What’s Inside: Follow these instructions at home to make this nourishing gluten-free, dairy-free lasagna for dinner. It’s made with half-moon slices of butternut squash rather than noodles, plus a homemade cashew cheese sauce and kale pesto. The recipe is Whole30 and Paleo diet friendly.
The Best Gluten-Free Lasagna
If you have a dairy-free or gluten-free lifestyle, that doesn’t mean food should be boring, and cooking shouldn’t be a chore either. I want to help everyone enjoy their food and stick to the nutritional plan you have given yourself without stressing over the little things.
As a holistic nutritionist, I love to create recipes that not only nourish your body and fill it with the nutrients and goodness it needs, but also meals that satisfy your cravings and keep you full for a long time.
This gluten-free lasagna is the perfect balance between need and want.
You can skip the noodles in this plant-based lasagna! Butternut squash is the perfect replacement and tastes even more flavorful than your average soggy pasta. With the addition of Kale pesto and vegan cheese, this gluten-free lasagna is going to be your new favorite.
Just getting started on AIP (or need a refresh)?Here’s an easy 1-week meal planusing some of my most popular AIP recipes to make itstress-free and delicious.
How to Make Vegan Cheese
This simple dairy-free staple is one of the best-tasting vegan cheeses out there! If nuts are your friend, having some cashew cheese in the fridge for dishes like this is a must. If you need something nut-free, check out my post here for 3 delicious dairy-free cheese sauce recipes.
All you need is:
- Cashews: 2 cups,soaked in water for at least 2 hours & drained
- Filtered water and lemon (for the juice) as the liquid to blend with.
- Some garlic powder and sea salt to add more flavor.
- Nutritional Yeast is the secret weapon to make dairy-free, vegan cheese taste like cheese! (so definitely don’t skip this ingredient)
Real talk: my husband thought this was all real cheese when he first tried it. I dare you to give this to the biggest cheese lover!
Nut-Free Kale Pesto
Okay, and let’s talk PESTO! This dairy-free lasagna is nightshade-free, meaning no tomatoes, peppers, or other nightshade spices that might not sit well. I also happen to love a “white” lasagna like this with pesto as the sauce. And, yes the pesto is nut-free and dairy-free too! Turns out it’s quite easy to leave out the parmesan and it’s still majorly flavorful thanks to other ingredients we’re using.
Nutritional yeast is a great addition for that cheesy flavor I love. It sits much better in my stomach than Parmesan or cheese and tastes just like cheese! so it’s often a huge hit for me in many of my dishes.
This would make a great meatless meal, but you can also easily throw in a layer of ground meat as you wish for more protein! No matter what, this dairy-free lasagna has the sweet, salty, creamy, gooey thing going on – all the things you love about this comfort food.
Assembling Lasagna Without Noodles
Making this lasagna without noodles may seem daunting, but it’s actually so much easier than you would expect.
Have your cashews soaking in advance so when you come to prepare your vegan cheese, and nut-free kale pesto, all they need is a quick blend in the blender. Meaning you can focus on your butternut squash.
Once your butternut squash is peeled and chopped, it needs to be roasted for 20 minutes. This is just to soften it up a little. As your butternut squash is replacing your noodles, we want to make sure it has that delicious, soft, and buttery texture to it: roasting first is the perfect way to ensure this.
And that’s it! Once your moon-shaped butternut squash has cooled (enough to handle) you can get to work building your lasagna without noodles. I like to start with a little of the ‘cheese’ and pesto on the bottom, just a dollop and spread it out.
Add your pieces of butternut squash on top of the sauce and repeat. Adding big dollops of your sauce and topping with your squash until it is all used up.
All that is left now is to bake in the oven, although you can also pause at this point and either store it in the fridge or freezer if you are making this up in advance.
Tips for How to Store Dairy-Free Lasagna
- You can easily make the pesto, cashew cheese, and roasted butternut squash pieces ahead of time, storing them each in the fridge in an airtight container for a few days. Then, on any weeknight, layer it all together and pop it in the oven!
- To store as leftovers, simply store the whole lasagna in the fridge for up to 5-6 days in an airtight container and reheat in the oven until warm in the center.
- To batch cook, make the lasagna, and assemble but hold off from baking it. Store the lasagna in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 1-month, let defrost at room temp. and cook in the oven as directed below.
Hungry For More Low-Carb, Gluten-Free “Pasta” Dishes:
- Greek Baked Ziti (AIP, Paleo, Whole30)
- Spaghetti Squash Alfredo (Paleo, AIP, Dairy-Free)
- Greek Moussaka (Paleo, Whole30, Dairy-Free)
- Zucchini Romesco Baked Ziti (Paleo, Whole30)
If you made this Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Lasagna without Noodles, please consider leaving a star rating and comment below. Or you can tag me, @foodbymars, onInstagramandFacebook. I love seeing your recreations!
Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Lasagna Without Noodles
4.50 from 14 votes
Follow these instructions at home to make this nourishing gluten-free, dairy-free lasagna for dinner. It’s made with half-moon slices of butternut squash rather than noodles, plus a homemade cashew cheese sauce and kale pesto. Recipe is Whole30 and Paleo diet friendly.
PrintPin
Author: Alison Marras
Prep Time: 10 minutes mins
Cook Time: 30 minutes mins
Yield: 4
Ingredients
Squash (noodle replacement!)
- 1 medium-large butternut squash
- 2 tsp olive oil
Kale Pesto:
- 4 cups kale ripped (no stems)
- 1-2 cloves garlic
- 2 tsp nutritional yeast
- 1/3 cup+ olive oil
- dash of salt
- dash of pepper
Cashew Cheese:
- 2 cups cashews soaked in water for at least 2 hours & drained
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp salt
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp nutritional yeast
Instructions:
Make the cashew cheese first, Drain the water from 2-hr soaked cashews and add all cheese ingredients to a blender, mix until smooth, and set aside.
Make the pesto next, mix all ingredients in a food processor, add more olive oil as necessary (I add maybe 1-2 tsp more). Set aside.
Pre-heat the oven to 450f degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Peel the butternut squash, cut the "neck" off from the bulb and discard seeds. We'll mostly use the "neck" pieces but you can add in more squash from the "bulb" as needed Cut the "neck" into (approx. 1/4 inch thick) half-moon-shaped slices. You should have enough for about 3 layers of the lasagna using an 8-inch dish.
Toss the butternut squash slices with 2 tsp olive oil and season with salt and pepper, arrange slices in a single layer on the baking sheet, and roast for 20 minutes until tender.
Let squash cool for 10 minutes until you can handle the slices, reduce the oven heat to 350f degrees.
Assemble: Lightly grease a glass dish or casserole dish and start by arranging the squash slices slightly overlapping. Next, add dollops of pesto all around, then the same for the cashew cheese.Add your 2nd layer and continue until you're done, you may have a little pesto or cheese leftover depending on how much you use.
Bake lasagna for approx. 25-30 minutes and serve! This can be stored in the fridge for up to 5-6 days in an airtight container.
Diet: American, Italian
Keywords: lasagna, paleo
Course: Main Course
