I’ve never met anyone that doesn’t like lasagna. It’s one of those classic comfort dishes that seems to just win everyone over. Yet it can often leave you feeling full and slightly bogged down, right? This lighter vegan eggplant lasagna will leave you beyond satisfied, without the “I-need-to-take-a-nap” aftermath.

What started as a need to throw something together for dinner and use up the last of my homemade sauce, turned into one of the best (savory) things I’ve ever made. Since I didn’t measure much the first time around, I made it again just praying it turned out the same. Good news: it did!

If you’re starting from scratch, making all of the layers can be a little time consuming, but totally easy + worth it. If you make the sauce and cheese in advance, the actual meal comes together so quickly.

This lasagna is vegan and gluten free by nature, but as always, feel free to adjust to your own needs. If you want to use store-bought sauce, go for it. If you’d prefer real, traditional ricotta, swap it. I like to add a little parmesan on top for flavor, but it’s by no means necessary. Can also be made in advance and re-heated or kept for leftovers!

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 30

Servings 6 people

Equipment

1 food processor

Ingredients

3 large eggplants
1 cup kale (finely chopped)

Tomato Sauce:

2 lbs tomatoes (on the vine are best)
1 red bell pepper
1 head of garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp tomato paste
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp dried oregano

Almond Ricotta:

2 cups raw slivered almonds (or any without skin)
¾-1 cup water
2 ½ tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tbsp lemon juice
¼ cup soft herb mix (I use chopped dill, parsley + chives)
1 clove fresh garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
¼-½ tsp salt

Instructions

Preparation:

Heat oven to 300. For the sauce, place the whole tomatoes, roughly cut red bell pepper (a few big slices is perfect), and whole head of garlic (top sliced off, but skin still on) onto a baking sheet. Drizzle everything with olive oil. Roast until the tomatoes are blistered/very soft, about 45 min-1 hour.
While those are cooking, soak your slivered almonds in very hot water for 30 minutes. (Just fill until the water covers the nuts.)
Now prepare the eggplant. Cut off the ends. You’ll want to slice into very thin slices, the long way. Thick enough so that they maintain their shape, but thin enough to layer. About ⅛ an inch.
Place eggplant into a large bowl and sprinkle with a good amount of sea salt, tossing to coat. Let sit for 10-15 minutes. This step helps to pull out some of it’s water content. Don’t skip it!
After that time has passed, dump the excess water and blot the eggplant with a towel to soak up some of the extra salt. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone cooking pad (to prevent sticking) and place the egg plant down, as close as possible, but not overlapping. Drizzle with a little olive oil. Set aside.
Once the tomato pan is done, take it out and let cool. Turn the oven to 400.
Once the oven is adjusted in temperature, put the eggplant in. You can use a couple of sheet pans or just do a few rounds as you’ll only keep them in for 8-10 min at a time, just to pre-cook them a bit. Take out when they start to get a little golden on the edges. Set aside to cool.
Now to make the “cheese”. Drain your almonds and discard the water. Combine into a food processor with all ingredients besides the chopped herbs. I usually start with 3/4 cups of water and then can add more if it needs to be thinned out a bit. Same with the salt. Start small and you can always adjust at the end. Process until creamy. Add in the chopped herbs and pulse again to combine. Taste to see if you need more salt and then set aside.
De-stem and chop the kale very small. Saute with a little coconut oil or olive oil and pinch of salt. Once cooked down/wilted a bit, set aside.
For the sauce, squeeze out the roasted garlic cloves from the bulb- they should come right out. Place them into a blender with the red pepper and the tomatoes (all skins left on). Add in the rest of the sauce ingredients and blend until smooth. Add more salt if needed.

Assembly:

We’re FINALLY ready to assemble! Grab a deep baking/casserole dish and very lightly grease the bottom. I used an avocado oil spray.
I ended up doing about 3.5 layers so you’ll just have to eyeball your amounts into thirds.
Layer down the eggplant, one slice next to the other, until the bottom is mostly covered (it’s not going to be perfect and can overlap a bit, so do not worry). Now layer the almond ricotta on top, pressing it into a thin layer. Sprinkle the sautéed kale over that and then top with a thin layer of sauce. Repeat.
Drizzle with olive oil and bake on 350 for 20-25 minutes, until it’s sizzling and the top is slightly browned. Top with fresh parmesan if you wish. You can cook this in advance and just pop back in to re-heat. It’s also perfect for leftovers!

Notes

If you don’t end up using as many layers or if you need to do more, that’s fine too! This will depend on your pan size and also your eggplant size. It will taste the same either way- you can’t mess it up! I did have some extra sauce leftover that I’ll save for another day.