Easy roast vegetable lasagna with ricotta and cottage cheese. Looking for a hearty yet healthy noodle dish? Here is a glorious creamy lasagna with lots of vegetables.

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Vegetarian Ricotta Lasagna
Recipe ingredients
How to make roasted vegetable lasagna?
Can you freeze lasagna?
More lasagna
Roast Vegetable Lasagna with Ricotta

Vegetarian Ricotta Lasagna

I've made this roast vegetable lasagna as a way to deal with some vegetable rests I still had in my fridge, things like a broccoli stem, half a cauliflower, and a few shriveled carrots.

Recipe ingredients

Vegetables

As mentioned above, I only used vegetable leftovers when making this recipe.
I actually don't think I have ever cooked this with anything else but veggies I just happened to have in the fridge. The only thing I have to think about buying is ricotta, which is not something I usually have in the refrigerator.
So, to make this wonderful noodle dish just the way I've made it this time, you will need some onions and garlic, bell peppers (color not important, just make sure you don't have too many green peppers), about ½ a cauliflower head, some broccoli (I used only a leftover thick stem), some carrots and some frozen peas that probably most people have in the freezer.
But you can definitely exchange the veggies for whatever you happen to have in the fridge; the only thing you have to consider is using sturdier kinds of vegetables that can be roasted in the oven.
Fennel, kohlrabi, squash, zucchini, and mushrooms will do the job here as well.
The proposed quantities are also rough suggestions.
Please don't bother weighing everything so exactly: 1 or 2 peppers, half a small cauliflower, some broccoli stem, and 3 or 4 carrots will be fine. I would say about 6-7 cups of chopped vegetables, including frozen peas.

Cheese

You will need three types of cheese to make the roast vegetable lasagna: ricotta, cottage cheese, and grated cheese.

Fresh cheese:

I use ricotta and cottage cheese, both fresh cheese sorts but rather different in taste and texture.
Ricotta is a mild, soft fresh cheese made from cow, sheep, goat, or water buffalo milk. The most common one we get around here is the cow milk ricotta. It tastes a little sweet, is very smooth, and has a little more calories than cottage cheese.
Cottage cheese is lumpier than ricotta and has a sharper taste.

Grated cheese:

As usual, I use Gouda cheese that I grate myself; I prefer to buy a piece of cheese rather than using already grated cheese.
Buying a whole piece of cheese is not only cheaper, but the quality of the cheese is superior; you are sure to have only cheese and not some other stuff added to it. And it tastes better.
If you cannot get Gouda, you can use Cheddar or another sort of mild cheese suitable for casseroles.

Lasagna sheets

I use no-boil lasagna (the Amazon affiliate link opens in a new tab) or oven-ready lasagna sheets; they are the only lasagna sheets I ever use.
They are practical, I always have them in my pantry, and I can skip the step of boiling water and pre-cooking the lasagna sheets.

How to make roasted vegetable lasagna?

Tomato sauce

Start with the tomato sauce, which will have time to simmer while you prepare the rest. I made the tomato sauce from scratch, but you can use the same amount of ready-made tomato sauce if you like.
However, you will probably need about ⅔ of the amount of tomato sauce. As it is rather weird for me to make tomato sauce using only ⅔ large can of tomatoes, I prefer to make a slightly larger batch and refrigerate or freeze the leftovers.
Chop the onion and the garlic finely and cook them lightly in olive oil.
Add the chopped tomatoes and the dried herbs.
Bring everything to a boil, lower the heat, cover, and simmer for about one hour.
Blend the sauce with an immersion blender.
Adjust the taste with sugar, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper.

Roasting vegetables

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius/ 400 degrees Fahrenheit
Chop all the vegetables, except the peas, of course, which will not be roasted either.
Toss them with 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast them until soft and lightly brown, about 40-45 minutes.

Ricotta sauce

Making this cheesy white sauce is much easier than making a regular bechamel sauce, but the result is just as creamy and delicious!
Mix together the ricotta, cream cheese, egg, and salt to taste. Be generous with the salt.

Assemble

Pour a few tablespoons of tomato sauce into a square or rectangular baking dish.
Place a layer of lasagna noodles on top.
Spread evenly some of the ricotta mixture over the noodles.
Add ½ of the roasted veggies.
Repeat one more time: the tomato sauce + lasagna sheets + ½ cheese sauce + ½ of the roasted vegetables.
A layer of lasagna sheets + tomato sauce + all grated cheese.
Refrigerate or freeze the leftover tomato sauce in an airtight container. Use it for other noodle dishes or for adding to soups, stews, or casseroles.

Bake

Cover the casserole with an oiled aluminum foil taking care not to touch the cheese with it. Bake for about 30 minutes.
Remove the foil after about 20 minutes to allow the cheese to get some nice color.
Check that the noodles are done by poking them with a fork.

Can you freeze lasagna?

You can assemble the roast vegetables lasagna and freeze it uncooked. Defrost it in the fridge and cook as instructed. If cooking it from frozen, it will take much longer.
You can freeze the leftovers.
Cool the dish completely and divide it into several portions if you wish to be able to defrost individual portions.
Wrap the pieces into plastic wrap and freeze.
Once frozen, you can transfer the pieces to a large freezer bag or container.

More lasagna

Vegetable Lasagna with White Sauce - another amazing vegetable lasagna recipe, a lasagna I cook on a regular basis.
Butternut Squash Lasagna with Lentils - a vegetarian lasagna to impress guests.
Curried Chicken Lasagna with Pumpkin - another delicious pumpkin lasagna, one of my favorite lasagnas.
Greek Yogurt Lasagna - a lighter and delicious alternative to lasagna bolognese.

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Roast Vegetable Lasagna with Ricotta