Stovetop Zucchini Noodles Lasagna
Try this Stovetop Zucchini Noodles Lasagna recipe, or contribute your own.
Try this Stovetop Zucchini Noodles Lasagna recipe, or contribute your own.
- 1 large onion finely chopped
- 1 cup water (optional)
- 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 3 large garlic cloves crushed
- 2 large zucchini spiralized
- 2 tsp coconut or avocado oil divided
- 1 lb ground meat (chicken turkey, bison or extra lean beef)
- 2 cups pasta sauce organic*
- 11 oz baby spinach (1 box)
- 17 oz tub cottage cheese
- 14 oz can white navy beans rinsed and drained
- salt ground black pepper & parmesan cheese to taste (i used a pinch of each)
- Carbohydrate 82.0257631956717 g
- Cholesterol 10.28 mg
- Fat 13.8746346820809 g
- Fiber 13.5657451653894 g
- Protein 9.99393115654357 g
- Saturated Fat 3.6014101734104 g
- Serving Size 1 1 recipe (2056g)
- Sodium 2129.48417922102 mg
- Sugar 68.4600180302823 g
- Trans Fat 1.13502647398844 g
- Calories 503 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat dutch oven on low-medium heat and swirl oil to coat.
- Add onion and garlic; cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add ground meat and cook until browned a bit, breaking into pieces and stirring.
- Add pasta sauce, balsamic vinegar and baby spinach in batches.
- Stir and add more spinach; cook until spinach is wilted, a few minutes.
- Add cottage cheese and beans; stir gently, cover and cook for 10 minutes.
- Add zucchini noodles, cover, turn off the heat and let lasagna sit for 5 minutes.
- Add water for thinner consistency if desired.
- Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and adjust salt and pepper to taste, if necessary.
What happens to the liquid when spiralized vegetables release their water directly into a simmering meat sauce? Zucchini contains roughly ninety-five percent water by weight, meaning untamed moisture can easily turn a cohesive skillet dish into soup. Managing that hydration requires understanding how starches and dairy interact with high-water produce in a single pot.
- Substitute ground chicken or turkey at a one-to-one ratio for beef or bison without altering the cooking time, though lean poultry requires an extra teaspoon of oil to prevent sticking in a cast-iron Dutch oven.
- Add the baby spinach in three separate handfuls rather than all at once, allowing the volume to reduce by half each time so the pot maintains an even simmer.
- Rinse and drain canned white navy beans thoroughly to remove excess starch that might otherwise thicken the sauce inconsistently alongside the cottage cheese.
- Turn off the heat entirely before adding the spiralized zucchini noodles, letting the covered Dutch oven sit for exactly five minutes so the squash softens without turning translucent and watery.
Cottage cheese provides a high-protein curd structure that mimics traditional ricotta when heated gently, but blending it first creates a smoother emulsion. Leftovers keep safely in a sealed container for up to three days, though reheating requires low heat to prevent the dairy solids from breaking.
