Zucchini Noodle Pesto Lasagna
You guys, I took this glorious pesto that I made the other day and smeared it all over some zucchini and made us lasagna.
It. Is. SO. Good. And surprisingly, even husband approved. This recipe is the kind of thing that Kenny likes to call “girl food”. I guess because it’s light, and won’t leave you wanting to take a nap like regular lasagna would. This lasagna is FULL of vegetables, like basically 90% of it is veg. But somehow it is still so comforting, it’s a win win.
So, let’s talk about all of the crazy substitutions that are going on here. We have zucchini instead of noodles, which means less carbs, more vitamins and good stuff. We have pesto instead of tomato sauce, which of course is just subbing a veg for a veg, but this pesto makes it folks. Seriously. It is stuffed with spinach and parsley, so you are getting a huge amount of green goodness here. Then we layer on some ground turkey for protein, roasted red pepper for a little color and fun, and goat cheese instead of mozzarella. Dairy sensitive friends, I got your back.
I will definitely be making this again, especially since Kenny likes it. The only piece of advice I will give you is to be patient when you cut into it. It will fall apart a little because all of the fillings are not encased by big noodles. But not to fear, just reassemble it a little and stuff it in your pie hole. The deliciousness will make up for it.
Ingredients
- 4 medium sized zucchini (cut in to thin strips, lengthwise)
- 1 lb lean ground turkey
- 1 batch of pesto
- 3/4 cup roasted red peppers (drained and chopped)
- 5 oz goat cheese
- pinch of salt and pepper
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Preheat a skillet over medium-high heat, add olive oil and turkey, season with salt and pepper. Stir occasionally, cook for about 5 minutes, until the turkey is slightly brown. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
- In a 9x13 casserole dish, smear about 1/4 cup of the pesto on the bottom of the dish. Lay out one even layer of zucchini strips to cover the bottom.
- Then sprinkle about half of the turkey over the zucchini, followed by about half of the red peppers and about 1 oz of goat cheese.
- Then keep layering in this order. Pesto, zucchini, turkey, peppers, goat cheese. You will end up with a third layer of zucchini on top.
- Smear the rest of the pesto all over the top layer of zucchini, covering everything, then sprinkle the rest of the goat cheese over the top. Cover with foil, and bake for about 35 minutes.
- Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes to brown the top a little bit.
- Remove from the oven and let it sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting it.
- Serve and enjoy!