Awhile ago, someone on my YouTube channel mentioned that they’d like to see me make a lasagna with three different types of cheeses. Well I’m not the biggest cheese person, but vegan cheese sounds great! So ta-da! Introducing this vegan cheese and eggplant lasagna.

First, I’d like to give credit where it’s due and share that I found the base for this recipe through Kate from Cookie + Kate in her Eat Real Food book. This book is one of my favorites and it’s filled with delicious vegetarian food. Kate still loves cheese, though she provides plenty of vegan options.

Katheryne Brown's original Roasted Eggplant Lasagna recipe

So to give myself a challenge, and because I’m not the biggest fan of dairy, I decided to make a vegan version of her recipe! I used all vegan cheese – with Follow Your Heart mozzarella and homemade cottage cheese!

Follow Your Heart Mozzarella Shredded Cheese

vegan cottage cheese that I made — Follow Your Heart Mozzarella Shredded Cheese

Much thanks to Vegan Family Recipes for their vegan cottage cheese recipe. Alternatively, you can find packaged vegan cottage cheese at health & organic markets, but all the stores were closed by the time I started preparing my vegan eggplant lasagna.

This vegan eggplant lasagna was a lot of work, but it was absolutely worth it. If the two hour preparation time isn’t feasible to you, note that you can cut it down by buying your own vegan cottage cheese, tomato sauce, and making sure you buy oven-ready lasagna.

Otherwise, I have all the resources ready for you in this recipe here! Scroll down to see some visual guides for how I layered the tomato sauce, cheeses, lasagna, and eggplant.

Vegan Eggplant Lasagna with Vegan Cheese

This delicious lasagna recipe is adapted from Cookie+Kate's Love Real Food but includes a vegan twist with plant-based cottage cheese and mozzarella.

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Prep Time 2

Cook Time 30

Course Dinner

Cuisine American

Servings 4 people

Equipment

food processor
large baking dish, 9×9 or larger
Parchment Paper
skillet
foil

Ingredients

Roasted Eggplant

1 medium eggplant
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
salt & pepper

Tomato Sauce

1 can diced tomatoes, drained
¼ cup chopped fresh basil or two tablespoons ground basil
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
½ sea salt
¼ red pepper flakes

Vegan Cottage Cheese

12.3 oz silken tofu
3 tablespoons raw cashews, soaked
3 tablespoons almond milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon nutritional yeast

Spinach Mixture

¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chopped red onion
4 cloves garlic
5-6 ounces baby spinach
salt and pepper

Putting it All Together

9 no-boil oven ready lasagna noodles
2 cups vegan mozzarella
fresh basil for garnish

Instructions

Roast the Eggplant

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Slice off the round ends of the eggplant and then slice on its long side. Make your slices about half an inch thick, as even as you can. You toss the slices with the skin still on it.
Brush those slabs with olive oil, and then arrange them on the baking sheet. Add salt and pepper and roast for 20 minutes, turning halfway.

Make the Tomato Sauce

To make the tomato sauce from scratch, combine the tomatoes, basil, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper flakes. Process until it is smooth and nearly pureed, and then set aside in a bowl.

Make the Vegan Cottage Cheese

Crumble up silken tofu and add it to the food processor with cashews, almond milk, vinegar, and nutritional yeast until smooth to turn into sauce. Set the cottage cheese mixture aside.

Make Spinach Mixture

Warm olive oil over medium heat into a skillet and cook the onion with salt. Cook and stir until onion is translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
Toss in spinach until all of the spinach has wilted, for about 3 minutes.
Put the whole mixture into the food processor and pulse until it's chopped, but not pureed, about 5-7 pulses. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and mix with the cottage cheese, with salt and pepper.

Assemble it all together

Spread half a cup of tomato sauce over the bottom of your dish. Layer 3 lasagna noodles on top. Spread half the cottage cheese and spinach mixture over the noodles evenly. Then arrange half the eggplant slices over it. Top that with ¾ cup tomato sauce and half a cup of vegan mozzarella.
Top with 3 more noodles, and the remaining cottage cheese mixture. Arrange the rest of the eggplant over the slices. Sprinkle another half cup of the mozzarella on top.
Finally, top with the 3 remaining noodles, and spread the last ¾ cup of tomato sauce over the top to cover the noodles. Sprinkle with the last cup of vegan mozzarella.
Wrap a sheet of foil over the lasagna carefully so it doesn't touch the cheese. Bake covered for 18 minutes, and then take the cover off, rotate the pan, and bake for another 12 minutes, or longer until the cheese melts and the top begins to darken slightly. This may vary if your mixtures are more watery.
Remove from oven and let the lasagna cool for 15-20 minutes. Then, garnish with basil and serve.

Notes

This is a doozy of a recipe, but it can be simplified through the following.

You can use store-bought tomato sauce or even pasta sauce instead of the homemade provided recipe.
You can also use store-bought vegan cream cheese, (Kite Hill is one such brand.)
Lastly, use oven-ready lasagna. If you can’t find those, just prepare your lasagna per the package instructions and strain before using.

This lasagna does great as leftovers, as cooling it in the refrigerator helps the layers to seal better together.

Keyword Eggplant, Lasagna, vegan, Vegan Lasagna

Putting it all together

lasagna over the pasta sauce — *First you start with pasta sauce and lasagna noodles.*

now add spinach-cottage cheese and eggplant — *First you start with pasta sauce and lasagna noodles.*

As someone that grew up in a Chinese household, this might be the first time I’ve had lasagna that I enjoyed! Not to rag on lasagna… but the ones in school lunches were never too great.

This dish was a ton of work, but I’m glad I made it.

finished vegan eggplant lasagna dish — This ended up being watery because I forgot to strain my tomatoes… doh! But it still tasted amazing!

What do you think? If you enjoyed this, definitely check out Cookie + Kate‘s Eat Real Food book for the masterpiece of the idea. I don’t promote cookbooks unless I like them, and this one has definitely been one of my most utilized cookbooks of all time.

And thanks to Vegan Family Recipes for their vegan cottage cheese recipe.

What’s next? I can’t wait to share more of my hearty dinner favorites!

Note, this blog post is not sponsored by Cookie + Kate, Vegan Family Recipes, or Kite Hill. However, it contains an affiliate link from Amazon. I get a small commission if items are purchased through the link at no cost to the buyer, regardless of the item of choice being promoted.

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