Family-Friendly Sweet Potato Lasagna
Family-Friendly Sweet Potato Lasagna
This Family-Friendly Sweet Potato Lasagna, full of protein and veggies, is a wonderful way to get a lot of health and a lot of flavor into a weeknight meal with your family.
What Makes this recipe special?
I was skeptical about this dish at first. How could sweet potatoes really make a good substitution for noodles? But, I’m telling you, don’t knock it ’til you try it! I honestly prefer this lasagna over a regular lasagna now.
The tender and creamy consistency of the baked sweet potato I find more tasty than regular noodles that can sometimes seem a bit mushy.
It’s also packed with veggies (sweet potatoes, tomato, onion, spinach) which makes it a very healthy alternative to a regular lasagna.
Sweet potato lasagna means ditching the gluten
Since this family-friendly sweet potato lasagna swaps out the noodles for sweet potatoes, it is a gluten-free dish. Full of protein through the ground beef and cottage cheese, it’s a hearty and filling option if you or your kids are eating a gluten-free diet.
Family-friendly Sweet Potato Lasagna: Let’s get Cookin’!
Preheat oven to 400.
Chop, chop! Slice up those sweet potatoes nice and thin. You can slice them horizontally into disks as well. I feel as though they mimic lasagna noodles better slicing them vertically like the photo. Also, dice the onion and mince the garlic.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil, and sauté onion for about 5 minutes until beginning to soften. Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add ground beef. Stir and cook until no longer pink. Add jar of spaghetti sauce and Italian seasoning. Stir to combine.
Whisk the cottage cheese with the egg. Ready to assemble! Grab your 9×13 pan (this one from Bee & Willow is my favorite!). Start with a layer of sweet potato. Add half of the meat sauce, spread to cover sweet potatoes. Then add half of the cottage cheese/egg mixture, spread so it is an even layer. Add half of the mozzarella, then repeat that same order one more time.
See the video in the recipe card at the end if you want to see each step.
After your second layer of cheese, add the spinach, and finish off with a final sprinkle of mozzarella cheese. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes.
Then, very important! Turn off oven, and leave the lasagna in the oven for 15-20 minutes while the oven cools down. Do not skip this step, your sweet potatoes will not be soft after the initial 45 minutes bake-time.
Family-Friendly Sweet Potato Lasagna
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 yellow/white onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 jar spaghetti sauce
- 1 cup cottage cheese
- 1 egg
- 2 big handfuls of spinach
- 1 bag shredded mozzarella
- 2-3 large sweet potatoes, sliced thin length-wise
- Olive oil
- 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Slice sweet potatoes thin length-wise. Dice the onion and mince the garlic.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil, and sauté diced onion for about 5 minutes until beginning to soften. Add garlic, stir and cook for 1 minute. Add ground beef. Stir and cook until no longer pink.
- While beef cooks, whisk the egg with the cottage cheese. When the beef is cooked, add jar of spaghetti sauce, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
- To assemble lasagna, start with a layer of sweet potato covering the bottom of a 9×13 pan. Add half of the meat sauce, spread to cover sweet potatoes. Then add half of the cottage cheese/egg mixture, spread so it is an even layer. Add a third of the mozzarella, then repeat that same order one more time.
- After your second layer of cheese, add the spinach, and finish off with a final sprinkle of mozzarella cheese. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes. Then, turn off the oven, and leave the lasagna in the oven for 15-20 minutes while the oven cools down. Do not skip this step, your sweet potatoes will not be soft after the initial 45 minutes bake-time. Enjoy!