recipes

Vegan Cauliflower Spinach Lasagna

Apr 01, 2023 Admin

This super easy Vegan Cauliflower Spinach Lasagna is wholesome and hearty—filled with creamy layers of cauliflower herbed marinara sauce, spinach, plant-based cheese and sour cream, and topped with pine nuts. If you love cauliflower as much as I do, you are sure to be thrilled with this completely plant-based lasagna. Not only is this humble vegetable rich in flavor, it’s packed with nutrients that have been linked to cancer protection.

This vegan lasagna recipe looks impressive, but it’s deceptively simple. Just cook up a simple marinara sauce with cauliflower, onions and bell pepper, and layer pasta with spinach, sauce, plant-based sour cream and cheese, and a topping of pine nuts. You will be rewarded with pure comfort food nirvana thanks to this fabulous combination. It only takes about 15 minutes to get this family-sized spinach lasagna in the oven and baking away for dinner. While it’s baking, toss together a hearty salad, such as this Tofu Kale Salad or French Lentil Salad, and your dinner is ready to go.

The leftovers for this Vegan Cauliflower Spinach Lasagna are just fabulous the next day—tote a square of this lasagna to work or enjoy warmed up for a second meal or even snack. Rich in antioxidant compounds, flavor, and health, this vegan lasagna is light on the pasta (and carbs) and low in saturated fats. I love to take this dish to parties, potlucks, or even holiday meals. Viva la cauliflower!

Answering a Few Questions

I’m answering a few questions about this recipe.

Should I use Marina vs Tomato Sauce? In this recipe, I recommend marinara sauce, as it is seasoned. Tomato sauce is just pureed, cooked tomatoes with salt. You can use tomato sauce, but expect to increase your seasonings, such as herbs and salt.
How to cut cauliflower? For this recipe, I start with a whole cauliflower, remove any leaves, and break off the flowers with my hands. You want small bite-size pieces of cauliflower for this lasagna recipe. You can also use a knife to divide up the larger flowers. However, don’t dice up the whole cauliflower, as you want to see the florets intact in this recipe.
How to cook cauliflower? In this lasagna recipe, the cauliflower is cooked into the hearty sauce, and then it is baked more in the final lasagna in the oven. The result is a lovely lasagna in which the cauliflower is tender but still holds its shape.

Step-by-Step Guide

Make the cauliflower marinara sauce and assemble spinach.

Assemble plant-based sour cream and plant-based cheese.

Make 2 layers of lasagna noodles, spinach, cauliflower marinara sauce, plant-based sour cream, and plant-based cheese. Then bake until golden!

Follow along as I show you to make this delicious recipe for Cauliflower Spinach Lasagna in this video here.

Vegan Cauliflower Spinach Lasagna

1 Star 2 Stars 3 Stars 4 Stars 5 Stars (18 votes, average: 4.72 out of 5)
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4.7 from 18 reviews

Author: The Plant-Powered Dietitian
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Yield: 8 servings
Diet: Vegan

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Description

Ingredients

Cauliflower Marinara Sauce:

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium bell pepper, diced (red, green, yellow)
1 small head cauliflower, broken into small florets
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons oregano
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
1 (25-ounce) jar marinara sauce

Layers and Toppings:

6 sheets (about 8 ounces total) lasagna (try whole grain lasagna)
6 ounces fresh baby spinach leaves
8 ounces plant-based sour cream (make it from scratch here, or purchase prepared, such as Kite Hill or Tofutti)
1 cup shredded plant-based cheese, Mozzarella (i.e., VioLife, Amazon Fresh)
1/4 cup pinenuts

Instructions

Prepare Cauliflower Marinara Sauce: Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan or skillet. Add onion, pepper, cauliflower and garlic and sauté 8 minutes. Stir in oregano, smoked paprika and marinara sauce and heat until bubbly.
Preheat oven to 375 F.
To prepare lasagna, spray a 9 × 13 inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Arrange 3 sheets of lasagna noodles on the bottom of the dish, then top with half of the spinach (3 ounces), half of the cauliflower marinara sauce, 1/2 cup of the plant-based sour cream in dollops, and 1/2 cup plant-based cheese. Repeat layers again. Sprinkle with pine-nuts.
Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes on top rack of oven. Remove foil and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, until browned and cooked through.
Slice into 8 squares and serve immediately.