Light Yogurt Lasagna

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A light yogurt lasagna with lean ground beef and Greek yogurt, yet nobody will notice that they are not eating the original.

Greek Yogurt Lasagna

This healthy Greek yogurt lasagna is a twist on the traditional bolognese. Just as much taste, but fewer calories due to the yogurt sauce used instead of the Bechamel sauce. And honestly, nobody ever noticed the difference!

I’ve been making the traditional bolognese lasagna for years. It tastes great, everybody loves it! The only thing about it is that I mostly ate it with a bad conscience. I mean ground meat, noodles, and bechamel sauce all in one pot.

A few weeks ago, my son and my cousin who was visiting us, wanted me to make lasagna again. I meant to cook the classic one with bolognese sauce, but incidentally, I had found this recipe for a healthier version just a day or two before on Chefkoch.de.

It had such good reviews that I decided to give it a try and I am so glad I did. It was absolutely great. Nobody noticed anything was different, they all said I make the best lasagna ever and that settled everything.

We do love any kind of lasagna and I have quite a few recipes on the blog to prove it!

Why not try some of our favorite healthier recipes, like the vegetable lasagna with white sauce (yes, this time a real white sauce), another vegetarian one with butternut squash and lentils, or try a low-carb zucchini lasagna with no noodles?

Ingredients

To begin with, you will need the typical ingredients needed for a bolognese dish: ground beef, tomatoes, dried herbs, and pasta sheets. Then, untypically, you will need some low-fat Greek yogurt to make the sauce.

Ground beef:

• Lean ground beef, which has a maximum of 17% fat.
• However, if you don’t care about that, using regular ground beef is fine.

Noodles:

• I always use no-boil lasagna sheets (Amazon affiliate link).

Yogurt:

• Low-fat yogurt, the creamy kind like Greek yogurt, which has 1.8 % fat.

Cheese:

• I am usually not into low-fat cheese, I rarely buy it, but for this recipe, I use a low-fat Gouda cheese, about 12% fat.
• Cheddar cheese can be used instead.
• Or any other kind of cheese you like to use for this kind of dish.
• Again, low-fat is not mandatory, only if you are watching the calories, otherwise use whatever you like.

How to make it?

Meat sauce:

• A typical bolognese sauce needs a couple of hours of cooking time. I do that from time to time, but not in the case of this Greek yogurt lasagna. After browning the meat and the vegetables, the meat sauce will only need about 5 minutes of simmering on the stove.
• Heat the oil and saute the chopped onion, then add garlic and grated carrot. (1)
• Add the ground beef and brown it, breaking the clumps with a wooden spoon while the meat cooks. (2, 3)
• Stir in the tomato paste for 1 minute, then add the canned tomatoes, dried oregano, sweet paprika powder, some salt, and pepper. (4)
• Simmer for 5 minutes and adjust the taste again.

Yogurt sauce:

• Not only that substituting the white sauce with dairy makes the dish lighter and healthier, but the substitution also makes cooking quicker and easier.
• Instead of stirring a white sauce, taking care that it doesn’t get clumpy, and then letting it cook for a while, you just have to stir the dairy with some hot stock and ¾ cup of the grated cheese. It doesn’t get any easier.

How to assemble?

You will need a rectangular casserole dish of about 30×20 cm/12×8 inches.

• Step 1: 2-3 tablespoons of the meat sauce, just enough sauce to thinly cover the bottom of the dish.
• Step 2: Pasta sheets
• Step 3: 1/3 of the meat sauce
• Step 4: 1/3 of the dairy sauce.
• Repeat steps 2 + 3 + 4 : pasta sheets + 1/3 meat sauce + 1/3 dairy sauce.
• Repeat steps 2 + 3 + 4 again: lasagna sheets + 1/3 meat sauce + 1/3 dairy sauce.
• Step 5: Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
• Step 6: Bake for about 30 minutes or until the noodles are cooked through and the cheese is golden brown. Check by inserting a fork in the casserole, the pasta should be soft.

How to serve?

Let the Greek yogurt lasagna set in the dish for about 5 to 10 minutes before slicing it. You can cover it loosely with aluminum foil, if you wish, to make sure it doesn’t lose too much heat. But I usually don’t bother for a few minutes. Slice into squares and serve it with any of the following side dishes:

• green salad (always my first choice)
• tomato salad with onions
• rocket salad
• sauteed spinach
• broccoli salad
• roasted vegetable salad
• black olives
• mozzarella and garlic bread
• herb garlic bread

More recipes using Greek yogurt?

• Egg Salad with Greek Yogurt
• Greek Yogurt Popsicles
• Honey Pears with Greek Yogurt
• Yogurt Bomb with Berries – the best dessert ever!!!
• Yogurt Dressing
• Strawberry Yogurt Cheesecake

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