Best Vegan Lasagna
Who knew vegan lasagna could be so delicious? This dairy-free lasagna recipe is easy to make with simple ingredients and tastes amazing! It's the best!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on September 5, 2024
I used to be skeptical of vegan lasagna—could it really be that good? This recipe is proof that yes, it really can. This vegan lasagna tastes as good as it looks.
My husband, who has a major weakness for creamy pastas, also found the concept of a cheese-less lasagna questionable. I figured this recipe would convince him, so I brought some home and put it in the fridge. I soon found the man in the kitchen, going back for seconds. Then thirds.
If you’ve been paying very close attention to my recipe substitution notes over the years, you may have tried this technique already. It’s based on the vegan variation of the cheesy roasted eggplant lasagna in my cookbook, Love Real Food (page 163). I shared the concept in my classic vegetarian lasagna recipe, too.
Today, I wanted to show you the results with photographic proof. If you’re in the mood for a dairy-free alternative to traditional cheesy lasagna, this recipe is for you.
How to Make the Best Vegan Lasagna
You’ll find the full recipe below, but here’s why this recipe works:
1) Cashew cream in lieu of dairy
We’re replacing traditional mozzarella and ricotta with cashew-based sour cream. It’s easy to whip up in a blender. I’m still amazed by how well this “sour cream” concoction replaces all kinds of creamy, dairy-based cheeses and sauces. Some other recipes suggest blended tofu for this component, but cashew cream tastes much, much better.
One caveat—if you don’t have a heavy-duty blender, you’ll need to soak your cashews for a few hours before blending. If you’re blessed with a Vitamix (affiliate link) or similarly powerful blender, you don’t need to bother with the soaking step.
2) Vegetables for flavor and nutrition
We’re also building flavor by sautéing lots of vegetables and spinach. I used onion, carrots and mushrooms, but feel free to use whichever vegetables you have on hand (zucchini, bell pepper, or even butternut squash would work). Mushrooms are particularly good because they offer some umami depth to this meatless lasagna.
3) Garnish with more cashew cream, vegan Parmesan and fresh basil
We’ll layer up and bake this lasagna just like a regular lasagna. Once it’s out of the oven, we’ll drizzle a little leftover cashew cream on top. The cashew cream on the inside condenses as it bakes, so this adds a nice touch of irresistible creaminess.
Lastly, we’ll sprinkle on some vegan Parmesan, which is made with hemp seeds, nutritional yeast, and garlic and onion powder. It’s the perfect salty flavor booster. Add some fresh basil leaves if you have them!
Wondering what to serve with your lasagna? I’d pair it with roasted Brussels sprouts or broccoli, a simple side salad with balsamic dressing, or my Greek lentil salad for some additional protein.
If you’re craving more hearty vegan meals, here are a few delicious options:
- Pasta e Fagioli (Italian Pasta and Beans) or Classic Minestrone Soup
- Hearty Spaghetti with Lentils & Marinara Sauce
- Ratatouille
- Mujadara (Lentils and Rice with Caramelized Onions)
Or, browse all of my vegan recipes here.
Watch How to Make Vegan Lasagna
Best Vegan Lasagna
Who knew vegan lasagna could be so delicious? This dairy-free lasagna recipe is easy to make with simple ingredients and tastes amazing. It’s the best! Recipe yields 8 servings.
Ingredients
Cashew cream
- 2 cups raw cashews, soaked for at least 4 hours if you do not have a high-powered blender
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
Vegetables
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium-to-large yellow onion, chopped
- 2 large or 3 medium carrots, chopped (about 1 cup)
- 8 ounces Baby Bella mushrooms, cleaned and chopped
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 5 to 6 ounces baby spinach, roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
Everything else
- 2 ½ cups marinara sauce, homemade* or store-bought (I used Rao’s)
- 9 no-boil lasagna noodles**
- Suggested garnishes: vegan Parmesan (or a light sprinkle of nutritional yeast) and fresh basil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. If you soaked your cashews, drain and rinse them until the water runs clear.
- In a blender, combine the cashews, water, lemon juice, vinegar, salt, and mustard. Blend until the mixture is smooth and creamy, stopping to scrape down the sides as necessary. If you’re having trouble blending the mixture, slowly blend in up to ½ cup additional water, using only as much as necessary. Set aside.
- Then, we’ll prepare the vegetables: In a large skillet over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Once shimmering, add the onion, carrots, mushrooms, salt and several twists of black pepper. Cook, stirring every couple of minutes, until most of the moisture is gone and the vegetables are tender and turning golden on the edges, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add another splash of olive oil if necessary to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
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Add a few large handfuls of spinach to the skillet. Cook, stirring frequently, until the spinach has wilted. Repeat with remaining spinach and cook until all of the spinach has wilted, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, stirring constantly, about 30 seconds. Remove the skillet from the heat and season to taste with salt and pepper.
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Spread ¾ cup tomato sauce evenly over the bottom of a 9” by 9” baking dish. Layer 3 lasagna noodles on top (snap off their ends to fit, and/or overlap their edges as necessary). Spread 1 cup of the cashew cream evenly over the noodles. Top with half of the veggies. Top with ¾ cup tomato sauce.
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Top with 3 more noodles, followed by another 1 cup cashew cream (save the leftover cream). Then add the remaining veggies.
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Top with 3 more noodles, then spread ¾ cup tomato sauce over the top to evenly cover the noodles.
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Wrap a sheet of parchment paper or aluminum foil around the top of the lasagna, making sure it’s taut so it doesn’t touch the top. Bake, covered, for 25 minutes, then remove the cover, rotate the pan by 180° and continue cooking for about 5 to 10 more minutes, until it’s steaming and lightly bubbling at the corners.
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Remove the pan from the oven and let the lasagna cool for 15 to 20 minutes, so it has time to set and cool down to a reasonable temperature. Drizzle leftover cashew cream on top (if it’s too thick to drizzle, thin it out with a small amount of water first). Sprinkle vegan Parmesan and fresh basil on top, if using, then slice and serve.
Notes
*Homemade marinara sauce note: You’ll need to double my marinara recipe to yield enough for this recipe, and then you’ll have extra. If you don’t think you’ll use it up within a few days, you can freeze it for later.
**Lasagna noodle recommendations: I like to use DeLallo’s Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles (affiliate link) and Whole Foods’ 365 No-Boil Lasagna Noodles. See below for gluten-free suggestions.
Make it gluten free: Substitute gluten-free lasagna noodles. Choose no-boil (oven ready) noodles if possible; if not, cook them according to package directions. (Fair warning, I tried using DeBoles brand of no-bake lasagna noodles and they weren’t quite done cooking in the time specified here. Reheated leftovers were ok, though.)
Change it up: Feel free to play around with the vegetables here. You’ll want to use about 3 cups chopped veggies total (excluding the onion). Butternut squash might be nice, or try one zucchini and one red bell pepper in place of the mushrooms.
Storage suggestions: Leftovers will keep well in the refrigerator, covered, for about 4 days. Gently reheat individual servings in the microwave or oven as needed. Or, freeze it for later—it’s generally easier to reheat single servings than to defrost a big block of lasagna!
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
This is handled down one of my fav recipes. Savory, healthy, and even my non-vegan friends loved it. I’ve made it at least 5 times and it always turns out perfectly.
I made this last night for my vegan daughter. The only swap that I made was zucchini in place of the mushrooms. We both thought that this was delicious, especially the cashew cream. We both agreed that next time I will double the veggies to balance the creaminess of the sauce. I used the extra cashew sauce mixed with fresh herbs as a veggie dip for my lunch today. Great recipe and look forward to making it again! Thanks!
Thank you for your feedback, Kimberly! I’m glad you were able to enjoy it still.
Hi, I am making 2x the recipe this weekend and see that some of the ingredients amounts don’t cantaloupe, like spinach and mushrooms. Is that an error?
Thanks!
Hi! Everything should increase the same. I will take a look, sorry about the confusion.
I have made this recipe at least half a dozen times and shared the recipe at least twice that number. Blows my mind every time.
I’m glad you love it, Audrey! I appreciate your review.
I made this a few days ago and it was delicious. I replaced the lasagna noodles with sliced zucchini. I almost ate the entire pan myself.
This was so good! Thank you! I have saved this recipe and will come back to it often. I used GF noodles and baked for 50min per the “no boil” instructions on the side of the box. It baked perfectly except that 1) I burned the bottom because my rack was too low and 2) I broiled it at the end to try to crisp up the top but it made the top noodles too hard. Flavor was great! Thanks
I am a carnivore, and we had a vegan coming to stay for the weekend, so I wanted to make something nice for them. I trawled the internet for recipients and read through comments to see which dish would be good. I stumbled upon this one, and thought I’d give it a go. I made it exactly to the recipe (also made my own marinara sauce as advised) and it came out absolutely perfect! I’ve never made a substitute cheese sauce before and I honestly couldn’t believe how good the cashew ‘cheese’ sauce was! (I was very, very sceptical!) .
The vegan loved it, had three helpings and said it was one of the best vegan meals he’d ever had. So for lunch the following day, I came back to Cookie & Kate to see what else I could do. I made the minestrone soup, and again he was blown away with it! We ate a massive pot between 2 of us. This will now be my go to vegetarian/vegan recipe platform. I had so much fun making both dishes, and loved seeing how well they were received. Thank you!
That’s great to hear! I’m glad it was a hit and that you came back to try more recipes, Helen.
This was amazing. Thank you for sharing your wonderful creations!
Can this be made the day ahead and reheated. If so at what temp an how long.
Hi! It can be good leftover. I haven’t tried it in the oven, but you can gently reheat in the microwave.
Can this be made a day ahead?
This can be good for leftovers, but I prefer it best right away.
So I cook meals for about 50 people once a week and I try to cook the day before. I hadn’t heard Back from you yet so I made them the day before and refrigerated it overnight. Then the next morning I put them in the oven and they turned out wonderful! Everyone loved them.
Thanks for this really wonderful recipe! And thank for your your answer.
Excellent meal and the cashews sauce is brilliant thank you
You’re welcome, Colin!
Oh My Goodness! After reading the reviews, I gave this recipe a try despite wondering about “chopped carrots” in a lasagna. Because of the multiple steps, I decided to “go for broke” and double the recipe. Now I wish I had made more. This lasagna is so flavorful and fragrant… totally unexpected.
Many thanks!! This recipe is a 10 star keeper.
Insanely good and easy too!!!
Great to hear you loved it, Sonya!
This is the BEST vegan lasagna I’ve had in my 6+ years. Will definitely be coming back to this again and again! Added some cooked red lentils into the marina sauce layers for some extra protein, perfect dinner to have in the rotation!
Thank you for sharing, Tori! I’m glad you loved it.
This looks wonderful, I’m so appreciating the vegan recipes! Question: I form kidney stones so need to steer clear of cashews. Do you have any idea if macadamia nuts used the same way would work? Thanks for any thoughts on this!
I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure, sorry!
Absolutely delicious! We followed the recipe exactly as written, except that we used boil first lasagna noodles. This will be my new take to family parties dish! I gave some to my friend at work and she can’t wait to make it too. Her husband cannot eat cheese and they both raved (as I did) about how awesome it is. Thank you for making my transition to eating vegan so easy and delicious.
Great to hear, Laura! Thank you for sharing.
So yummy! I actually brought my lactose-intolerant friend to tears of joy since she had never had such a decadent and “cheesy” lasagna before. A fun switch up that I have done with less prep time is to slice and grill eggplant and just use that as the vegetables in a “eggplant parm” style lasagna.
I’m wondering if you have any suggestions for other uses of that delicious cream sauce (other than just eating it with a spoon)?
Thank you!
Hello! I love this recipe and make it frequently. Just want to know, can I make it ahead and either store overnight, uncooked in the fridge or…make ahead and freeze it and cook later??
Look forward to your reply!
Best,
Deborah
I find it’s best right away. I do know others have froze it and didn’t mind the results. Let me know what you think if you try it!
I have made this before and it’s absolutely delicious. I was wondering if you can prepare it, freeze it, then pull it out of freezer to bake it when you are ready. Thanks, roxanne
I followed this recipe to the letter, except that I added 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast to the cashew cream. This is extremely delicious! Thank you!
You’re welcome, Eva! Thank you for your review.
This is the best vegan lasagna I’ve found so far! The cashew cream on top really makes it moist and yummy! Thank you!
This looks delicious, but what to use if someone has a nut allergy and cannot eat them?
I don’t have a tested nut free alternative. Sorry!
This is delicious! It was worth the time to make it all- including the tomato sauce. It’s a new favorite in our family. I love the variety of vegetables and the cashew cream. Even my most particular little diner loved it.
Thank you for sharing, Deva!
Can you make ahead of time, freeze uncooked and thaw and cook later,
Made this yesterday. Loved it! It was so tasty and satisfying. Trying to go natural in whatever way possible. I live in a small town in East Turkey where there is not much of a choice when I go grocery shopping. So making everything at home is a necessity. It helps with easy recipes. Thank you.
You’re welcome, Namrata!
Thanks Kate for another delicious recipe not degraded at all by the absence of meat and dairy. Speaking as a reformed meat eater, now vegetarian. Made it as recommended with your freshly made marinara sauce and cashew cream.
I too was slightly confused by the quantities as I was cooking for 8 so tried using the multipliers but they’re not working quite right. Clicking 1x some of the amounts go down, clicking 2x some of them stay static. Not complaining at all just letting you know so it can be fixed.
Love your recipes. Thanks for taking the time to share them.
Thank you for your heads up, Andy. I’ve been working on a solution for outliers that aren’t lining up. I appreciate your review!
I never ever leave reviews. This lasagna was SO amazing!!!! I couldn’t stop talking about it and want to make it for everybody! I used frozen mushrooms, and Rao’s marinara sauce. I make so many vegan recipes that never come out, so I’m so grateful this one was worth all the ingredients and work. This will be on my weekly rotation!
Great to hear, Michele! Thank you for sharing.
I don’t often leave comments on recipes, but I couldn’t NOT leave a comment for this one. It was AMAZING! The flavors were so good! I’d definitely serve this to company. It looks good, too! And you know what? I didn’t use 9 noodles. My 9oz package of Delallo No Boil Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles had something like 15 noodles in it, and I’m a leave no noodle behind kind of person. I used ALL the noodles! :-) ButI didn’t double anything else, and it was still delicious! Don’t skimp on drizzling the cashew cream over the top after it’s baked, people. It wonderful! Thank you for such a great recipe!
Wonderful to hear, AB! I’m glad you loved it.
Make this lasagne all the time. My non vegan family request this instead of the meat version. It is so tasty and keeps well in the freezer also. I much prefer the cashew cream rather than a vegan béchamel.
Yum yum yum.
Thank you for your review, Jackie!
Adding this to my daughter’s grad celebration as an entree for many vegan guests. It looks amazing! Can I assemble it in the morning, refrigerate and bake it for the dinner? Or bake is it better to bake ahead and reheat? Thanks!
I recommend this best right away. You can try it though! Let me know what you think.
Absolutely delicious!!! I made it tonight and it turned out amazing.
Great to hear, Maria! I appreciate your review.
Delicious, I bought blanched almonds by mistake instead of cashews, just added a little extra mustard and lemon juice.
They were selling a short dated ‘cheesy’ fresh mushroom pasta sauce really cheap at the supermarket so for economy I used this instead of making the cashew cream. Did everything else exactly as per the recipe but with a tiny bit more veggie because there didn’t seem enough. OMG divine! Looking forward to making it with the cashew cream next time
Hooray! That’s great to hear, Vicky. Thank you for your review.
I have made this recipe many times and it’s amazing. 10/10
Delicious wow
Happy to hear you enjoyed it, Carol!
I have now made this 4 times and just want to say it’s awesome!!!!!!!
I love to hear that, Ash! Thank you for your review.
Fantastic recipe! I also added about 2 cups of cooked green lentils to the tomato sauce for an extra hearty element and my husband and I absolutely love it!
Do the cashews have to be raw? Thank you.
You get the best result if they are. I hope you try it!
First time making this and it was FABULOUS. Making again over the weekend! Was skeptical over the cashew cheese being ricotta substitute but I was wrong. It’s wonderful and I’ve made cashew cheese before but your version much better. I like that I didn’t need to add tofu.
That’s great to hear, Erney! I appreciate your review.
This was amazing – particularly the cashew cream. I used different vegetables and regular (not no boil) noodles but otherwise followed the instructions. It was outstanding! The sweetness of the cashew cream went extremely well with the olives and other salty vegetables. The creaminess of the dish was excellent. In my opinion, the “parmesan” is essential.
Big success. I made this for a party along with a traditional cheese lasagna, and everyone agreed this one was better! The cashew cream was the star.
Made this recipe and never going back. The absolute best and heartiest vegan lasagna!
Thank you for your review, Nicole!
This is delicious! I like the large quantity, as it provided both refrigerator and freezer leftovers. The only negative for me was that since the cashew cream doesn’t melt and stick like cheese, the layers didn’t really hold together.
This recipe is great!! I would happily make this for non vegans as well and I have no doubt they would love it. It’s creamy, the flavors are amazing and it was so easy!!
I am so grateful to have found this recipe! So delicious omg omg omg omg omggg!!! My boyfriend went for thirds!?
Absolutely delicious! I’m so excited to have such a flavorful dish for “meatless” days!
I love this lasagne and make it not infrequently- but I’m wondering if I could create an eggplant instead of noodles version? Or mix of noodles and eggplant? I love the flavor and want minimal cheese, but most eggplant Parma/lasagnas seem to rely on a lot of cheese
I just made this today , it is amazing! That cashew cream is so delicious!!. I made this for a Christmas dinner item for my Sister in Law who is Vegan and Gluten Free.
My Hubby and I each tried a small piece and we loved it! Now let’s hope it hold up in the freezer.
We have some leftover cashew cream which we will be using as a dip for crackers this week.
Thank you for such a great recipe.
Can I substitute lime juice instead of lemon juice?
Sure, you can try it.
Says yields 18 servings. Can that be right? In a 9”x 9” dish?
Hi Jools, It says 8 :)