In our efforts to eat a little less meat each week, this butternut squash lasagne has been one a big success story. I'm not sure where the original idea came from but I've adapted it over the last few years to suit us and the result is a veggie lasagna that's easily as good as it's more traditional meat lasagna recipe.

Butternut Squash Lasagne

There's a few parts to this veggie lasagna, they're simple, quick and you'll end up with a healthy Clean eating dinner you'll likely make time and time again. I've made this so many times now that it's firmly in my head: After you've made this a few times it'll become one of those meals you just put together.

Much of the time I make this recipe ahead of time, usually when I'm in the kitchen already waiting for dinner to cook, messing about with recipes or answering homework questions :)

I make this recipe up in much the same way as I do a regular lasagna. That's to say there's layers to it, each layer being an alternative to the traditional recipe.

Of course, the butternut squash replaces the usual lasagna pasta sheets. You can buy butternut squash ready peeled and cut for lasangas, and I have bought these before. However, usually I have a butternut squash hanging around the kitchen, my kids love it and so I cook with it a lot. Yes, I'm not going to pretend I love cutting a butternut, but...it's way cheaper and really doesn't take that long. It's more the thought of it :)

I also sadly don't have a 'hack' to give you for making this job super easy. I use a very sharp knife, cut the bulb part of the bottom, trim the top, and then slice the skin off as best I can. It's not elegant, but it works. Please let me know if you've found a better way!

I'm going to hold my hands up right now and say I use shop bought Red Pesto. I look for one that has the highest amount of dried tomatoes (it should be at least 40%) followed by. ingredients you know and recognise.

The cheese I use if possible is Emmental. It has a slightly nutty and buttery taste, which works really well in this recipe.

Veggie Lasagna Layers

Here's a quick run down of the layers I use for this lasagna:

Lasagna pasta sheets - Butternut squash sheets
White sauce - Creamed spinach
Tomato sauce - I use a mix of tomato puree and Red Pesto
Cheese - We're keeping this!

If you get all the layers together before you start, this will take about 2 minutes to put together.

Making Ahead And Storing Leftovers

This is an awesome recipe to make ahead, which I do often. You can make this up to 2 days ahead of time and keep it covered in the fridge until you need it, and then pop it into the oven.

If you've got leftovers of this veggie lasagna, simply cover them and put the in the fridge where they'll be good for a day or two. To reheat, I either out this into a hot oven for 10 minutes or so until fully heated throughout (which also gives you a crispy cheesy top) or you can put it into the microwave for a couple of minutes until it's hot throughout. My preference? The oven, simply because I like a crispy cheese topping!

What To Eat With Butternut Squash Lasagna

You've got a couple of veggies in this meal to start with, but the thing with this recipe as far as the kids go, is that they don't really notice! This is a really good thing, as I can serve a vegetable side with this and they don't feel like it's a vegetable overload!

I either serve some caramelized carrots, steamed broccoli or, depending on what's in the fridge, a big green salad! You could of course, during those cold winter nights, also put some crusty Wholemeal bread on the table and mop up the pesto-ey cheesey, sauce!

More Quick Vegetarian Clean Eating Recipes

How To Make Butternut Squash Lasagne

Ingredients

1 Large Butternut Squash Peeled and sliced into thin sheets
3 Cups Tomato Puree
1 Jar Red Pesto
1½ Cups Shredded Cheese Cheddar, Emmental or Gruyère
1 Batch Creamed Spinach See post for recipe
1 tbsp Olive Oil For greasing the oven dish

Instructions

Heat the oven to 190°
Grease a Lasagna pan and set to one side ready to assemble the recipe
Make up a batch of creamed spinach (see the post for the recipe) and set to one side
Combine the tomato puree and red pesto
In the greased lasagna pan, add a very thing layer of cheese. This helps create a base for the lasagna as it cooks
In equal layers, add: creamed spinach, butternut squash, pesto tomato mix, cheese. Repeat until you end up with a cheese top
Cover the lasagna with tin foil and cook in the oven for 40 minutes until the butternut squash is fully cooked through. To check this, take it out of the oven and insert a sharp knife. If there is no resistance to the knife from the squash, the squash is cooked. If the squash is not cooked yet, put it back in the oven for 10 minutes and check again
When the squash is fully cooked, uncover the lasagna and let the cheese topping crisp up for 10 minutes
Serve!

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