(Picture coming soon!)
Gluten free lasagna – just the sound of those words makes my mouth water. I came across a neat recipe for lasagna designed to save time by not boiling the noodles first. Well, I’m all about saving time, but would that work with gluten free noodles? I was a little nervous and I was also up against the clock the night I made it.
I made some modifications to suite my time crunch and I crossed my fingers. I realized that my use of a no-boil technique was not only saving time, I had avoided the most frustrating aspect of making gluten free lasagna. Hot slippery noodles.
Cooked gluten free noodles are slippery suckers and they can be fragile if overcooked. Long skinny types do OK, shorter shaped noodles can be iffy, and lasagna noodles are by far the worst. No-boil lasagna might be my favorite gluten free discovery yet.
The original Weekday Lasagna recipe is here. All of my modifications are included in the recipe below. You can add mushrooms, use sausage, or add other ingredients to your liking.
No-Boil Gluten Free Lasagna
Prep time: About 20 minutes
Cook time: 35-40 minutes
Stand time: 15 minutes
1 32 ounces spaghetti sauce
(I used one 24-ounce jar plus another 8oz from an open jar)
1 3/4 cups water
1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef
1 tablespoon butter
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 small onion, finely chopped (add more if you prefer)
3 cloves pressed or minced garlic
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 cups ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
8 uncooked gluten free Tinkyada lasagna noodles
2 Cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
Turn oven to 400 degrees, then spray a 9×13 glass dish with gluten free non-stick spray. Have a box of foil at hand.
In a large saucepan, combine spaghetti sauce and water. Turn burner to medium heat until the mixture bubbles, then turn down to low. Allow the sauce to simmer while doing the next step.
In a large skillet brown the ground beef, drain and set aside. Melt butter and add olive oil, then add chopped onion. Cook for 3-4 minutes. Add pressed (minced) garlic and cook another minute or until garlic becomes noticeably fragrant. Immediately remove onions and garlic from heat and add to spaghetti sauce mixture. Add ground beef, stir, and turn off the heat under the sauce.
In a medium bowl, combine egg, ricotta, and parmesan cheese. Spread 2 cups of the spaghetti meat sauce mixture over the bottom of the dish. Layer four uncooked lasagna noodles across the top (Tinkyada noodles are narrower than some wheat flour lasagna noodles). Dot half of the egg cheese mixture on top of the lasagna noodles.
Layer with another 2 cups of the meat sauce, 4 more noodles, and the remaining egg cheese mixture. Pour the remaining meat sauce over everything, being careful to moisten all the dry noodles. Cover tightly with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Mix the shredded mozzarella and Italian seasoning while the lasagna bakes.
Remove the foil, and if the lasagna noodles are not quite soft, cover and put it back in for another 5-10 minutes. When the noodles are soft, sprinkle the seasoned mozzarella over the top and broil (watch carefully!) for a few minutes until the cheese gets brown and bubbly.
Allow the lasagna to stand for another 15 minutes before serving. This is really important because it allows some of the extra moisture (used to cook the noodles) to be absorbed and evaporate off.
Yum!
Gluten Free products featured in this recipe:
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Wonderful recipe! I’ve been looking for something like this!
Instead of beef can I use spinach or some vegetable because I am a vegetarian who is gluten intolerable and Celiac. What do you suggest.
Thank you for this recipe. Marcia
Thanks for asking, Marcia. I think you could use spinach, more veggies (maybe large chopped ones for a little more texture), green peppers, zuchinni, perhaps some cannellini beans or great northern beans. Really, if you are substituting, just add more of the veggies you like in there.
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