Zucchini Lasagna (Lasagne) - Low Carb

Marg (CaymanDesigns)'s Note:

Great for anyone going low carb OR who has so many zucchini, they don't know what to do!! :) We found the sauce to be very mild. I think it would be better with twice as much garlic. I boiled my zucchini slices for about 3 minutes so they were partially cooked. I wanted to make sure they were soft in the finished dish or I knew the kids wouldn't eat them. ;) The cottage cheese provides a slightly tangy note. I think we would have preferred ricotta, but that is personal taste. I use my 11x7 baking dish and got 6 pieces the size of what you see in my photos. Both of the guys ate two so it fed 4 of us, and I double the meat. Adjust the recipe accordingly for your family.

• Total Time: 50 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 2 ½ cups zucchini , sliced 1/4 inch thick (about 2 medium)
• ½ lb lean ground beef (I use 1 lb.)
• ¼ cup onion , chopped
• 2 small tomatoes , cut up
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 garlic clove , minced
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon dried basil
• ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
• ¼ cup water
• 1⁄8; teaspoon pepper
• 1 egg
• ¾ cup low fat cottage cheese (or low fat or fat free ricotta)
• ½ cup mozzarella cheese , shredded (I use 8 oz. divided)
• 1 teaspoon flour

Directions:

1. Cook zucchini until tender, drain and set aside. Fry meat and onions until meat is brown and onions are tender; drain fat. Add next 8 ingredients and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered 10 minutes or until reduced to 2 cups.
3. In small bowl slightly beat egg.
4. Add cottage cheese, half of shredded cheese and flour.
5. In (1 1/2-qt.) baking-roasting pan arrange half of the meat mixture. Top with half of the zucchini and all the cottage cheese mixture. Top with remaining meat and zucchini.
6. Bake uncovered at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes.
7. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake 10 minutes longer.
8. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Reviews

[tmp68]

Awesome base recipe, but made for tweeking. I doubled the beef, a must! I also doubled the seasoning and garlic. I used about 3 medium zucchini, (on top of sauce) sliced about 1/4" thick to line my baking dish boiled them a little so they would cook faster, seasoned with S&P. I did the cheese like in the recipe but it was really not enough compaired to all the meat in the sauce so I doubled that but I used ricotta cheese and seasoned that too. I added a layer of fresh basil leaves on the cheese. Layered the sauce and zucchini but on top of the last layer I added fresh mozzarella cheese. Let me tell you I could have eaten the whole tray. Will double to a 9x13 next time, definetly!! THANK YOU!! Just started a low carb way of eating and couldn't come up with anything. Now I have this.

[geniabeme]

Made this tonight and it was great! I zapped the zuch in the microwave for 2 mins to save some time, used some marinara sauce from a jar instead of fresh tomatoes, and used ricotta and everything came out great. Thanks for the recipe!

[soulcandybt]

Wow, I think I like this better than "normal" lasagna! It's tender and sweet and just plain delicious! (I used garden combonation Ragu instead of the sauce that was called for, 1/2 lb lean ground beef and 3 zucchini.) My picky toddler LOVED it! Thank you for a terrific and healthy recipe!