Spinach Mushroom Lasagna

One of my favorite casserole-style meals has always been lasagna. And this vegan Spinach Mushroom Lasagna with homemade cashew ricotta is a total comfort food win. One dish meal, and loaded with good stuff…

Family Meals

I’ve always loved lasagna. Maybe it was because I was obsessed with Garfield comics when I was a kid and I wanted to devour a cheesy lasagna just like my fave fat kitty cat. Or maybe it’s just because I grew up in an Italian household with lots of pasta dishes on the menu. Whatever the draw, lasagna is a recipe that always delivers for me, both on flavor and comfort food appeal!

Perfect for these quarantine days.

No Boil Noodles

I actually really love using no-boil noodles in vegan lasagna. They may seem like a cheat ingredients that would lend to a sub-par noodle or texture, but I don’t think that’s the case. I actually think using no-boil noodles enhances the flavor since the noodles are not cooking in water, but rather all the saucy goodness already in your lasagna! You can absolutely use either option for this recipe, but I did in fact use no boil noodles in my own prep.

No-boil saves you at least twenty minutes and you don’t have to hassle with cooked noodles that tend to stick together.

Vegan Ricotta Cheese

For the vegan ricotta, you have three options…

• cashew ricotta (what I used)
• tofu ricotta
• store-bought vegan ricotta

Cashew Ricotta

I love tofu ricotta, but cashew ricotta is super in a veggie-heavy recipe like this because it adds a real richness to the entire dish. Plus, the tart and tangy, bright accent of lemon juice in the ricotta contrasts really well with the warm pasta and cheese flavors.

Mozzarella Cheese

For vegan lasagna, you have plenty of shredded cheese options these days.

I just happened to use Violife brand for my lasagna. But there are so many vegan options for mozzarella cheese. Choose whatever brand you like the best! Other brands include:

• follow your heart
• Miyoko’s (which is crazy good)
• So Delicious
• Daiya
• Violife
• And more

Check out my cheese for vegan pizza review to browse vegan mozzarella options!

Lasagna with Pesto

Looking for another spin on vegan lasagna? This is it!! This is one of my all-time faves both here on the blog and in my cookbook, HHVK, Lasagna Verde! It uses pesto in place of the marinara sauce…

All the Veggies

The thing about lasagna is that is is super versatile in terms of accent ingredients. Once you have the noodles and sauce, feel free to get creative with fillings!

While today I’m sharing a spinach mushroom lasagna, you actually don’t have to use spinach and mushrooms. You could try kale or cauliflower, even broccoli or chard. Whatever you think tastes good with tomato sauce and cheese accents works in lasagna. I personally love the earthiness of the mushrooms and garlic paired with the green flavor of the spinach.

Should You Cook Veggies First?

YES! You could just toss raw mushrooms and spinach into the layers of lasagna, but they will shrink significantly when cooking – leading to less veggie-packed layers in the end. I definitely would skillet-cook your mushrooms first.

For the spinach, cooking is optional. I actually usually cook it first, but experimented with just layering in raw spinach this time and didn’t like the results as much. Cooking spinach first means you can add a lot more of it to the layers – since spinach shrinks down SO MUCH when cooking.

This is also my practice for when I do spinach enchiladas.