Favourite Garden Vegetable Lasagna

Vegetarian lasagna often goes wrong by leaning too hard on the cheese and forgetting the vegetables. This garden version flips the priority: a hefty mix of mushrooms, carrots, onions, and bell peppers gets sauteed and built into a tomato-herb sauce that does the real flavor work.

The three-cheese blend (mozzarella, Romano, cottage cheese) is the classic American family lasagna combination. Mozzarella for melt, Romano for sharp salty punch, and cottage cheese for creamy moisture that ricotta-only versions can lack. Cottage cheese is the unsung hero here, more cost-effective and lighter on the palate.

Sauteing the vegetables before they hit the sauce drives off excess water. Skip this and the finished lasagna ends up swimming in liquid, with watery layers that slide apart on the plate.

Kitchen Tips

• Cook the lasagna noodles just to al dente, they continue softening in the oven
• Press cottage cheese in a fine sieve to drain excess liquid for a firmer filling
• Layer cheese with both sauce and noodles, edges-only cheese leaves dry pasta in the middle
• Cover with foil for the first 20 minutes, uncover for the last 10 for a golden top
• Let the lasagna rest 15 minutes before cutting, hot lasagna slides into a mess

Variations

• Stir in a cup of fresh spinach (squeezed dry) or frozen spinach with the cheese mixture
• Add a layer of grilled eggplant slices for Mediterranean depth
• Swap cottage cheese for ricotta if you prefer the classic Italian-American style