. Perhaps next time I'll give tofu a try.

Using small curd cottage cheese in place of ricotta has a similar effect. I like the texture much better!

meanwhile, I'm mildly allergic to tofu and I'd rather not have it in there.

Apparently I need hypnosis to like tofu...

@meplus3: why don't you mix milk & meat?? I'm dying of curiosity!

@katethesnake, meplus3 most likely keeps kosher

I will try this - I have used tofu sour cream in one lasagna recipe that I like to make to try to cut back a bit and that is a really good move - you can't tell in the least. I will try using tofu mixed in with the cheese mixture some time but I think that I will run the tofu through the grater on my food processor first so that it will be extra easy to mix in with the cheese. I tend to use ricotta instead of shredded cheese like the picture so that will work well.

I've totally done the tofu in place of cheese thing in lasagna before, ever since I found this recipe:

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/9772

Don't get me wrong, I love my cheeses, but you don't even miss it here.

Do you know the calorie infor for this recipe?

I've made this recipe three times since it first posted and it's my new favorite go-to potluck dish.

Key additional ingredients: Diced honeycrisp apples and grated zucchini mixed in with the pepper layer! I put apples in everything I make during the fall and it works great here to beef up the dish.

Love the tofu-cheese mixture. Can't beat it. I use double the parm cheese on top and use fresh made ricotta and parm reg from Zingerman's here in Ann Arbor.

Great dish!

when do you add the nutmeg?

I grew up eating lasagna made with cottage cheese mixed with a bit of parmesan, an egg, and dried parsley for the cheesy white layer. Not only does it cut down the richness, but it holds together better (hey, the egg) than ricotta, so the layers don't slide about. Everyone I've made it for has raved about it. Think it came from one of the 70s Better Homes & Gardens red-checker-tablecloths cookbooks.