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It’s been really cold and snowy here lately, inspiring me to make some nice comfort foods for myself. I impulse bought an eggplant the other day, and decided to make some low carb vegan eggplant lasagna with it. This is one of the first recipes I made myself when I first started a vegan keto diet, and I can’t believe it took me almost five years to post it here!
The recipe involves a few preparation steps, but is overall simple to construct. It’s a little higher in carbs, and really funcitons best as a side dish (unless you’re adding in extra vegan protein), but is really delicious and satisfies a craving in a low carb, gluten free way.
Notes on Making Low Carb Vegan Eggplant Lasagna:
- I like to cut the eggplant in rounds because it’s easy and I like baking this in tiny casserole dishes, but you could slice the eggplant lengthwise for a more lasgna noodly (totally a word) effect.
- Make sure you find a marinara sauce without added sugar! This is actually harder than you would think.
- I use Daiya for this recipe, because that’s the only vegan cheese at my local grocery store. However, there are a lot of other “cheeses” that are lower in carbs (Chao, Follow Your Heart) if you can find them.
- If you don’t want to eat too much soy, or don’t like tofu, cashew ricotta is an easy substitute.
- Seriously, make sure to rinse the salt off of the eggplant slices, or you will be unpleasantly surprised. I only made this mistake one time.
- No matter how lazy you’re feeling, it’s not worth it to skip the salting and pressing stage. The eggplant will get weird and spongey and the lasagna will have a lot of unecessary liquid.
- Want more substance and protein? Sprinkle a few servings of vegan ground beef in between the layers!
Low Carb Vegan Eggplant Lasagna
Ingredients
- 1 eggplant
- tablespoon salt
- olive oil
- 1 cup marinara sauce
- 1/2 cup vegan cheese of choice I use Daiya out of convenience
- 1 cup vegan ricotta
- 8 x8" baking dish
Instructions
- Slice eggplant into rounds that are between 1/4" - 1/2" thick (try to make them as close in size to each other as possible).
- Lay out eggplant rounds on a tray, and salt liberally. Flip and salt the other side. Let the eggplant sit for about an hour, until you can see moisture beading up on the surface.
- During this time, make the cashew ricotta (if you haven't already).
- Rinse the salt off the eggplant (don't forget this step!), and press them dry. Try to get out as much moisture as you can, though you don't have to go too crazy!
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Brush a small amount of olive oil on the bottom of your baking dish, and place a layer of eggplant slices.
- Brush a light layer of sauce over the eggplant, and sprinkle with half the vegan cheese.
- Lay another layer of eggplant on top, and cover with the tofu ricotta and another thin layer of sauce.
- Lay a final layer of eggplant on top of this, spread the rest of the sauce and sprinkle the remaining vegan cheese on top.
- Bake for 30 minutes covered. Remove the cover, and bake for another 15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, let cool and enjoy!
I made this recipe but found that my eggplant still was a bit too firm or under done. Maybe need to cook a bit longer?
Hi Nanette, sorry to hear! It could be a number of factors – maybe the eggplant was a little too thick, or wasn’t salted and pressed enough, or (like you suggested) needed a bit more time in the oven. The size and type of the container that the eggplant was in also plays a role. The best approach is to check the dish for doneness before removing it from the oven, and the adjusting cooking time as needed. 🙂