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Made with simple everyday ingredients, you will love this meatless take on lasagna! This Eggplant Parmesan Lasagna is packed with flavor and just as comforting as a classic traditional lasagna. This healthy lasagna recipe is hearty and will satisfy a crowd.
Lasagna is always a hit around our household as it’s hearty, flavorful, and the perfect comfort dish. To change things up, I love to swap in this eggplant parmesan lasagna for days we want to lighten things up. Layered with roasted eggplants, cheeses, and marinara sauce, this baked eggplant parmesan will disappear fast!
Take your lasagnas to another level by trying my Greek Alfredo Lasagna Rolls or Creamy Chicken Alfredo Lasagna. I love a twist on a classic! Both are super easy to make and are family favorites!
Why You’ll Love This Meatless Lasagna
- It’s vegetarian-friendly. This is a great recipe if you want to eat less meat for dinner or have a vegetarian friend stopping by for dinner. Your family won’t even miss the meat!
- It’s flavorful. Making the marinara sauce from scratch leads to such a flavorful dish. You can also season to suit your personal tastes. Like it spicy? Add a pinch of cayenne pepper. Like it sweeter? Add more sugar!
- It’s gluten-free. Not a fan of pasta or can’t have gluten? This eggplant parmesan is perfect for you.
Eggplant Lasagna and Marinara Sauce Ingredients
- Olive oil: or neutral oil of your choice.
- Onion: I used a yellow onion but you can use any onion of your choice.
- Garlic: I prefer fresh garlic and not pre-minced garlic
- Tomato: you’ll need tomato paste and crushed tomatoes.
- Seasoning: you’ll need Italian seasonings, red chili flakes, salt, and pepper.
- Sugar: you need a bit to balance out the acidity of the tomatoes.
- Fresh basil: to add that iconic herb flavor to the sauce.
- Eggplants: avoid overly large eggplants as they’re less bitter.
- Cheese: you’ll need ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, and mozzarella cheese.
- Egg: the egg will bind everything together.
- Fresh parsley: it’s for garnish as it adds a nice pop of color.
How To Make Eggplant Parmesan
- Prepare the equipment: Preheat the oven to 400 degree F. Line a parchment paper on a baking tray and keep it aside.
- Prepare the marinara sauce: Heat a saucepan with olive oil, add yellow onion and garlic. Sauté for 2-3 minutes until onions turn translucent.
- Add in the tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, Italian seasonings, sugar, red chili flakes, salt, and pepper. Let the sauce simmer for 10-15 minutes until the sauce thickens a bit. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the fresh basil leaves and set aside.
- Roast the eggplants: Cut the ends of the eggplants and slice the eggplant a little thick and season them with salt. Allow to rest for 10 minutes. Pat them dry to remove the water on them. Add black pepper. This helps remove the bitterness and moisture from the eggplants.
- Brush the eggplant slices with olive oil and arrange them on the prepared baking tray. Bake for 20 – 30 minutes by flipping halfway through and lightly browns.
- Prepare the cheese filling: Meanwhile in a medium bowl combine; ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, egg, salt, and pepper.
- Assemble the eggplant parmesan: Spread a thin layer of prepared marinara sauce over a 9X13 baking dish. Arrange a single layer of baked eggplant slices over the sauce. Spread a layer of ricotta mixture, add ¼ cup mozzarella cheese and then some sauce, repeat the same for the other layer. End the final layer with marinara sauce and spread the mozzarella cheese.
- Bake the lasagna: Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 30 – 35 minutes. Once done remove the foil and broil for 2 minutes. Garnish the lasagna with parsley and allow the lasagna to cool for 10 minutes and then slice them and serve.
Tips to Make the Best Eggplant Parmesan Bake
- If the top of the eggplant parmesan isn’t as golden brown as you’d prefer, you can turn on the broiler and broil for 1-3 minutes. Make sure to keep an eye on it though as it can burn.
- Smaller eggplants tend to be sweeter and have less seeds. Choose accordingly and add more eggplants since they will be smaller than the normal size needed.
- Don’t skip roasting the eggplant slices beforehand. If you add them unroasted to the baking dish, they’ll become spongy or slimy.
- Try to slice the eggplant as evenly as possible as it helps them roast evenly.
- Freshly grated parmesan and shredded mozzarella melt much better than pre-grated and pre-shredded. If you have the time, buy a block and run it through a food processor to quickly prepare them.
Frequently Asked Questions
A ripe eggplant should be firm with smooth, shiny skin. Eggplant can be bitter when it’s underripe so always use ripen eggplants. To check for ripeness, push your finger into the vegetable. If your finger leaves an imprint, the eggplant is ripe.
If you want to save time, you can use store-bought marinara sauce. However, If you have time, try making a homemade marinara sauce as it’s much more flavorful and has no filler ingredients.
You can if you want to. The skin of an eggplant is edible so there’s no need to peel it before baking. The skin is quite thin so you won’t even notice it if you kept it on.
I don’t recommend freezing eggplant parmesan as the eggplant gets watery when frozen and thawed.
Yes, you can assemble the dish and cover it well, then store it in the fridge for up to 24 hours ahead of baking time.
Sprinkle salt on the eggplant slices. The salt pulls out the moisture from the eggplants. Patting it dry before frying or baking and removing the moisture will result in a less soggy and crispier eggplants.
More Meatless Recipes
- Easy Potatoes Au Gratin
- Easy Tuscan White Bean Soup
- Zucchini Fritters
- Cauliflower Pizza
- Buffalo Cauliflower Wings
I hope you enjoy all the recipes I share with you, including this delicious Baked Eggplant Parmesan Lasagna recipe. I hope you try it, enjoy it, rate it, and share it with your friends and family!
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Baked Eggplant Parmesan Lasagna
Ingredients
To prepare marinara sauce
- 2 tbsps. olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 2 tsps. garlic, minced
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
- 1 tsp. Italian seasonings
- 1 tsp, sugar
- 1 tsp. red chili flakes
- ¼ cup fresh basil, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp. Salt & pepper, more or less to taste
To prepare eggplant lasagna
- 2 medium eggplants
- 2 tbsps. olive oil
- 16 oz. ricotta cheese, full fat
- ½ cup parmesan cheese, grated
- 1 whole egg
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 2 tbsps. fresh parsley, to garnish
- Salt & pepper
- Fresh basil, to garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degree F. Line a parchment paper on a baking tray and keep it aside.
- Prepare the marinara sauce: Heat a saucepan with olive oil, add yellow onion and garlic. Saute for 2-3 minutes until onions turn translucent. Add in the tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, Italian seasonings, sugar, red chili flakes, salt and pepper. Let the sauce simmer for 10-15 minutes until the sauce thickens a bit. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the fresh basil leaves and set aside.
- Cut the ends of eggplant and slice the eggplant a little thick and season them with salt. Allow to rest for 10 minutes. Pat them dry to remove the water on them. Add black pepper. Brush the eggplant slices with olive oil and arrange them on the prepared baking tray. Bake for 20 – 30 minutes by flipping halfway through and lightly browns.
- Meanwhile in a medium bowl combine; ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, egg, salt and pepper.
- Spread a thin layer of prepared marinara sauce over a 9X13 baking dish. Arrange a single layer of baked eggplant slices over the sauce. Spread a layer of ricotta mixture, add ¼ cup mozzarella cheese and then some sauce, repeat the same for the other layer. End the final layer with marinara sauce and spread the mozzarella cheese.
- Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 30 – 35 minutes. Once done remove the foil and broil for 2 minutes.
- Garnish the lasagna with parsley and allow the lasagna to cool for 10 minutes and then slice them and serve.
Video
Notes
- If the top of the eggplant parmesan isn’t as golden brown as you’d prefer, you can turn on the broiler and broil for 1-3 minutes. Make sure to keep an eye on it though as it can burn.
- Smaller eggplants tend to be sweeter and less bitter as well.
- Don’t skip roasting the eggplant slices beforehand. If you add them unroasted to the baking dish, they’ll become spongy or slimy.
- Try to slice the eggplant as evenly as possible as it helps them roast evenly.
- Freshly grated parmesan and shredded mozzarella melt much better than pre-grated and pre-shredded. If you have the time, buy a block and run it through a food processor to quickly prepare them.
Can I prepare it ahead of time and put in the fridge until I bake it?
Yes
At what temp do we bake after arranging in pan?
400 F
If husband loved it which he did it was good, very very good he said
Happy to hear your husband enjoyed it!