Quick and easy meat and cheese lasagna without the lasagna noodles! Skip the noodles and grab a large sweet potato to make lasagna faster and without gluten! Loads of cheese and meat, with spinach and your favorite sauce for a healthier weeknight dinner.
Healthier, Gluten Free, Sweet Potato Lasagna
This lasagna is made from all natural, unprocessed ingredients...all 9 of them! For weeknight dinners I need to keep it quick and simple, but I still want it to be healthy...hello!
I know "healthy" can mean a bunch of different things depending on what your needs are. When I say this is healthy lasagna, I mean there are tons of veggies, lots of protein, minimally processed ingredients and a reasonable amount of calories for a dinner dish.
Thinly Cut Sweet Potatoes
Find one large, round sweet potato weighing in at roughly one pound and you're good to go.
The key is cutting them in thin, evenly sliced pieces. You can use a mandolin, but I usually just use a nice sharp chef's knife.
Mandolins are harder to clean and the last bit of the sweet potatoes tend to stick if you don't have one that's restaurant quality.
Sweet Potato Substitutes
If you want to mix things up, you can definitely use different veggies. Butternut squash will work pretty much interchangeably.
Zucchini will work - however it does hold a lot more water. A quick way to expel that water before cooking is to slice it (lengthwise, about ¼-inch thick).
Then lay the slices out on a sheet pan and sprinkle with salt. Let them hang out there for a about 5 minutes and you'll see a lot of that water bead up on the zucchini. Pat that moisture down with a paper towel and you're good to go!
Easy and Flavorful Meat Sauce
I like to sauté an onion and then brown the meat, just to add a little extra flavor. You could do garlic too, if you love garlic as much as I do.
I love the roasted garlic sauce from Muir Glen, so I didn't feel the need to add any extra garlic.
4 cups of spinach adds more texture and nutrients to this dish.
If you hate spinach, leave it out, if you love spinach add more!
If spinach isn't your thing, but you want to load this recipe with more veggies my Garden Veggie Marinara goes perfect in this.
Meat Substitutions
Any ground meat does well in lasagna, so don't feel confined to ground turkey or beef. Think outside the box and look for bison, lamb, pork or venison.
[su_highlight background="#e7efef"]PRO TIP:[/su_highlight] If you use a meat that is higher in fat than 90/10, drain the drippings to avoid a greasy sauce.
OTHER HEALTHY SKILLET DINNERS
- Low Carb Spaghetti Squash Chicken Carbonara
- Whole30 Lemon Pepper Shrimp Skillet
- One Pan Garden Veggie Meatballs and Marinara
📖 Recipe
Sweet Potato Skillet Lasagna
Ingredients
- 1 medium sweet potato ((peeled and cut into ¼-inch slices))
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion
- 1 ½-2 pounds lean ground turkey or beef
- salt and pepper
- 1 (35 ounce) jar tomato pasta sauce
- 4 cups spinach ((stems trimmed off))
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Place potatoes in a microwave safe bowl with about ¼ cup water and cover with a tea towel or wet paper towel. Cook potato slices for 2 minutes and allow to cool.
- Meanwhile, heat oil in a 12" heatproof skillet; add onion and sauté until softened, about 3 minutes. Add meat and cook until fully browned.
- Pour the sauce into the skillet with the meat as well as the spinach. Carefully fold together until the spinach has wilted. Add salt and pepper to mixture as needed.
- Using a large spoon or ladle. scoop out half of the meat mixture into a separate bowl. Drop half of the ricotta into small dollops over the entire skillet, then sprinkle half the mozzarella over the top.
- Arrange the sweet potato slices on top of the meat and cheese layers. Pour the remaining meat mixture over the sweet potatoes and then the remaining ricotta and mozzarella.
- Place the skillet in the oven, uncovered and cook for 20-25 minutes or until the cheese is brown and bubbling. Let it cool for 10 minutes so that it can set before serving. Enjoy!
Nutrition
RECIPE EQUIPMENT
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Jane
Awesome! Simple enough my picky kid likes it and my pasta free husband loves it too. Quick, easy, delicious.