This cheesy pesto lasagna with garlicky red sauce is amazing! Enjoy this gluten-free lasagna recipe, made with no-boil brown rice noodles for any dinner!
Gluten-Free Lasagna Recipe
I only make gluten-free lasagna, partly because it’s easier on my digestion and somewhat because I enjoy brow rice noodles more. I do not eat gluten-containing foods unless it’s homemade with sourdough. So we always buy Jovial brand pasta at the grocery store, and it’s easy to cook and arguably better than wheat pasta.
Lasagna with no-boil noodles
My favorite part of this recipe is that it is a no-boil lasagna recipe, which makes it relatively easy.
The brown rice pasta that I love is also perfect for no-boil lasagna. I usually rinse the dry pasta with some cool water before layering it in the pan with the sauce and cheese.
Cheesy Pesto Lasagna Recipe
I went a little light on the cheese when I made this recipe for photographing it because I ran out of cheese. Ideally, I would have added more cheese, as the recipe states. Gosh, I cannot wait to have a dairy cow one day, so I can make all the cheese I want.
Feel free to adjust the cheese to your liking and add more types of cheese if you want! I love mozzarella, feta, and parmesan in my lasagna.
For the pesto, you can make your own or get it from the store. CLICK HERE for my absolute favorite pesto I get from Whole Foods Market.
Making this Lasagna Vegan
You may have found this recipe from a vegan lasagna pin on Pinterest.
That’s because this was once a vegan lasagna recipe, but it wasn’t the greatest, so I updated it. Since I’m no longer a vegan, neither is this recipe. It’s easy to make a vegan version of my lasagna recipe, though.
Here are the substitutions you can make:
- switch out the cheese for a mix of vegan cheese, tahini, and nutritional yeast. I can’t stand the taste of vegan cheese shreds, so adding a bit of nutty tahini and umami nutritional yeast helps.
- switch out the ground beef for crumbled chickpeas, chopped summer squash, and eggplant.
- make sure the pesto you use doesn’t contain cheese.
Ingredients and Pesto Lasagna Pairing
- How to Make the Healthiest Naturally Fermented Garlic
- Fermented Pepperoncini Recipe
- Sourdough Garlic Dinner Rolls
Gluten-Free Cheesy Pesto Lasagna
This cheesy pesto lasagna with garlicky red sauce is amazing! Enjoy this gluten-free lasagna recipe, made with no-boil brown rice noodles for any dinner!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 26 ounces tomato puree
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoons fermented garlic, minced
- 5 fermented peperoncini peppers, diced
- 1/4 cup fermented onion, minced
- 1 sprig of fresh thyme
- 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
- 16 ounces brown rice lasagna noodles
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/4 cup pesto
- 2 cups fresh spinach
- 20 ounces of fresh mozzarella
- 8 ounces crumbled feta
Instructions
- Over medium heat in a medium pot, brown the ground beef. Drain off any excess fat, remove the meat from the pot and set it aside.
- Heat the olive oil in the same pot over medium heat. Cook the onions, garlic, and peppers until they begin to brown.
- Add the ground beef back in and mix well. Add 1/4 cup of water to deglaze the bottom of the pot.
- Add in the tomato puree, salt, thyme, and basil. Reduce the heat to low.
- Bring the sauce to a simmer and stir for about 15 minutes, then remove the thyme sprig.
- Preheat your oven to 375° F.
- Rub the sides and bottom of a large deep ceramic or glass pan with butter (should be about 13 by 9 inches and 3 inches deep). Add 1/2 cup of sauce to the bottom of the pan and evenly spread it out.
- You should get three layers of noodles with 16 ounces of lasagna noodles, so divide the remaining sauce, cheese, and spinach into thirds for even layers. (tip: I rinse the dry noodles with a little cool water before layering; this helps them bake better)
- Layer the lasagna, starting with the noodles, then sauce, then spinach, then mozzarella cheese. Repeat until you have three layers of noodles, sauce, spinach, and cheese, ending with cheese on top.
- Add the crumbled feta in with the top layer of cheese.
- Cover tightly with foil and bake for 45 minutes.
- Uncover and bake for 15 more minutes.
- Drizzle the pesto over the top of the lasagna. Allow it to cool for 15 minutes, then cut, and serve.
Notes
If you do not have fermented garlic, onions and peppers, just use fresh.
Keywords: pesto, cheese, lasagna
