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Aromatic red lentil bolognese, spicy béchamel sauce, soft pasta sheets, creamy cashew sauce, fresh zucchini and tomato slices – it’s all layered in this vegan lasagna. It tastes incredibly delicious and is perfect for lunch or dinner. Here I show you how to easily make the classic lasagna yourself in a vegan version. You can find a detailed vegan lasagna recipe with exact quantities and step-by-step instructions right below.
How does classic lasagna go vegan?
You can easily prepare the classic lasagna in a vegan version. The vegan lasagna tastes no less delicious – even better – than the original, is healthy and filling. The bolognese is made with red lentils. For the béchamel sauce, all you have to do is replace cow’s milk with plant milk and butter with vegan margarine – and you have a vegan béchamel sauce. The cheese sauce is prepared for the vegan lasagna with cashews and tastes very creamy. With this, you have all the main ingredients for the classic vegan lasagna ready and can start layering.
Vegetarian lasagna with homemade lasagna sheets
I had prepared the vegan lasagna with homemade lasagna sheets. It tastes best with that, I think. Besides, it’s pretty easy to make lasagna sheets yourself. In the post How to make pasta dough: Recipe for homemade noodles without egg, I show you how to do it. The pasta dough is made without egg in this recipe, so the lasagna sheets are vegan. It is important that you pre-cook the homemade lasagna sheets for about 2 minutes and then let them dry. This is because without pre-cooking, they will taste very doughy in the lasagna, as they will not be fully cooked. Depending on how thick you have rolled out the dough, pre-cooking can take shorter or longer.
Serve vegan lasagna
In terms of taste, this vegetarian lasagna is guaranteed to impress not only vegans. It consists of healthy vegetables, filling lentils, creamy sauces and is incredibly delicious. Serve it with fresh herbs, for example, finely chopped parsley. It tastes best right after preparation. Let the vegetarian lasagna cool a bit and cut it while it is still warm. It’s an ideal full meal that you can serve for lunch or dinner. But the vegan lasagna will still be delicious for the next couple of days. Keep it in the refrigerator over the days. You can then warm it up a bit in the oven before serving.
What can I prepare in advance?
You can cook the red lentil bolognese and the béchamel sauce the day before, as well as mix the cashew sauce, and store everything in the refrigerator overnight. Then the next day you just layer the lasagna and bake it in the oven. This way you can make this vegan lasagna even if you don’t have much time for cooking, but still want to conjure up something delicious and healthy on the dinner table.
This lasagna is
- vegan,
- healthy,
- filling,
- aromatic,
- incredibly delicious,
- with red lentil bolognese,
- with béchamel sauce,
- with cashew cheese sauce,
- with zucchini,
- easy to prepare from common ingredients,
- perfect for lunch or dinner,
- a popular classic in vegetarian version.
How to make vegan lasagna: the recipe
The exact quantities and step-by-step instructions for making the vegan lasagna yourself can be found below in the box recipe.
For the vegetarian lasagna you first have to prepare the red lentil bolognese, the vegan béchamel sauce and the cashew sauce. Then you can layer the lasagna and bake it in the oven. You don’t need any extraordinary ingredients for the lasagna recipe.
For the red lentil bolognese you need
- red lentils,
- carrots,
- strained tomatoes and some tomato paste,
- onion and garlic,
- vegetable stock
- and salt, pepper for seasoning
- and vegetable oil for frying.
For the béchamel sauce you will need
- vegetable milk (for example, almond or soy milk),
- vegan margarine,
- some flour to thicken the sauce
- and salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste.
For the cashew sauce (vegan cheese sauce) you will need
- cashews
- yeast flakes (they give the cheese flavor to the sauce),
- water,
- salt and pepper.
Instead of making cashew sauce, you can just buy vegan grated cheese and sprinkle it on the lasagna.
Otherwise you will need for the lasagna
- lasagna sheets,
- zucchini
- and tomatoes.
You can replace zucchini with other vegetables or with mushrooms – depending on your preferences. Or you can just leave it out.
How to make your own vegan lasagna
- For the red lentil bolognese, fry finely chopped onion and garlic briefly in vegetable oil, add diced carrots and tomato market and fry for another 5 minutes or so. Add lentils, strained tomatoes and vegetable stock and simmer for about 15 minutes until lentils are cooked. Season the lentil bolognese with salt and pepper.
- For the béchamel sauce, melt vegan margarine in a pan, add flour and whisk. Add vegetable milk and simmer until sauce is thickened. Season to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
- For the cashew sauce, blend all ingredients until creamy.
- Layer the lasagna as follows: first some red lentil bolognese, then lasagna sheet, red lentil bolognese again, zucchini slices and béchamel sauce, lasagna sheet again, and so on. Spread tomato slices on the top of the lasagna and top with cashew sauce. Bake the vegan lasagna at 180 °C for about 40 minutes. Ready!
Vegan lasagna: with these tips and tricks you’ll get it perfect
- You can leave out zucchini. You can use other vegetables or mushrooms instead.
- The cooking time of the lentil bolognese given in the recipe may vary. Pay attention to the cooking time indicated on the package of the lentils.
- If the red lentil bolognese becomes too thick while cooking before the lentils are done, add some more vegetable broth.
- It’s best to make the vegetable broth for the lasagna yourself. That way you avoid unhealthy additives and flavor enhancers in your lasagna that are in store-bought instant vegetable broth.
- As a vegetable milk for the béchamel sauce go, for example, almond milk, coconut milk, soy milk, oat milk or lupin drink. Homemade plant milk tastes best.
- It is better to use organic margarine for the sauce.
- When preparing the cashew sauce, you can add water in portions to achieve the desired consistency of the sauce.
- Yeast flakes add cheese flavor to the cashew sauce.
- You can add more spices to the cashew sauce according to your taste.
- Use a powerful blender to blend the cashew sauce so that you get a creamy and homogeneous sauce.
- Instead of making cashew sauce, you can simply use vegan grated cheese.
- To bake the lasagna, you’ll need a lasagna or casserole dish measuring about 17 x 27 cm.
Have you made vegan lasagna according to this recipe? I look forward to your result, your star rating and your comment on the recipe below, how it turned out and tasted to you.
Craving for more delicious vegan main dishes? How about
- Avocado pasta – quick recipe for vegan noodles with avocado
- How to make Poke Bowl – vegan recipe with sesame sauce
- Red lentil dal – recipe for popular Indian vegan dish
- Ramen soup – vegan recipe for popular Japanese noodle soup
Vegan lasagna classic
Equipment
- approx. 17 x 27 cm lasagne dish
Ingredients
- approx. 3 - 9 homemade or purchased lasagne sheets
- approx. 350 g zucchini
- approx. 200 g tomatoes
for red lentil bolognese
- 250 g red lentils
- 150 g carrots
- 500 g strained tomatoes
- 40 g tomato market
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- approx. 300 ml vegetable broth
- salt
- pepper
- vegetable oil (for frying)
for the béchamel sauce
- 500 ml vegetable milk
- 30 g vegan margarine
- 40 g flour
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- salt
- pepper
for the cashew sauce
- 80 g cashews
- 10 g yeast flakes
- 120 ml water
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
Preparation of the red lentil bolognese
- Cut carrots into small cubes, onion into small pieces and chop garlic finely.
- Fry onions and garlic together in a pan in vegetable oil for about 2 minutes, until onions become translucent.
- Add carrots and tomato paste and fry over medium heat, stirring, for about 5 minutes.
- Add red lentils, strained tomatoes and vegetable broth, stir thoroughly, bring to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes (or depending on the cooking time of the lentils indicated on the package) until the lentils are cooked and the mixture has thickened. If it gets too thick before the lentils are cooked, add some more vegetable broth. Season the lentil bolognese with salt and pepper and let it cool.
Preparation of the béchamel sauce
- Melt vegan margarine in a pan, add flour and mix.
- Add plant milk and stir it thoroughly until there are no lumps. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer until thickened, about 7 minutes.
- Season the sauce with salt, pepper, lemon juice, take it off the heat and let it cool.
Preparation of the cashew sauce
- Put cashews, yeast flakes and water in a blender and puree everything to a creamy sauce. Season with salt and pepper.
Preparation of the lasagna
- Cut the zucchini and tomatoes into thin slices.
- Spread some red lentil bolognese on the bottom of the lasagna dish, put one (or more side by side) lasagna sheet on top, again spread the red lentil bolognese on the lasagna sheet, then zucchini slices and spread them with the béchamel sauce, put another lasagna sheet on top and repeat all other layers. Layer the lasagna like this until all the ingredients are used up or the baking dish is full.
- Spread tomato slices on top of the lasagna and pour a little cashew sauce over them.
- Bake the vegan lasagna in a preheated oven at 180 °C for about 40 minutes.
Notes
- Instead of zucchini goes other vegetables or mushrooms.
- The cooking time of the lentil bolognese given in the recipe may vary. Pay attention to the cooking time indicated on the packaging of the lentils.
- If the red lentil bolognese becomes too thick while cooking, before the lentils are done, add some more vegetable broth.
- When making the cashew sauce, add water in batches to achieve the desired consistency of the sauce.
- Store-bought vegan grated cheese works instead of homemade cashew sauce.
- Note the detailed tips and tricks for preparing vegan lasagna at the top of the post.