I have always shied away from lasagna. For someone who doesn’t like spending much time in the kitchen, it feels like too much effort for one dinner. That is until I discovered a crock pot lasagna recipe. Now I’m all in. Is it really that much different? No, probably not. But suddenly, to my teenager’s dining pleasure, I’m all in on lasagna.
I started with a recipe from The Girl on Bloor, and then modified it to make it EVEN easier.
Ingredients:
- Cooking spray
- 1 lb extra-lean ground beef (this can be optional, or you can replace with ground turkey or tofu)
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced (or better, keep a jar of the already minced garlic in your refrigerator)
- 1/2 tsp each salt & pepper
- 2 (650mL) jars tomato sauce
- 1 lb lasagna noodles (can use either oven ready or normal) uncooked
- 1 (475g) tub ricotta cheese
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup water
- Chopped fresh basil or parsley, for garnish
- Optional veggie sneak ins: 2 cups shredded zucchini, or finely chopped spinach or other greens.
Instructions:
- In a large frying pan, brown the ground beef over med-high heat. When beef is almost cooked through, add onions, garlic, salt & pepper and 1 jar of tomato sauce, then stir to combine. (If you want to skip the beef or ground turkey, you don’t need to go through this step with the tofu. If you’re sneaking veggies in, add those to this mixture so they are cooked down)
- Spray slow cooker with cooking spray, then layer in a bit of meat/veggie sauce. Add the uncooked lasagna noodles (you may need to break some into pieces to make them fit), then add some ricotta and mozzarella cheese, and more of the meat/veggie sauce. All layers should be about 1 inch thick. Repeat until the slow cooker is full – usually 3 layers total.
- Pour the other jar of tomato sauce overtop of lasagna, then add mozzarella cheese to the top. Pour water in on the sides. Cook on high for 3 hours, or on low for 6 hours.
- Garnish lasagna with basil and/or parsley, then serve and enjoy!