Gluten-Free Vegetarian Lasagna (Noodle Recommendations)

This gluten-free vegetarian lasagna is super simple but bursting with flavors of fresh herbs and lots of cheesy goodness. Recommendations for gluten-free lasagna noodles (including oven-ready lasagna sheets) are included.

Be sure to check out more of my gluten-free dinner recipes including my comforting gluten-free shepherd’s pie with creamed corn and one-pot vegan chickpea stew.

Gluten-Free Lasagna Sheets/Noodles

There are 2 excellent gluten-free pasta brands that make lasagna noodles. Barilla and Jovial are my go-to brands for pasta. They cook up al dente and don’t get mushy or sticky. You should be able to find one in your grocery store.

Size-wise, I am a little puzzled. Just about every lasagna recipe uses a 9×13 inch pan yet the noodles don’t seem sized for one.

Barilla Lasagna Noodles

Oven ready noodles are dry and EXPAND as they cook. So they need some space around them to expand. The Barilla sheets are a little wide to fit 3 across and still leave space around them. So you can either overlap the long sides a little or trim 2 of them to make them narrower. Just pinch and break off small pieces.

The Barilla noodles cook up al dente and tasty. For the ease of use these are my preference.

Jovial Lasagna Noodles

I am puzzled by the size of the Jovial lasagna noodles. The box says to lay out 4 sheets per layer (in a 9×13 pan). The length of the sheets are not consistent and some are much shorter. This leaves much of the pan uncovered and they don’t break easily to trim and add pieces.

I generally like Jovial products quite a bit, but the inconsistency of the noodles is a kind of a deal breaker for me.

Ingredients

Marinara sauce – It is absolutely okay to use jarred marinara sauce. Making lasagna is a long process and I am all for making it quicker and easier. But I find that most jarred marinara sauces are way too salty. If you use a lot of prepared foods, you may be okay with this. If not, The Silver Palate makes an excellent low-sodium marinara sauce. It still has lots of flavor and a reasonable level of salt.

Tomato paste helps to thicken the marinara which can be too watery for lasagna.

Low-sodium broth – A little bit of broth helps to incorporate the tomato paste. Since lasagna has a lot of salt ingredients already, I recommend a low-sodium broth,

Ricotta cheese – If you have made lasagna before, you may notice that this recipe uses double the amount of ricotta than other recipes. With the usual 16 oz. of ricotta in a 9×13 lasagna, it turns out to be a dish that is mostly noodles with a little filling. I prefer more filling than noodles.

I tested this recipe with part-skim and whole milk ricotta cheese. There was definitely a big difference. The lasagna made with whole milk ricotta was richer, tastier and more satisfying. The part-skim version was lacking in flavor and more herbs didn’t make enough of a difference.

Mozzarella cheese – Unlike the ricotta, you can use part skim or whole milk. Either one will work. I highly recommend using store bought shredded mozzarella. It will make quick work of this recipe. The shredded mozzarella will be layered with the ricotta, sauce, noodles and parmesan.

Grated Parmesan or Romano cheese – Both of these are dry cheeses with an awesome tangy umami flavor. Use whichever one you prefer. Some will mix in with the ricotta to amp up the ricotta. The rest will will be sprinkled on the layers,

Dried Italian seasoning adds concentrated herb flavor to the ricotta cheese mixture.

Lasagna is full of salty ingredients and needs a fresh element to it. So lots of chopped fresh basil is added to the ricotta mixture.

Just a little bit of salt and pepper bring out out all the other flavors in the lasagna.