This dairy-free lasagna with butternut squash is hands down one of my favorite meals of all time.
A hearty mixture of spinach, aromatics, and protein is tossed with a sweet, slightly acidic tomato sauce and then layered in between thinly sliced layers of butternut squash with little pockets of creamy dairy-free ricotta.
What Makes This Dairy-Free Lasagna Different?
Lasagna is the perfect dish for a few reasons. It’s filling, comforting, packed full of flavor, and it makes several servings to enjoy throughout the week.
Leftovers, anyone? (aka… less cooking throughout the week)
Plus, this dairy-free version is also naturally gluten-free (& packed with veggies) thanks to the butternut squash noodles.
Another perk is that it can easily be made vegan. (See the ingredient substitutions section below on all the ways you can customize this recipe.)
This means it’s excellent for those dinners where you have several dietary needs that need to be met and you can fulfill them all by making just one dish.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Avocado or olive oil. Either one of these oils will work to saute the onion and garlic.
- Butternut squash. You preferably want to get a large butternut squash that has a longer neck since this the part that you’ll be slicing into layers.
- Yellow onion. The onion helps to flavor and season the meat mixture.
- Garlic cloves. The garlic adds that great umami flavor.
- Baby spinach. The baby spinach is added for extra nutrients, and color.
- Ground beef. The ground beef pairs really nicely with the butternut squash. (See the substitutions section below for other options.)
- Tomato or pasta sauce. The sweet acid in the tomatoes helps to bring the whole dish together.
- Salt & pepper. Always, for flavor.
- Cashew or almond ‘ricotta’. This dairy-free ricotta adds creaminess and richness similarly to traditional lasagna.
To make sure you don’t waste what’s leftover from the butternut squash you don’t use, remove the seeds and make sweet and spicy roasted butternut squash.
You can add it to the oven in a separate pan when the lasagna goes in. Even though the temperature will be lower than the original recipe, cook it longer (30-35 minutes).
How to Make Dairy-Free Lasagna
Prep the squash noodles
1. Peel the butternut squash and cut just above the bulb. Slice that long piece into four pieces (shown below).
2. Take each of the four pieces of the butternut squash and with the flat side down and secured against the side, safely run them through a mandoline slicer until you’re left with a pile of thin butternut squash noodles. Set aside.
(Use either the safety guard that it comes with or safety gloves to ensure you keep all your fingertips. Mandoline slicers are super sharp.)
Make the filling
1. Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Heat a large pan over medium heat, add the oil and the onion and garlic. Cook until the onion is translucent and the garlic is fragrant, stirring occasionally about 3-5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Add the meat and cook until browned. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Once the meat has browned, add the fresh spinach. (It’ll look like a lot at first, but it cooks way down.) When the spinach has wilted, remove from the heat, and add the tomato sauce, reserving about 1 cup for the bottom of the pan and the top of the lasagna.
4. Make the ricotta cheese.
5. Make the lasagna layers.
6. Bake for 1 hour.
How to Layer Lasagna
Add a small amount of sauce to the bottom of a 9×13 pan. Now alternate the squash noodles and the meat and spinach mixture, adding the dairy-free ‘ricotta’ to one of the meat and spinach layers (in dollops or spread out) until you’ve used all the noodles and the filling.
After the final layer of noodles, add the reserved tomato sauce and the remainder of the ‘ricotta’ (optional, but recommended).
Important to note:
It really doesn’t matter how many layers you have. I typically end up with three layers of the butternut squash and two of the spinach filling mixture.
I also only add the ricotta to just one of the filling layers and reserve the rest for the top to form sort of a crust. However, you can also add the ricotta to every filling layer and only top it with the reserved tomato sauce.
Make this recipe work for you.
Ingredient Substitutions
No butternut squash? ➝ If you’re unable to get butternut squash where you live or they’re out of season, you can also use regular lasagna pasta noodles or sub thinly sliced sweet potatoes.
No yellow onion? ➝ You can use shallot instead, you’ll just likely need more than 1 since you need about a cup.
Don’t eat red meat? ➝ Ground chicken or ground turkey also works really well in this dairy-free lasagna.
Need to make it vegan? ➝ Use brown or green lentils. You’ll need about 2 to 2 1/2 cups cooked lentils and you can add them when you’d add the meat in.
Can’t eat nuts? ➝ You can substitute garlic hummus for the dairy-free ‘ricotta’ to make it nut and seed free. If using this option, only add it to the filling and not on top as well.
Not a baby spinach fan? ➝ You can also use baby kale, chard, or lacinato/dino, or curly kale. If using the larger leaves like chard or kale, make sure to cut them into small pieces.
Consume dairy? ➝ Feel free to use real ricotta.
Helpful Recipe Tips
- For full transparency, this recipe takes a bit of prep work, but once it’s in the oven it’s completely hands-off.
- To save time, make the ‘ricotta’ cheese a day or two ahead of time. For an even quicker option, you can also use store-bought. (Kite hill is the store-bought dairy-free ricotta I’d recommend.)
- Slightly overlap the butternut squash noodle edges. If I have some smaller pieces, I just practice my Tetris skills and fit them in where I can so that it forms a ‘layer’. (see photo below)
- Use a mandoline slicer. While you technically can cut the butternut squash by hand, it’s pretty hard to get evenly sliced pieces with a knife. The more evenly sliced the squash is the more consistently it’ll be cooked throughout the lasagna (aka no crunchy squash bites).
Dairy-Free Lasagna with Butternut Squash (Gluten-Free, Vegan Option)
Ingredients
- 1 large butternut squash peeled & sliced into thin sheets
- 1 tbsp olive or avocado oil
- 1 small onion (about 1 cup), diced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound ground beef or substitution
- 5 cups fresh baby spinach or another leafy green
- 25.5 oz jar pasta sauce
- 1 cup homemade dairy-free ricotta or store-bought
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Prep the Squash Noodles
- Peel the butternut squash and cut just above the bulb. Slice that long piece into four pieces.
- Take each of the four pieces of the butternut squash and with the flat side down and secured against the side, safely run them through a mandoline slicer* (see notes) until you're left with a pile of thin butternut squash noodles. Set aside.
Make the Filling
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Heat a large pan over medium heat, add the oil and the onion and garlic. Cook until the onion is translucent and the garlic is fragrant, stirring occasionally about 3-5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add the meat and cook until browned. Season with salt and pepper.
- Once the meat has browned, add the fresh spinach. (It'll look like a lot at first, but it cooks way down.) When the spinach has wilted, remove from the heat, and add the tomato sauce, reserving about 1 cup for the bottom of the pan and the top of the lasagna.
Layer the Lasagna
- Add a small amount of sauce to the bottom of a 9×13 pan. Now alternate the squash noodles (slightly overlapping them) and the meat and spinach mixture, adding the dairy-free 'ricotta' to one of the meat and spinach layers until you've used all the noodles and the filling.
- After the final layer of noodles, add the rest of the reserved tomato sauce and the remainder of the 'ricotta' (optional, but recommended).
- Bake uncovered for 1 hour.
Notes
- *Use either the safety guard that it comes with or safety gloves to ensure you keep all your fingertips. Mandoline slicers are super sharp.
- It really doesn’t matter how many layers of lasagna you have. I typically end up with three layers of the butternut squash and two of the spinach filling mixture.
- If you want a thicker lasagna, you can use a smaller pan and make more layers.
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