Spinach Lasagna with Walnut Pesto

  4.5 – 22 reviews  • Vegetarian Lasagna Recipes

Cooked until the chicken falls off the bone and creates its own sauce, this traditional, uncomplicated country-style dish includes entire chicken pieces, okra, tomato, and rice.

Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 1 hr
Total Time: 1 hr 30 mins
Servings: 8
Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

  1. 1 teaspoon A little olive oil for the pan
  2. 2 pounds fresh spinach, washed*
  3. 2 pounds nonfat ricotta cheese or nonfat cottage cheese
  4. Walnut Pesto (recipe follows)
  5. 4 large cloves garlic, minced
  6. ½ teaspoon salt
  7. 1 pinch Freshly ground black pepper to taste
  8. ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
  9. ⅓ cup minced walnuts, lightly toasted
  10. 1 (24 ounce) jar low-sugar tomato sauce (or your favorite sauce)
  11. 16 fresh, uncooked green (spinach) lasagna noodles or, if using dried, no-boil noodles
  12. ½ pound low-fat mozzarella cheese, grated
  13. 3 cups packed fresh basil leaves
  14. 3 large cloves garlic
  15. ⅓ cup lightly toasted walnuts
  16. ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
  17. ⅓ cup grated Parmesan cheese
  18. 1 pinch Salt and pepper to taste
  19. Additional extra-virgin olive oil (for storage)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9 x 13-inch baking pan. If using fresh spinach, chop it fine. If using frozen, chopped spinach, make sure it is thoroughly defrosted and squeeze out all of the excess water.
  2. Place the ricotta or cottage cheese in a large bowl. Stir in the spinach, pesto, garlic, salt, pepper, half the Parmesan, and the walnuts. Mix well. Spread half the tomato sauce in the bottom of the pan. Place a layer of uncooked noodles over the sauce. Spoon about 1/3 of the ricotta or cottage filling in dabs over the noodles (you can spread it a little, but not too much) and sprinkle with 1/3 of the grated mozzarella. Follow with another layer of sauce, then noodles, followed by another 1/3 of the filling, and another 1/3 of the mozzarella. Repeat one more time, and then finish up with a final layer of noodles. You will have some Parmesan left over.
  3. If you are using fresh noodles, bake uncovered. If you are using dried noodles, cover the pan tightly with foil.
  4. Bake for 50 minutes, uncovering the pan (if applicable) during the last 15 minutes, during which time you can sprinkle on the reserved Parmesan. (In the case of the uncovered pan, if the top of the lasagna becomes as brown as you like it before the full baking time is up, cover loosely with foil and continue baking, so it wont get too dark.) Remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes before serving.
  5. Walnut Pesto: Place the basil leaves and garlic in a food processor or blender, and mix well.
  6. Add the walnuts, and continue to blend until the walnuts are finely ground.
  7. Keep the machine running as you drizzle in the olive oil. When you have a smooth paste, transfer to a bowl, and stir in the Parmesan. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  8. If you are not going to use the pesto right away, place in a container that has a tight-fitting lid. Smooth out the top surface of the pesto, and pour on enough olive oil to cover it completely. This creates an air-proof seal that helps preserve it well. Cover tightly and store in the refrigerator.
  9. * For the 2 lbs. fresh spinach, you can substitute 2 (10-ounce) packages fresh baby spinach leaves, or 2 (10-ounce) packages frozen, chopped spinach, defrosted.

Nutrition Facts

Calories 638 kcal
Carbohydrate 64 g
Cholesterol 46 mg
Dietary Fiber 7 g
Protein 33 g
Saturated Fat 7 g
Sodium 1025 mg
Sugars 14 g
Fat 27 g
Unsaturated Fat 0 g

Reviews

Christina Burton
So good! I will make this again exactly the way it was presented. Love the walnut crunch. A+
Kimberly Randall
It was a bit tasty, and I didn’t get the third layer on because my dish was not high enough, and though I had used fresh spinach once I cut the lasagna, I had a watery dish. However, I am giving 4 stars because it was absolutely delicious!!! Will make again.
Christian Cruz
This was a lot of work and ended up costing a lot of money. I only made 1/2 the recipe but still ended up spending $12 on 15 oz. of fresh spinach. My fault, I didn’t see until later I could have used frozen. Would have saved a ton of time and cost a whole lot less. There seems to be way too much pesto and not enough cheese. One-quarter pound of cheese for 1/2 the recipe isn’t very much. I ended up using a half pound. Putting non-boiled noodles on the top layer was not good. After 40 min. of baking covered in foil, they were still hard as a rock. I ended up putting more sauce on top, then the remainder of the parmesan cheese. I ended up using more sauce than was required, which I think helped. I think there is a mistake in the directions. It states to use 1/2 of the sauce on the bottom of the pan, yet you are supposed to repeat all the layers 2 more times. Shouldn’t that be 1/3 of the sauce at the beginning? I used my favorite jar of Trader Joe’s marinara and it was good but not enough to cover the heavy taste of pesto. Sorry, none of us cared for it.
Amy Foster
I followed this recipe to the T — and the result was a great big dish of watery slop. The taste was only so-so after all the prep time, but the appearance was awful. Never again.
Christopher Stewart
Good recipe. Walnut pesto was the rockstar, very yummy. I changed the recipe, used one lb of Ricotta cheese instead of two, doubled the spinach, and used very less cheese.
Wayne Daniel
Pretty good but could be bettered with a few changes. For us, the basil overpowered the mild and subtle flavors of fresh baby spinach and walnuts, and for that reason, we would cut back on the 3 cups packed fresh basil (i.e., 6 ounces) to around 2 cups (i.e., 4 ounces) or a bit less. If you prefer a pesto with a strong basil flavor over a less intense one, then make the walnut pesto as written. Unlike most vegetable lasagnas, this recipe tends to be dry, especially the lasagna noodles around the edges of the pan. To counteract that tendency, increase the amount of tomato sauce and squeeze out less water than usual from the spinach as the pesto itself was dry. Basically, half the sauce (12 ounces) is spread at bottom of pan, with two subsequent layers of sauce (6 ounces each) which is really thin when covering a 9″ x 13″ pan. In spite of placing foil over the pan per the instructions, don’t waste putting oven-ready noodles on top as they harden and curl up at the ends, and not appealing to look at or eat.
Dr. Daniel Roth
This was really yummy and my guests enjoyed it too! I used four cheese pasta sauce in place of the sugar free tomato sauce and used 2 boxes of frozen spinach in place of fresh. I also used the no-boil noodles and I think that is why the only change I would make is to increase the tomato sauce because the tops and sides of the lasagna were too crispy (I actually ripped off the top pieces, they were so hard and inedible). So next time I would add another half jar of sauce or maybe even the whole jar.
Michael Bailey
We enjoyed this! It would work probably just as well with premade pesto from the store for a faster recipe (but that’s personal preference, of course it was great homemade) and I didn’t use as much spinach as it called for because I didn’t have it and it was still delish. Will make again!
Bradley Robertson
Used 2 packages of frozen spinach, defrosted in the microwave and did NOT squeeze it. The extra liquid is necessary because I used dry noodles. Also used 1 tube 4oz of Basil Herb Blend because that’s what I had in the fridge. Used a gigantic roasting pan as a 9×13 is not big enough. Added 1 box of fresh mushrooms sauteed with 1 chopped onion. 1 whole jar of tomato sauce on the bottom and 1 jar on the top. 1 hour in the 350 oven.
Terry Lawrence
I don’t add the walnuts (cept in the pesto), but I add lots of spinach. I like this recipe much better with ricotta than a substitute like cottage cheese.
Samantha Davis
I used regular noodles that I cooked first. I omitted the garlic as the pesto has plenty. I used fresh onion and herbs. I doubled the sauce and mozarella cheese. Lasagna is one of those dishes that you just have to go with what you are used to and according to your taste. I put sauce and mozarella on top. This is a good recipe that I will make again.
Sara Moreno
Great recipe! I followed recipe but added an extra 4 ounces of mozzarella and a layer of grilled sliced zucchini. Also used uncooked wheat lasagna noodles. I made this for a baptism lunch for a bunch of meat eaters…it had them asking for the recipe! YUM!!
Emily Vasquez
this is 5 stars for a couple reasons: 1. EASY 2. minimal prep and therefore minimal clean up 3. quick to make I used prepared pesto, and nixed the walnuts (those are expensive! _ but have tried with them and it is delish) and frozen spinach (2 packs). Also used packaged grated cheese (i buy several packages when they’re on sale and freeze them). my meat eating boys (husband and son) didn’t even miss the meat… in fact they requested this dish!
Alex Camacho
I made this recipe exactly as listed and it was to die for. I typically do not care for lasagna but I couldn’t get enough of this!
Tamara Francis
I didn’t use all the pesto and it was still very strong. Next time I will use half the pesto, double the tomato sauce and maybe a little bit less garlic. Anyway it was still a very good dish.
Terry Reed
This was a pretty good recipe. I wanted to tweak my regular lasagna to add some spinach. This one fit the bill. I used jarred pesto instead of making my own because my husband doesn’t like walnuts. I used my food processor on fresh spinach leaves, which made it blend really well with the pesto. I liked the way the tomato sauce balanced out the pesto/spinach combo, although I thought the amount of spinach and pesto it called for was a little overpowering. I added mushrooms and 1/2 lb of ground sausage and 1/2 lb of ground beef because my husband doesn’t call it dinner unless it has meat. I gave it 4 stars because of the overpowering taste of the pesto and the noodles on top got pretty tough. I advise just skipping the last layer of noodles and putting the cheese on top of the last layer of pesto. It was a nice change. All in all though, I think I’m going back to my usual lasagna recipe.
Brandon Ayers
really good. had 3 servings.
Adam Thompson
Awesome! This was delicious! We used whole wheat lasagna noodles. The top ones were a bit crispy, but they were actually really good that way. This could have another vegetable layered in as well – like asparagus, zucchini or eggplant. Outstanding as is!
Heather Gallegos
This was so good!!! I used jarred pesto and instead of ricotta, I used greek yogurt for health reasons. I sauteed onion & garlic along with the spinach and added mushrooms. I served this with cheesy baked cauliflower II from AR.
Kathryn Flores
Changed this a lot, made it much easier and still wonderfully tasty. Used slices of sun-dried tomato polenta (off a roll) instead of lasagna noodles. I packed in as much spinach between layers as the pan could hold. Instead of making my own, I used an admittedly expensive bottled pesto and (because I’d forgotten to include them) spread ground walnuts fairly thickly over the top. The result was super delicious and, I figured, a real meal: reasonable protein and vegetables.
Jill Cortez
SO DELISH! I do not have a food processor or blender so I just made the pesto by roughly chopping all the ingredients and added to the ricotta cheese mixture. The walnuts added some crunch and made it so yummy! Thanks for the great recipe!

 

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