The Perfect Summer Vegetable Lasagna Recipe
Summer has arrived, which means it’s time for an abundance of summer veggies. Gardens are filled with zucchini, squash, chard, carrots, peppers, and more. Local farmer’s markets provide the freshest produce if you don’t have access to a garden. And I know I’m always looking for new recipes that use some of these ingredients. This vegetarian Summer Vegetable Lasagna Recipe does just that.
Fortunately, my sister has a fantastic kitchen garden that I can access. I send her a text to let her know I’m coming to harvest and collect what I need. For anything she doesn’t grow, I can easily find it at one of several nearby farmer’s markets. In fact, there’s a market almost every day within a few minutes of my home.
I prepared one of my go-to summer recipes this week – Summer Vegetable Lasagna. This dish is brimming with delicious fresh vegetables and bursting with flavor. It’s also incredibly simple to prepare, making it an ideal weeknight dinner option. Plus, the leftovers taste even more amazing.
Get Creative With Your Veggies In Your Summer Vegetable Lasagna Recipe
The recipe requires a variety of summer vegetables, including Swiss chard, yellow squash, zucchini, red bell pepper, onion, and carrot. However, you can experiment and add fresh corn, butternut squash, or substitute kale for the chard. Adding some fresh herbs can enhance the flavor of the dish. Or garnish with fresh basil for added flavor and color. The combination of colors is crucial to this meal since we eat with our eyes first.
The first step is to rough chop the vegetables. Don’t worry about the perfect dice; the large pieces add to the look and texture of the dish.
To make the vegetable filling add olive oil to a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add all the fresh veggies and season with a good pinch of salt and black pepper. Cook for about 10 minutes, you want the chard to wilt and the other veggies to soften slightly.
The best part of almost any lasagna recipe is, without a doubt, the cheese mixture. Here you combine ricotta cheese with cottage cheese, asiago cheese, and parmesan cheese. Add a generous amount of dried oregano and season with salt and pepper. (Adding a little seasoning, usually kosher salt or sea salt, and pepper to every step of your cooking will help build depth of flavor. Don’t just season at the end.) If you like, you can add mozzarella cheese to the mixture.
Making a Béchamel Sauce
Almost every lasagna recipe uses some form of béchamel sauce (white sauce), which is a thickened milk and butter mixture. In fact, making a béchamel is a cooking basic. The key is to melt your butter over medium heat, whisk in the flour and cook for a minute or two. Then add warm milk and bring the mixture to a gentle boil. Often you will find béchamel using nutmeg, which is an excellent addition to the sauce, along with black pepper. Here we add two cloves of garlic to the sauce for added flavor. Usually, whole milk is used, but in reality, you can add skim milk if you want to cut the fat, and you won’t notice it a bit in this recipe.
No Boil Lasagna Noodle
This recipe can be made with no-cook noodles. I like the ease of these noodles. Since this recipe is filled with veggies that will release a lot of water while cooking, it’s the perfect use of the no-boil noodles. Note: I like to quickly boil lasagna noodles for less than 3 minutes to ensure they soften up. But you can add them directly from the box to the recipe without cooking.
Assembly
Putting this dish together is very easy. Pour about three tablespoons of the béchamel on the bottom of the baking dish (preferably an 8×8 or a large rectangular baking dish, sprayed or greased). Add a layer of pasta, followed by the vegetable mixture (go ahead and add any excess liquid from the pan of the veggies, it will help moisten and cook the no-boil noodles). Top this with the ricotta mixture and some more of the béchemal. Repeat on one or two more layers. Finish with a final layer of noodles covered with remaining sauce and top with a thin layer of grated asiago cheese. Loosely cover with aluminum foil and bake. Covering the dish keeps the top from becoming too crunchy. Uncover it near the end of cooking and let it brown a bit.
And now you have dinner tonight! It’s a meatless meal that is super satisfying and packed with flavor. It also takes advantage of the abundant summer produce. Enjoy!
Perfect Summer Vegetable Lasagna
Ingredients
- 8 cups Swiss chard roughly chopped
- 2 cups yellow squash and/or zucchini roughly chopped
- 1-1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup chopped red bell pepper
- 1 cup shredded carrot
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 cloves of garlic minced
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1-1/2 cups milk
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 cup cottage cheese
- 1 cup asiago cheese shredded
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese grated
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- No-boil lasagna noodles
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°
- Heat a Dutch oven and two tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add chard, squash/zucchini, onion, bell pepper, and carrots to the pan. Season with salt and pepper, and sauté for 10 minutes. The chard should wilt, and the other ingredients should start to soften.
- Meanwhile, combine ricotta, cottage cheese, parmesan, 1/2 cup asiago, and oregano to bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
- Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Whisk in flour and cook for 1 minute. Gradually add warm milk while stirring with a whisk. Bring to a gentle boil, stirring until the mixture starts to thicken. Remove from heat.
- Spread three tablespoons of milk mixture over the bottom of a prepared baking dish. arrange three noodles over the milk mixture, top with half the veggie mixture, half the cheese mixture, and 1/3 of the remaining milk mixture. Repeat, ending with a layer of noodles. Spread the remaining milk mixture over the noodles and top with the remaining asiago cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil near the end of the baking time to brown the top slightly. Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting.
