The Best Vegan Lasagna

This vegan lasagna is perfect! It tastes exactly like a classic, traditional lasagna, but it is meatless and dairy-free. Lasagna sheets are layered with creamy, tofu-free ricotta cheese, homemade vegan parmesan, vegan mozzarella shreds, and a meaty marinara that's so tasty you'll want to eat it out of the pot! It's perfect comfort food for a family pasta dinner, a potluck, or a holiday gathering.

Here's my beloved recipe for a very classic and traditional lasagna recipe with all of the cheeses and meat sauce -- only it's all vegan.

Lasagna is a top favorite in our home, and I sometimes experiment with different versions, like this Vegan Wild Mushroom Lasagna or low-carb Vegan Zucchini Lasagna. As delicious as these recipes are, there's nothing that can quite beat the comfort-food feel of a traditional lasagna with a red "meat" sauce and lashings of parmesan, mozzarella and ricotta cheeses.

Try it, and you will agree it's the best vegan lasagna recipe. Every guest I've served this to - including affirmed omnivores - go on about how delicious it is, and the many layers of flavor. Serve it for a cozy family dinner or take it to a Thanksgiving potluck. Then sit back and enjoy the compliments that roll in.

Table of Contents

• Why you will love this vegan lasagna recipe
• Helpful tips
• Ingredients
• Variations
• How to make the best vegan lasagna
• What to serve with vegan lasagna
• Recipe FAQs
• More vegan Italian recipes
• Vegan Lasagna Recipe
• Reviews

Why you will love this vegan lasagna recipe

• Authentic-tasting. Exactly as you remember a lasagna, just meatless, and healthier.
• Easy lasagna recipe. Because this is a dairy free lasagna you do need to make the ricotta and parm ahead of assembling the lasagna. You will also make the meaty marinara sauce. But all of these elements come together very quickly. You can use store-bought marinara sauce and vegan parm if you want to make the lasagna even faster.
• Tweakable for special diets. I deliberately kept the ricotta tofu-free because that gives you the best flavor. But if you are nut-free I will show you, in the FAQs, how to make a nut-free ricotta and a nut-free parmesan. You can easily make the lasagna soy-free or gluten-free by using soy-free meatless meat and gluten-free lasagna noodles. I used whole wheat lasagna noodles this time and you can't tell the difference.
• Healthy lasagna recipe. This is clean, real food and everything that goes into it is good for you. Each of the 12 immensely hearty servings is packed with 21 grams of protein and 7 grams of fiber.
• It's kid-friendly. And adult-friendly. And omnivore-friendly. So if you're feeding all kinds of eaters at one sitting, here's the food that'll please everyone, and get rave reviews.

Helpful tips

• Make ahead. To save time, make the marinara, vegan parm and vegan ricotta up to three days in advance, then layer and bake the lasagna when you are ready. You can also assemble the lasagna up to three days ahead and refrigerate or freeze for up to two months before baking.
• Use two kinds of meatless meats. This is not necessary, but it improves the texture of the meatless marinara sauce. I used a combination of Beyond sausage and Impossible Beef this time, but any combination of meatless meats or meatless crumbles is fine.
• Use no-boil lasagna noodles. This saves you a step of boiling the noodles first. I have made this lasagna with both regular and no-boil noodles and the recipe works well with both. You do need to incorporate a cup more of liquid in the recipe if using no-boil noodles. Also no-boil noodles are shorter than regular lasagna noodles, so you will need more of them.
• If you don't have a high-powered blender, soak the cashews for the ricotta for a few hours so they blend up into the perfect consistency.
• Season the ricotta. This is a great opportunity to add some fresh, herby flavor into your lasagna. I use basil or parsley or both. You can also toss in a few leaves of fresh oregano if you have them.
• Bonus tip: Some lasagna boxes have 18 noodles, others have just 14 or 15. The whole wheat lasagna noodles I used had 15 noodles, so I fell short of one. If that happens, no need to open another box of lasagna noodles. Just use 3 noodles for one of the middle layers and no one will know!

Variations

• If you want to add more veggies to the recipe, cut down the meatless meat by half and add a roasted, diced eggplant to the marinara sauce while you are making it. Or add finely diced mushrooms.
• Use lentils instead of the meatless meat. Use 28 oz, or roughly two cans, of brown lentils and add them to the marinara instead of the meat.
• Zoodles or zucchini noodles can be used instead of regular noodles for a low-carb version. You can also try this vegan zucchini lasagna.
• If you want to make the vegan lasagna in a slow cooker, check out my vegan crockpot lasagna recipe.

How to make the best vegan lasagna

• Make the meat sauce. Heat oil in a large saucepan with crushed garlic. Add the onions. Saute, until they soften, about five minutes. Add the "meat" and saute for a couple of minutes to brown. Add the tomato paste and mix in. Place the plum tomatoes in a bowl and squish them to break with your fingers. Add to the saucepan along with 3 cups of vegetable stock if using no-boil noodles, and 2 cups of stock if using regular noodles that have been cooked. Stir well, bring to a boil, add the oregano, red pepper flakes, salt and ground black pepper to taste. Cook the sauce without covering for about 15 minutes or until it turns a bright red. Turn off heat and check seasoning.

• Make the ricotta cheese. Place cashews in a food processor with all ingredients. Process for a couple of minutes until fairly smooth.

• Cook lasagna noodles. Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions until al dente but not mushy. If you use no boil noodles you don't have to cook them first.

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit/205 degrees Celsius.
• Assemble the lasagna. Spray a 12 X 9 inch lasagna pan or baking dish with cooking spray or oil. Ladle out a small amount of sauce into the pan and spread. Layer on four sheets of the noodles into the bottom of the pan. If using no-boil noodles, which are smaller than regular noodles, you might need to layer on five noodles vertically and one more horizontally.
  • Layer on one-fourth of the meat sauce over the lasagna noodles. 
  • Layer on one-fourth of the cashew Parmesan.
  • Layer on one-fourth of the vegan mozzarella.
  • Layer on one-fourth of the vegan ricotta.
  • Repeat until you have built up three layers of the meat sauce and the cheeses. Over the fourth and final layer, layer the remaining meat sauce, parm and mozzarella.
• Bake the lasagna. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil, place the lasagna pan on a rimmed baking sheet, and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the aluminum foil and bake another 30 minutes until bubbly and hot. Let the lasagna stand at least 15 minutes to firm up, then cut and serve.

What to serve with vegan lasagna

You don't need to serve much alongside this classic vegan lasagna, because it's a full meal on its own, but some Vegan Garlic Pull Apart Bread and a fresh salad like this Vegan Caesar Salad are the perfect accompaniments.

More vegan Italian recipes