Zucchini lasagna is a veggie, protein and flavor packed healthy dinner! Like all lasagna, it makes a great freezer prep meal and will make enough to feed everyone!
PS NEW RECIPE VIDEO ABOVE THE RECIPE CARD FOR THIS RECIPE!
It’s time for another Recipe Redux challenge!
Get Your Fruits and Veggies in Shape
With produce galore, now’s a great time to enjoy lots of fruits and vegetables. Show us how you’re serving the bounty of gardens and orchards in shapes like ribbons, noodles, cut-outs, or other creative cuts.
Apparently, I love cooking with zucchini for redux challenges (see zucchini chips, zucchini nachos, and easy Italian chicken pasta with zucchini). I couldn’t help it when I saw this challenge I knew immediately that this was my chance to finally make an epic zucchini lasagna.
Now let’s be clear on a few things. First, zucchini lasagna is not a new idea, so many awesome bloggers have spent hours perfecting the idea.
In fact, I would bet there will be fellow reduxers who come up with their own redentions , which I can’t wait to see! What will surprise me is if any of them use my secret cooking weapon, pre-flavored meat.
Listen, people, I’m all about using ground meat or poultry that comes already seasoned. You know why? It tastes amazing on its own so it pretty much makes any recipe taste amazing. That means that you don’t have to add copious amount of cheese to make this low carb delight actually delightful.
Which brings me to my second point. Is this healthy just because it’s low carb? There was a time I might have said yes, but in reality, that isn’t why it’s healthy. It’s healthy because it is rich with veggies, protein and a moderate dose of fat to keep you full and provide essential nutrients.
Recently, I’ve seen recipes online promoting low carb that have more calories and fat in them per mouthful than I even thought was possible. Low carb isn’t the end all be all, even though I don’t fully advocate relying on calorie counting, calories do still matter.
A low carb recipe packed with twice as many calories as the regular version, in theory, would be ultra filling, but I’m not sure if that is the answer for everyone.
What I do know is most of us struggle to get in enough veggies at every meal. Subbing out grain ingredients with low carb veggies can help us all get more veggies in and balance our carbohydrate intake throughout the day a bit better.
I also know that I quite literally got texts from Mr. Hungry telling me how good this was. Then I got another stating “I just realized there are no noodles in this!
This is amazing, this is going to be huge!” Well, he didn’t know, I wasn’t the brilliant person (I wish I knew who did) who thought of this initially, but if that doesn’t give you a reason try my version I don’t know what would!
Zucchini Noodle Lasagna with Italian Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 zucchini medium
- 1 onion small, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
- 1 pound Italian ground chicken
- 2 cups marinara sauce divided 1/2 cup, 1/2 cup, and 1/2-1 cup
- 16 ounces whole milkricotta
- 1/4 cup egg whites
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon basil
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 4 ounces mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Use a mandolin on the largest setting to make zucchini noodles.
- Place zucchini on cooking sheets and bake for 10 minutes to help dry them out (DO NOT SKIP)
- Saute onion and garlic for 3-4 minutes until tender and translucent. Add in ground chicken and Saute for about 5 minutes until almost fully cooked. Add in 1/2 cup marinara and cook for another 5 minutes.
- While chicken is cooking layer 1/2 cup marinara on the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan. When zucchini is done baking, line the bottom of the dish with one layer of zucchini noodles.
- Mix ricotta, egg white, parmesan cheese and seasonings in a large bowl. When meat mixture is done cooking add it into the bowl and mix well.
- Layer 1/2 the mixture over the zucchini noodles. Add another layer of zucchini and layer the rest of the meat mixture on top.
- Layer the last layer of zucchini noodles over the top. Next spread 1/2 -1 cup marinara over the top. Layer with 4 ounces mozzarella cheese.
- Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes, remove foil and bake for an additional 20-25 minutes.
Video
Notes
2. I opted to use whole milk ricotta and a little less mozzarella for more flavor. (Trust me I bought the fat free ricotta and the whole milk ricotta. Fat-free taste like cardboard paste, treat yo self and get the good stuff.
3. Look for no sugar added and no oil marinara like TJ's traditional marinara.
Nutrition
Makes 6-8 servings, nutrition analysis estimate for 6 servings:
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This sounds amazing! I’m always looking for a healthier lasagna recipe, so this is going to be my go to next time!
This looks great! Do you think it would work without the ricotta and/or parmesan? My fiancé and I don’t care for cheese, but love the idea of an italian chicken casserole!
Thanks, as always for the creative recipe and meal inspiration 🙂
That is a really good question! My thoughts are that it would work it just wouldn’t be creamy. I would add more sauce to make up for it. Let me know how it goes if you try it!
I’d like to make this but I’m wondering, what size dish should it be made in? My best guess is 9×13?
Yes! I’ll update the recipe right now!