April 1, 2021

How To Make Crock Pot Lasagna with Zucchini

Name: How To Make Crock Pot Lasagna with Zucchini
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 3 h
Total time: 3 h 20 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 3-4 zucchini, thinly sliced; 4 cups of tomato sauce (about 1/5 jars of sauce); 1.5 cups shredded mozzarella (split between 2 steps); 15 oz low moisture/part skim ricotta cheese; 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese; 13 sheets of lasagna

Recipes, Dinner, Pasta, Vegetarian, Weeknight Meals

A few weeks ago, I was looking at some old recipes that need refreshing and I came across this crock pot lasagna from 2017. When I first made this, Adam had claimed that he didn’t like zucchini at all… and then he went CRAZY for it and asked me to make it all the time ? I love veggie wins!!

To be honest, before this recipe, I used to stray away from making lasagna because it’s usually a lot of work and not at all healthy. Most recipes call for way more cheese, ground beef (or something similar), and sometimes even a bechamel sauce. I may like to cook, but I’m not really interested in putting that much effort in for a weeknight meal, are you?! So instead, this recipe cuts the greasy meat, has just the right amount of cheese, and adds a little health factor with zucchini, which also meals that you can use less lasagna sheets. Or none at all if you want to leave them out!

But the best part of all of this is that once you’ve layered everything, it just does it’s thing in a crock pot. It’s truly a set it and forget it situation… and then 3 hours later, you’ve got a delicious cozy meal ready for your whole family! SO EASY! (This recipe also freezes well if you’re only cooking for 1 or 2 people!)

Scroll down for the recipe and more photos! I actually kept some of the old process shots because I thought I did a pretty good job with them back in 2017 – but I needed to get some new pictures of the final product because check out those LAYERS! Yum yum yum yum!

How To Make Crock Pot Lasagna

Ingredients

3-4 zucchini, thinly sliced
4 cups of tomato sauce (about 1/5 jars of sauce)
1.5 cups shredded mozzarella (split between 2 steps)
15 oz low moisture/part skim ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
13 sheets of lasagna

Instructions

1. Wash your zucchini and thinly slice them lengthwise. I like to use a mandolin for this, but you can also cut them with a knife.

2. Add ricotta, ½ cup mozzarella and 1/2 cup parmesan to a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Stir to combine and set aside.

3. Spoon tomato sauce into the bottom your crock pot.

4. Add a layer of zucchini, followed by a layer of lasagna sheets. I usually use 2-3 lasagna sheets per layer, with one of them split in half to fit in the crock pot. You can use less or more depending on your preference though!

5. Spread the ricotta mixture over the layer. It may not cover every bit, but that’s okay! Just do your best to evenly smooth it out with a spatula.

6. Spoon a thin layer of tomato sauce on top of that.

7. Layer again with zucchini, lasagna sheets, ricotta mixture, tomato sauce, zucchini, lasagna sheets, ricotta, tomato sauce, etc.

8. Finish with a layer of pasta topped with sauce, and then sprinkle the remaining cup of shredded mozzarella cheese on top.

9. Cover your crock pot and cook on high for 3 hours.

10. Serve warm and enjoy!

How To Make Crock Post Lasagna Variations

Gluten Free

If you are gluten free, don’t worry! My favorite brown rice pasta brand, Jovial Foods, makes a great lasagna noodle. I have found them on Amazon and Thrive Market, as well as in store at Jewel-Osco and Whole Foods.

Low Carb

Want to ditch the noodles entirely? You can do that, too! I would probably switch the ingredient list from 3-4 zucchini to 5-6 zucchini if that is the case so that you have plenty of slices to layer them really close together so you can lift each lasagna slice out without it totally falling apart once it’s done. So delicious!!!

Add Meat

If you need to bulk this recipe up for your family, I would suggest ground turkey or turkey sausage. Just add the meat (if you use sausage, make sure it’s raw and remove it from the casing) to a pan with olive oil. Break the meat up as it cooks. Once it’s done, drain off any excess liquid or grease and layer it in the lasagna in between the cheese and the sauce. For example: zucchini layer, noodle layer, cheese layer, *add the meat layer*, then sauce, and repeat!