Simple Summer Vegetable Lasagne
A simple vegetable lasagne, packed with all sorts of summer vegetables, and an ultra cheesy, creamy sauce. And it only takes 30 minutes to prepare!
Hellooo, best meal ever! Lasagne is pretty much always amazing, but this… this summer vegetable lasagne was quite possibly the best I’ve ever made.
Heaps of different summer vegetables, a super creamy cheese sauce, layers of pasta, and a crispy cheese topping… it doesn’t get better than that.
Vegetarian lasagne
Rather than trying to mimic the meat that you usually find in lasagne, I decided to skip it altogether. This is a very veg-heavy lasagne – there’s no need to add anything else, when the vegetables on their own bring heaps of flavour and texture to the cheesy pasta.
If anyone ever claims that vegetables aren’t flavourful, or that they need lots of additional flavours to bring them to life… make them this summer vegetable lasagne. It shows just how varied veggies can be. When they’re paired with a simple creamy pasta dish, their flavour is able to shine through. It’s irresistible.
I tried to use as many different colours and textures as I could – crunchy peppers, soft courgette, sweet corn kernels, earthy mushrooms, juicy tomatoes… They add up to one delicious lasagne, let me tell you.
Summer vegetable lasagne
The recipe starts by cooking off lots of different veggies. I used:
All of these vegetables are in season throughout the summer, so they pair together perfectly. These particular veg give the lasagne a slightly Mediterranean feel.
What other vegetables can you use in vegetable lasagne?
If you’d like to switch things up, there are plenty of other summer vegetables that you could add to your lasagne. For example:
- asparagus
- mangetout
- aubergine (eggplant)
- peas
- spring greens
- cauliflower
Or, to be honest, whatever you can find in the supermarket that looks tasty. It’s all good in lasagne.
How to make a white sauce
While the vegetables are cooking, prepare your cheesy sauce.
I’ve written a whole blog post about how to make a simple white sauce, so I won’t go over it all again now, but do check out that post if you’re not sure what you need to do.
Once you’ve made the white sauce, just melt plenty of grated cheese into it, and you’re good to go. It’s time to get layering!
How to layer lasagne
We have three elements to layer in this lasagne: the pasta, the veggies, and the sauce. It’s really easy to just alternate the ingredients until you reach the top of the dish.
I always start by smearing one small spoonful of sauce around the base of the dish, before adding the first layer of pasta. It means the pasta doesn’t stick to the dish, and also gives a bit of moisture to help cook that bottom layer of pasta.
Then, just layer up the pasta, veg and sauce in turn.
Finish with one last thick layer of sauce, making sure to cover any corners of lasagne that might be poking up. Any visible bits of pasta will burn and not soften properly, so it all needs to be covered nicely in the sauce.
I like sprinkling some extra cheese on top, to give that beautiful crispy topping. I also love adding some slices of tomato to the top of my lasagne. They roast up beautifully and taste wonderful, and they look really pretty too.
Pop it in the oven until it’s perfectly browned and crispy.
Then, when you crack into the crispy crust and make your way through all the melty cheese, you get to the utterly irresistible creaminess underneath.
Once again: helloooo!
This lasagne has the perfect amount of sauce – it’s gooey and oozey, but not so saucy that it stop you from cutting a nice neat slice (something about a perfectly square slice of lasagne makes me weirdly happy). It also helps if you leave the dish to sit for ten minutes or so after it comes out of the oven, so it can firm up just a little – as long as you can stop yourself from digging straight in.
How to save time when cooking lasagne
Lasagne gets a bad rap for taking a long time to make. And it’s true, it’s not exactly a ten minute dinner. But there are definitely ways you can speed up the process, if you’re pushed for time.
- Add the vegetables to the pan as soon as you’ve cut them up – you don’t need to have everything chopped before you begin cooking.
- Prepare the white sauce at the same time as the vegetables are cooking.
- Use no-boil lasagne sheets that don’t require any pre-cooking.
- Prepare the lasagne in advance if needed, then bake just before serving.
This summer vegetable lasagne only actually takes about 30 minutes to prepare, plus baking time. So as long as you’ve got time to wait while it cooks, the prep time isn’t at all unreasonable.
Cook your veg; prepare your sauce; layer. It’s not difficult. And the result is totally worth it!
Summer vegetable lasagne
Ingredients
For the vegetable mixture
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 onion
- 1 medium courgette (zucchini)
- 6 medium mushrooms
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 140 g (~ 1 cup) frozen sweetcorn
- 140 g (~ 1 cup) cherry tomatoes
- 1 tsp dried Italian-style mixed herbs
- Salt
- Black pepper
For the cheese sauce
- 45 g (~ 3 tbsp / ~ 1 1/2 oz) butter
- 45 g (~ 3 tbsp) plain flour
- 500 ml (~ 2 cups) milk
- 150 g cheddar cheese, grated (~ 1 1/2 cups when grated)
To assemble
- 180 g no-boil lasagne sheets (~ 9 sheets)
- 1 large tomato, sliced
Instructions
- First, chop the vegetables (pepper, onion, courgette, mushrooms, and tomatoes). I cut mine fairly small, but you can make a chunkier lasagne if you prefer.
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan, and add the chopped onion, courgette, mushrooms, garlic, and the frozen sweetcorn. Cook over a medium heat for around 15 minutes, stirring regularly, until all the vegetables are fairly soft. Add the cherry tomatoes, dried herbs, and some salt and pepper, and cook for a minute or two more.
- Meanwhile, prepare the white sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a fairly low heat, and add the flour. Mix to form a paste, and cook for a minute or so. Then add the milk a little at a time, stirring the mixture until it’s smooth and well-combined each time before adding more milk.
- When you’ve used all the milk, and the sauce is smooth, add about two thirds of the grated cheese. Mix well, and cook for a minute or two until the cheese has melted into the sauce.
- To assemble the lasagne, begin by adding about 1 tbsp of the cheese sauce to the bottom of a baking dish (mine measured 8 x 8 inches), and spreading it around. This just helps to stop the lasagne sticking to the dish, and gives some moisture to cook the bottom layer of pasta.
- On top of the smear of sauce, add a layer of lasagne sheets, breaking them to roughly fit the shape of the dish (it doesn’t need to be exact!). Top the pasta with about a third of the vegetable mixture, and another couple of spoonfuls of sauce. Repeat the pasta-veg-sauce layers about two more times, finishing with all the remaining cheese sauce. Make sure there’s enough sauce on the top of the lasagne to completely cover the pasta, as any uncovered pasta will burn and won’t soften properly.
- Top the lasagne with the remaining grated cheese and a few slices of tomato. Cover the dish, and bake for around 50 minutes, until the lasagne is tender. Uncover the dish for the last 15 minutes or so of the cooking time, to help the topping crisp up.
- Leave to stand for about 5-10 minutes before serving, as this will help you to cut neat slices of lasagne.
Note: Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on exactly what ingredients you choose. Information above is for 1/4 of the recipe.
Love a hearty pasta bake? Try my three cheese eggplant parmesan pasta bake:
Thanks again for sharing Becca :) This looks yummy, have printed it and keen to give it a try as I know it will be fab!
Thanks for all the great recipes,look forward to trying the lasagne
So I’ve made this lasagna two or three times now and it is by far the best veggie lasagna I’ve ever had! 5 Star all the way! I’m making it for my family who will be arriving for a visit. We will all be coming and going that week and I need to make it on a Sunday to serve on a Wednesday. Should I bake this and reheat it? Or can I make it and leave it unbaked from Sunday then bake in on Wednesday? What’s your best advice? Thanks!
Yay thanks so much Rachel! I’m sure either way would work, but I think it would be best to make it and leave it unbaked in the fridge, and then bake it fresh on Wednesday. Reheating a cooked lasagne can sometimes make it a bit dry, so it’ll probably be better just baked once :) Enjoy!
Hi! When you were talking about the recipie you mentioned peppers but they aren’t listed in the actual recipie. Is this just a change you made? Just curious, I’m not much of a “venture out and change the recipe” kind of girl :p.
Well whaddya know! In two years you’re the only person who’s noticed that haha. It’s been so long now that I have absolutely no idea whether I included peppers or not – I imagine I did, and just forgot to include it in the recipe. You could totally add a diced red pepper to the recipe if you fancy it, just fry it up with the asparagus :)
Wow!! I love this vegetable lasagna! I absolutely love all the fresh veggies that you have included. What a great summer meal. Thanks for sharing!
I have a roasted vegetable lasagna that is pretty tasty too ;)
I can’t wait to make this but I’m confused on the amount of ingredients……..when you say 100g ,50g,125g, what exactly does that mean? Is it grams? I’m embarrassed to ask but I’m dying to try this therefore I need to know. I’ve never seen a recipe written like this. Usually the amount are by tsp.,tbs., or cups. Please help!
Hi Diane, yes it’s grams. This is the standard recipe format in the UK and in lots of other countries :) I’d really recommend you buy an electric kitchen scale – you can get a simple one for $15 or so, and they open up so many doors in terms of what recipes you can make! :)
I realize this was forever ago, but I find this website super helpful!
http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/conversions/grams/grams-to-cups-conversions
I used baby courgettes/zucchini and fresh peas instead of the sugar snap peas. I cut out the cheese to go on top but that’s because I used half single cream and milk in the sauce. But put some grated Grana Padano on the sauce and tomatoes. This may be a keeper :-)
Glad you enjoyed it, it’s one of my favourites! :)
I love everything that involves pasta, cheese and vegetables…so your recipe is a MUST :)
I made this tonight, and it was amazing! I love the white sauce, in lieu of the traditional red sauce. I made some significant changes, based on what we had on hand from our garden and CSA farm share. I used whole wheat noodles, replaced the cheddar with fontina, and instead of the recommended veggies, slow-roasted tomatoes, red and green bell pepper, onion, garlic, corn, zucchini, green beans, and corn (whew!). After each pasta-veggie-sauce layering, I sprinkled a generous layer of fresh, chopped basil. The end result was to-die-for, and this will be my go-to lasagna from now on. Thank you! :)
Yay thanks Amy! I’m a big fan of creamy sauces too, much nicer than tomato sauce ;) I’m actually glad you swapped out the vegetables because that’s exactly what I would do – your version sounds amazing!
Thank you Becca! I can’t wait to try this, I saw your picture and I just knew this is the Lasagna that I will try to impress this girl with. Really appreciate your creativity and that you shared this!! And you too Amy , I might do an in-betweener of yalls, yall rock!
Looks stunning. I love lasagna, there are so many different types. I will definately have to look at making this. Such a lovely summery recipe that can be adapted to the seasons no doubt. Pasta and cheese are always good. I love cheese too! :) Andy (vegiefoodie.com
Mmmm pasta, cheese and veggies, love it!
Okay, my mouth is watering now, but that *could* be because I skipped my morning snack and it’s definitely lunch time! Wow you have totally sold me on that cheesy creaminess! I’m eating less cheese lately but I might make an exception for this :)
This would be such a perfect thing for dinner :)
Looks great. I used to make a vegetable lasagne where I blended steamed pumpkin in half of the bechamel sauce and spinach in the other half it made the sauce a nice color in the alternative layers.
Wow does that lasagna look spectacular! I love that you sliced some fresh tomato on top, genius idea :)
Happy Blogging!
Happy Valley Chow
I love doing that, just looks a bit more interesting than plain cheese! Plus roasted tomatoes are delicious :)
Love this recipe, it’s gorgeous looking, like how you placed the tomato slices on top. Great combination of flavors!
You’re a star the way you keep coming up with new ideas for the taste buds. I agree about the Cheddar and Mozzarella mixed. It is so tasty. This dish looks delicious and one to treat the vegetarian daughter to. Thanks again Becca
Looks good! Any ideas on what to use instead of sugarsnap peas, my hubby’s allergic to them?
Any other sort of pea would work well too, but if all kinds are out, maybe broccoli? Tbh pretty much anything would work!
Oh, yum! So many veggie lasagnas I’ve seen have stuffed a bunch of spinach between the noodles and called it a day, but this one is so chock full of colorful veggies that it’s making my mouth water! Looks delicious :)