When I went paleo a year ago, I had a serious problem giving up lasagna. I tried making some paleo lasagna recipes I found around the internet but they all featured a plethora of weird, crumbly homemade imitation pasta that left my mouth feeling pasty. Someone suggested thin-cut eggplant and I was skeptical (definitely NOT an eggplant fan) but I gave it a shot. Oh my holy grail of knockoff noodles! The strong seasoned tomato flavor totally covers up that eggplant vegetable flavor, while their starchiness lends a familiar noodle consistency for a serious family pleaser.
Paleo Lasagna Made with Eggplant Noodles and Nut Cheese
Paleo Lasagna
The strong seasoned tomato flavor pairs perfectly with starchy eggplant noodles for a perfect family pleaser.
Ingredients
- 2.5 lbs lean ground beef
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 6 cups spaghetti sauce
- 2 Eggplants, I use the mandolin for this, cut into 1/8-inch thick slices lengthwise
- 1 1/2 cups almond milk
- 1 1/2 cups cashews, roasted and salted
- 3/4 cup pumpkin seeds
- 3/4 cup walnuts
- 2 Tbsp basil
- 2 Tbsp red chili pepper flakes
- Olive oil
Instructions
- Heat oven to 500 degrees.
- Spread eggplant slices on baking sheets coated with olive oil, and lightly coat the top of each strip with olive oil. Cook both sides of all eggplant slices for 4 minutes, and set aside.
- Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat and sauté onions and garlic until translucent.
- Add beef and cook until no longer pink.
- Stir Contadina Crushed Tomatoes, basil and chili pepper flakes into beef and cook until heated, approximately 3 minutes.
- Stir Contadina Tomato Paste into beef mixture and simmer on low for 10 minutes.
- In a powerful blender, mix almond milk, cashews, pumpkin seeds and walnuts until smooth.
- In a greased 9x13-inch pan, layer half of the beef, half of the eggplant slices and half of the nut mixture and repeat. Cook at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
12Serving Size:
1 servingAmount Per Serving: Calories: 459Total Fat: 26gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 17gCholesterol: 84mgSodium: 343mgCarbohydrates: 25gFiber: 5gSugar: 11gProtein: 35g
If you're feeding this paleo lasagna to picky kids, you might want to peel the eggplants before slicing them. The taste comes out pretty much the same, but the purple edging is a dead giveaway to vegetable-sleuthing kids screaming, “I'm healthy!” Taking away that little ribbon of color means you can sneak this veggie past their palate undetected.
Nut cheese tends to be a little runny and without carby noodles to hold it all together, I like to impart a strong consistency to my beef and tomato base. That's where our homemade spaghetti sauce comes in handy, because it can be thickened to your preference.
So yeah. Nut cheese. Sounds weird, but it's delicious. This is my go-to concoction when I need something creamy in a dairy-free recipe. The strong tomato taste melds perfectly with the delicate softness of nut cheese to totally make this paleo lasagna.
Has your family ever tried paleo lasagna?
This looks delicious!!
Wow, This looks fantastic. I love the idea of using eggplant for the noodles. I am going to have to try this.
This looks great! I can tell you put a lot of work into it. Love the sliced eggplant!
This looks so delicious!!! We have a friend that eats only Gluten-Free so this would be wonderful! It looks so good! I am going to try to make it. Thanks so much.
I like that you use cashews and pumpkin seeds, that must give it such a unique flavor!
That looks really good, but I don’t know that my family would let me get away with making lasagna without dairy cheese!
This sounds amazing! I love eggplant 🙂
This looks so delicious! I never would have thought you could make lasagna paleo!