This Easy Spinach Lasagna is a smaller batch lasagna recipe made with no boil noodles. It’s a great, quick and easy weeknight dinner recipe!
If you’re looking for a traditional, tall layer lasagna that is filled with meats and cheeses and marinara sauce then this isn’t the lasagna you’re looking for. This Easy Spinach Lasagna is quite a bit lighter and it’s a lower fat option when compared to a classic beef lasagna. It’s divided by layers of spinach and ricotta cheese, and it uses a white sauce instead of red. It’s a good one for vegetarians because it’s a vegetarian lasagna!
How to make Easy Spinach Lasagna:
Since this is a smaller batch lasagna, you will need an 11×7-inch dish for this recipe. Amazon can deliver the one that I linked for you the same day in many cities. I love that convenience!
First you’ll make the white sauce. Onions are sautéed, and then flour is stirred in. 1% milk, kosher salt and pepper are added last. The sauce is heated until slightly thickened and hot (about 5 minutes.) One cup of sauce is spread into the bottom of the pan, then 3 no-boil lasagna noodles are laid on top. Half of the ricotta filling is spread on top of the noodles (a mix of ricotta, spinach, egg white and nutmeg). Then layer one more cup of sauce, more lasagna noodles, the rest of the filling, and another cup of sauce. The remaining noodles are placed on top and the remaining sauce too. Continue reading for optional cheese add-ins. Print the full recipe at the end of this post.
Optional add-ins and substitutions:
- Since this recipe is designed to be much lighter than the lasagna you’re probably used to eating, it doesn’t have extra cheeses in it. If you want this lasagna to be cheesy, it’s totally okay to add shredded mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese to each layer. Add it to the top too. It will be extra cheesy this way!
- Another good add-in would be to add cooked Italian sausage or ground beef. This means it won’t be strictly a vegetable lasagna anymore, but that’s totally your choice.
- Add some minced garlic to the sauce to give it a punch of garlic flavor. Be sure to give the sauce a good dose of black pepper too.
- Whole milk ricotta may be used in place of fat-free, if not worried about calories!
Does spinach need to be cooked before putting into lasagna?
For this recipe, you’ll be using frozen spinach, and it does not need to be cooked before using it in the recipe. Simply thaw the frozen spinach, and then squeeze it dry to eliminate any additional moisture.
How do you make spinach lasagna less watery?
Don’t use fresh spinach to make spinach lasagna. That’s specifically what will make the end result more watery. Fresh spinach has a lot of moisture in it, and there is no way to extract that moisture when it’s cooked right into the lasagna. Using frozen spinach gives you a chance to squeeze the extra moisture out of it, resulting in a nicely cooked lasagna without the watery result.
The recipe makes 6 servings. If you’re a hungry bunch, it’s perfect for three people with room for a second helping. And if you’re a couple, it’s a good one for enjoying lunch leftovers the following day.
Weight Watchers friendly lasagna:
As written, this Easy Spinach Lasagna is one that works for the Weight Watchers WW plan. The lasagna should be cut into 6 equal servings. You’ll need to input the recipe ingredients into the nutrition facts on your WW calculator to get accurate points. It’s probably a hefty point count to use, but it’s since it’s pasta then that makes it higher. Any additional (optional) cheeses or meats that you add to the lasagna should be counted as extra points.
Here are a few more recipes using spinach that you might like to try:
Easy Spinach Lasagna
Ingredients
SAUCE:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ¼ cup finely chopped onion
- 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 4 cups 1% milk
- salt and pepper, to taste
FILLING:
- 15 ounces fat free ricotta cheese
- 10 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
- 1 large egg white
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
NOODLES & TOPPING
- 9 no-boil lasagna noodles
- grated Parmesan cheese, for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Heat the oil in a nonstick saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until slightly wilted, about 3 minutes. Add the flour, stirring until blended. Whisk in the milk and bring to a boil. Boil until the white sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat. Add salt and pepper, to taste.
- Meanwhile, combine the ricotta cheese, spinach, egg white and nutmeg in a bowl. Spoon 1 cup of the sauce onto the bottom of an 11×7-inch baking dish. Arrange 3 noodles over the sauce. Spread ½ of the ricotta mixture evenly over the noodles. Top with 1 cup sauce. Layer 3 more noodles, the remaining ricotta mixture, and 1 cup sauce. Top with the remaining noodles and sauce. Bake, uncovered, until hot and bubbly, 20 to 25 minutes.
Notes
- If you want a cheesy element to this lasagna, add shredded mozzarella and Parmesan between layers and on top. Note that the nutritional information will change with added cheeses.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I hope tastes better than it looks. I couldn’t get the sauce to thicken.I followed the recipe to the T.
How did it end up? Like the photos?
SAME, my sauce would not thicken up, I boiled it for 10 minutes. Just to see If that would work. Nope, but I cooked it anyways.
It was great. My sauce was runny so I just made a roux with 2T butter and 2T in a separate pot and added it to the sauce – perfect. Also I didn’t have any nutmeg so I used a little garam masala.