Easy to make and delicious! Easy Lasagna that’s gluten-free and dairy-free. Freezes well so it’s a great meal to make ahead. Low-carb, THM-S.
(This post contains affiliate links. Any purchases you make through my links will provide me with a small commission at no extra charge to you. Thank you for your support! See my disclosure policy here.)
My dear friend, Carla, used to make an amazing lasagna that was legendary in our circles. Her recipe called for extra basil and it was so good. Since going gluten and dairy-free, I have missed that lasagna and I’ve had more than one little “sigh” thinking back on it.
When the new Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook came out this fall, I was happy to see that there were many dairy-free recipes in the book, but then I came across the Lazy Lasagna, which is not dairy-free. Oh, I wanted lasagna. Their recipe uses spinach in place of noodles and it got me to thinking, how can I make a lasagna like that, but dairy-free. I often use sheep cheese as a cow-dairy replacement, but I wanted something completely dairy-free. Then I remembered the white sauce that I make for my baked salmon and wondered if it could work as a dairy replacement in lasagna.
So I combined three different recipes to come up with this gluten-free, dairy-free delicious easy lasagna. I hope your family loves it as much as mine does. It’s good to have lasagna back in our lives!
Notes on a couple ingredients used in my Easy Lasagna:
- This recipe uses glucomannan which is a natural thickener from the konjac plant and is a low-glycemic food. It only takes a little bit to thicken your recipes. This is an ingredient that you probably won’t find at a local store, but you will be able to find it on Amazon or at Trim Healthy Mama.
- I also have nutritional yeast in this recipe. This gives the white sauce a nice cheesy flavor. You may not be able to find it locally either. I buy mine from Amazon. If you’d like further information on the health benefits of nutritional yeast, there’s a great article on Dr. Axe’s website.
For Trim Healthy Mamas this is an S.
Print
Easy Lasagna (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free)
- Category: Dinner
Description
Super easy to make lasagna that is gluten-free, dairy-free, and low-carb. If you don’t use a microwave be sure to start your spinach thawing early in the day.
Ingredients
- 2 10 oz. blocks of frozen spinach, thawed
- 2 lbs ground beef or turkey
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 1/2 tablespoons basil
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- salt & pepper to taste
- 1 26 oz. jar of spaghetti sauce, sugar-free
- 1 cup mayo
- 1 14 oz can coconut milk
- 2 eggs
- 5 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon glucomannan
Instructions
- Brown you ground beef or turkey in large skillet. When your meat is almost finished browning add in the onion, basil, oregano, garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Continue cooking until the onions are translucent and your kitchen in smelling amazing. Mix in the jar of spaghetti sauce.
- While your meat is cooking, whisk together in a medium bowl the mayo, coconut milk, 2 eggs, nutritional yeast, onion powder, cayenne, and sea salt. After everything is mixed well sprinkle the glucomannan over the mixture and then whisk it in. Let set while you drain your spinach.
- Drain your spinach in a colander lined with a cheese cloth or a wire mesh colander. You can use wax paper or saran wrap to cover the spinach and then push on the wax paper to keep your hands from getting spinach on them.
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Spread one half of the meat sauce in a 9″ x 13″ baking dish. Layer half of the spinach over the meat sauce and then half of the white sauce. Repeat the layers.
- Bake for 40 minutes.
Jolene
Would you be able to share your friend Carla’s recipe as well? No dietary restrictions here, so I’m dying to try that legendary, basil-packed recipe you mentioned!
Nikki
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe with other dairy free families! ? We have really missed lasagna!
louellen lawson
This looks VERY tasty. I have it on my list!
Joy
I made this tonight for my daughter’s birthday as a gluten/dairy free option for some of our guests. The adults loved it, and several asked for the recipe. Thanks so much for posting this! It is delicious!
Terri
Looks yummy and you can use eggplant or zucchini as noodle replacements too. 🙂
MamaShire
Hi Terri! Yes, those would be yummy too. ❤️
Marcy
I it for my friends for game night and they loved it.
MamaShire
Yay! So glad they loved it. I just made it for my extended family and it went over really well with them too!
Jennifer Ermenio
Do you have an alternative for the glucomannan? I’d rather not order something online when I’m not sure how much I’ll use it.
MamaShire
Jennifer, the glucommanan is a low-carb starch and it lasts a long time because it’s thickening properties are high and it doesn’t take much to thicken a recipe. With that in mind you could try another starch, like cornstarch or potato starch. If you are following the Trim Healthy Mama plan those starches are not considered on plan. You could also try a small amount of coconut flour, it will thicken a recipe a little bit.
Maria
This looks delicious! This may be asking too much, but can I substitute the mayo?
MamaShire
You could try making it without the mayo, but it really adds a nice creamy texture and taste to the dish.
Kathy
This is my new favorite. Love that I can have lasagna (without dairy). Have made it several times. Yum! Thanks.
MamaShire
So glad that you like it!
Victoria
I am curious wether you can assemble this the day before and cook it the next day? I take the day off of Mom Duties on Saturday, so I usually prepare the dinner meal for Saturday on Friday.
MamaShire
Looking over the recipe, I think as long as you have squeezed as much liquid out of the spinach as possible it should work. You could go ahead and bake it on Friday and then pop it back in the oven on Saturday to reheat and it should still seem freshly baked.
Eileen
Could you use tapioca starch instead of the glucommanan?
MamaShire
I haven’t tried that but I’m sure it would work, you would need to adjust the amounts. It would probably need a little more tapioca than glucommanan. Tapioca starch isn’t on plan with THM if you’re following that.
Joyce
Hello – this looks delicious as I am also GF/DF and need to be egg free! Yikes. Do you think this recipe would work with flax eggs or even just one egg?
Thank you!
MamaShire
The egg gives it some stability, but you could certainly leave it out. The texture will be just a little different, but should still taste great!
Tiffany
Have you tried this using fresh spinach leaves? I have some on hand & am wondering what would happen if I used them instead of frozen…thoughts? SOOO excited for this DF alternative!! THANK YOU!
MamaShire
I haven’t tried it with fresh yet. If you do try it I’d love to hear how it turned out. I would think that you would need a good amount of spinach since it cooks down so much.
Kitty
I wasted 3 sheets of paper to print the recipe and I can hardly find the recipe. 2/3 of each sheet is wasted with jewelry ads and I don’t wear jewelry
MamaShire
I’m so sorry that you had trouble printing my recipe, I didn’t realize it was doing that. I’ve contacted my ad network and they’ve changed it so that shouldn’t be a problem anymore.
Traci
do you have a suggestion for the coconut milk? after months and months of my teen daughter being gluten and dairy free but still getting her “grinch” belly and having nausea and headaches, we found out she’s highly allergic to coconut and flax. basically by feeding her paleo to address her gluten and dairy allergies, I was poisoning her! 😉 so all of our dairy and gluten free recipes have coconut, flax, and/or coconut milk and we are trying to find new recipes!
MamaShire
I’m so sorry to hear that. I would substitute with cashew or almond milk.
Nikole
This was amazing. I used some ground chicken sausage, which really gave the whole thing a good “kick” (especially paired with the cayenne!). The sauce was so thin that I wasn’t sure I’d used enough glucomannan, but everything turned out so nicely in the end! Most of my family is dairy-free, and half of us are also gluten-free, so this was a wonderful way to get a lasagna-type flavor and feel without dealing with the usual offenders! This will definitely be in rotation here!
★★★★★
MamaShire
Glad you all liked it and I like the idea of chicken sausage, sounds like a great substitution!