This Slow Cooker Lasagna recipe has just 5 ingredients! It’s such an easy, family friendly meal perfect for busy days.
This simple dinner recipe is a big hit in my house. And I’m so happy to have a slow-cooker recipe that I can use for busy days where I don’t have time to cook. How cool is it that a slow cooker can make lasagna for you? Yes. Very cool, indeed! You do not need any experience in the kitchen to make this recipe!
Ingredients Needed:
- cottage cheese or ricotta cheese
- shredded mozzarella cheese
- jarred marinara sauce
- lean ground beef
- lasagna noodles- you do not need to cook them!
How to make Slow Cooker Lasagna:
The complete, printable recipe is at the end of this post.
- Place the cottage cheese and mozzarella cheese in a medium bowl and stir to combine.
- Add a thin layer of pasta sauce to the bottom of a slow cooker. Add a thin layer of the cooked ground beef and a layer of the noodles, breaking the noodles to make them fit. Top the noodle layer with a layer of the cheese mixture. Repeat until all of the ingredients are used, ending with a layer of sauce.
- Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Serve hot.
Recipe Tips
- Add in frozen chopped spinach, squeezed dry. Add in chopped mushrooms. Use sausage in place of ground beef. Be creative!
- As the lasagna comes out of the oven, sprinkle a little more mozzarella cheese on top, as well as some chopped fresh parsley. That will make it look pretty!
What is the Best Slow Cooker?
The slow cooker that I’ve bought over and over again is the Hamilton Beach Portable 6 Quart Digital Programmable Slow Cooker. It’s the absolute best. I gift it to everyone too. If you want to make two kinds of lasagna at the same time in your slow cooker, buy this silicone divider set!
What I Love About This Recipe:
- It’s a no-brainer, EASY dinner recipe.
- We love lasagna, but sometimes we don’t want to do all of the work to make a classic lasagna.
- This is on my list of repeat-slow cooker recipes for busy weeknights!
Best Slow Cooker Recipes:
Slow Cooker Lasagna
Ingredients
- 1 pound cottage cheese (can sub ricotta cheese)
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- Two 26-ounce jars marinara sauce
- 2 pounds lean ground beef, cooked and drained
- One 9-ounce package lasagna noodles
Instructions
- Place the cottage cheese and mozzarella cheese in a medium bowl and stir to combine.
- Add a thin layer of pasta sauce to the bottom of a slow cooker. Add a thin layer of the cooked ground beef and a layer of the noodles, breaking the noodles to make them fit. Top the noodle layer with a layer of the cheese mixture. Repeat until all of the ingredients are used, ending with a layer of sauce.
- Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Serve hot.
Notes
- Choose a type of marinara sauce that has garlic and Italian spices mixed in.
- Possible add-in: Frozen, defrosted spinach, squeezed dry.
- Substitution/additions: Ricotta cheese, ground turkey.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi there and thank you for this easy lasagna!!! Mine turned out pretty good except it was really watery – and impossible to get out of the slow cooker in a lasagna square….I was worried about the latter….not the former. Any idea how to avoid the soupiness next time? And HOW does yours actually look like lasagna? Mine looked like Lasagna Helper! Just a mess. But tasty….next time I will spice mine up with some better sauce (didn’t see your note on that until after I was done)…..or if I just have plain marinara again I will add some spices and garlic or something. Thanks again!
My guess is that you must have used a marinara sauce that was more on the thin side?
My 8 year old son called this the best lasagna ever. I’m not sure that it deserves the honor of “best ever” but I’m happy to have pleased my picky kid. I’ll be making this again as it couldn’t be easier to make.
I LOVED this recipe! Soo easy, and its really nice to have a lower fat lasagna that I can have ready when I get home late. I found a veggie lasagna recipe that I want to try, but I’d like to adapt it for the slow cooker. However, I am totally ignorant as to how to do it. The veggie lasagna I found bakes a total of 40 mins in the oven, and has zucchini, carrots, yellow squash and broccoli in it. If anyone can offer some help as to how long this veggie version needs to cook in the slow cooker or any other suggestions I would be very grateful!! Thanks!
Our favorite “go-to” meal this past summer and into fall (we go in cycles) has been pasta with zucchini, walnuts and golden raisins. I know – doesn’t sound like much, but the combination is delicious!
My favorite go to week night meal is one flavor or another of panini. Usually a side of fruit and salad. Yum!
Looks easy & delicious! So trying it this week! Thank you!
Hi Lori! I am passionate about these slow cookers, for how little they spend (the 💡 is very expensive) because they are at my service every night and without supervision, enhance the flavors and so I could spend a long time with my praises ha ha ha. I discovered them relatively recently and now I cannot live without them. Well, this recipe is fantastic and I’ll make it tonight and tomorrow we’ll eat it in the lunch . Thank you very much for sharing. take care.
My latest quick-dinner obsession are Dutch Apple Pancakes. The ingredients are easy to throw together and the pancake bakes in about 20 minutes.