Hearty lentils and tender noodles are simmered up in chunky tomato soup and topped with creamy vegan pesto ricotta to make this cozy vegan lasagna soup.
I keep saying I need to use the slow cooker more often, and I really do! Now that it’s getting cooler out I’m all about having dinner simmering on the counter all day, so I think it’s going to actually happen.
A few months back I posted this chili mac recipe, which was a revelation. The idea seems really simple, but for some reason it never occurred to me that I could let my liquid ingredients cook up in the slow cooker, and then throw pasta in at the end. With my newfound discovery, I decided it was time for some vegan lasagna soup.
If you haven’t yet seen the non-vegan versions of this soup floating around on Pinterest, here’s the deal: tomato heavy soup, all the flavors of lasagna, noodles, and in most cases, copious amounts of cheese. Obviously, I had to work around the whole cheese thing. Fortunately, ricotta cheese is one of the easiest things ever to veganize. I have a few formulas for vegan ricotta, but since I’m trying to keep things simple, I went with my basic cashew-tofu blend, flavored with some premade pesto. Easy! I had some pesto hanging out in the freezer (made from this recipe), but if you’d rather go with store-bought, Amore is a vegan brand that’s pretty widely available.
My vegan lasagna soup turned out to be every bit as satisfying as a big slab of regular old lasagna, and after hanging out in the fridge for a day, the leftovers pretty closely resembled lasagna, thanks to the noodles sucking up most of the broth. This is the perfect healthy, cozy, and meal-worthy soup to have around during the week after a holiday feast. Make a big batch, pack it up, and enjoy it for days.
Serves 6
Hearty lentils and tender noodles are simmered up in chunky tomato soup and topped with creamy vegan pesto ricotta to make this cozy vegan lasagna soup. The best part: everything cooks up hands-free in the slow cooker!
15 minPrep Time
4 hrCook Time
4 hr, 15 Total Time
Save RecipeIngredients
- 4 1/2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 3/4 cup dried brown lentils
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1 (14 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 8 lasagna noodles, broken into pieces
- 3 cups chopped spinach leaves
- 1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water 4 to 8 hours, drained and rinsed
- 1/4 cup unflavored soy or almond milk
- 1/4 pound extra firm tofu, drained
- 3 to 4 tablespoons prepared vegan pesto (to taste)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place broth, onion, garlic, basil, oregano and lentils into slow cooker and stir a few times to blend. Set the slow cooker to high and cover. Allow to cook until lentils are just a bit on the firm side, about 2 hours.
- Add diced and crushed tomatoes to the slow cooker and stir. Allow to continue cooking on high for 2 to 3 hours more.
- Add noodles and spinach to the slow cooker and give the mixture a stir. Allow to cook until noodles are tender and spinach is wilted, about 12 minutes.
- Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.
- Place cashews, and milk into food processor and blend until smooth. Add tofu and pulse a few times, just until the mixture takes on a ricotta-like texture. Add pesto to taste, lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Divide soup into bowls, and top each with a dollop of vegan pesto ricotta. Serve.
Notes
You may have some extra ricotta. It will keep in the fridge for 4-5 days, or you can freeze it. Use it as a pasta or salad topper, or save it for another batch of soup.
This looks so good. I never use lentil for vegan lasagna recipes. I happen to have gluten-free lasagna noodles in my kitchen so now I know I have to give this a try. Thanks for sharing, Alissa!
Thank you! I tried lentils in lasagna earlier this year as a substitute for meat, and it quickly became one of my favorite things ever. 🙂
This soup looks so nourishing and delicious!
Thanks so much!
Love this! I’m always looking for good vegetarian slow cooker recipes and this one is ticking all the comfort food boxes. Can’t wait to try it out!
Thank you! I’m working on creating more slow cooker recipes myself. It’s such a great kitchen tool, and I don’t get nearly enough use out of it!
Beautiful bowl! This looks so comforting and delicious!
Thank you!!
If this tastes half as good as it looks, I’ll be so happy. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
This popped up in my daily newspaper, btw.
https://paper.li/WhyVeg?edition_id=da49f900-b80f-11e6-acf1-0cc47a0d164b
Thanks Heather! I’d love to hear about it. 🙂
This was so good! It really does taste like lasagna! Thanks for a really great recipe! My husband enjoyed it, too.
Really glad you both enjoyed it! Thanks Teri. 🙂
sounds so good. I want to try it soon!
Enjoy!
Delicious recipe! I’m wondering though, should the onions still have a bite to them? I was in a rush so I cooked the lentils for 2 hours, and then added my tomatoes and cooked it for about 1 1/2 hours before adding the noodles and spinach. Where it says 2-3 hours, do you think that could have something to do with it? The flavor was delicious though – I’ll definitely make it again. Thanks 🙂
PS. SO glad I stumbled across your blog!! I’m newly vegetarian, and your recipes sound amazing. I saved a bunch of them to try! 🙂
Hi Kari! The onions should be pretty well cooked, so no bite. 🙂 If you’re short on time I’d say give them a quick saute in a frying pan before throwing them into the slow cooker. I’m glad you enjoyed this though. Thanks for stopping back to let me know!
I made this last week and ended up with a delicious lentil veggie noodle soup, but definitely not lasagna! I’m not sure what happened since I actually followed the recipe to a “T” (which I rarely ever do!). Maybe next time I’ll up my tomato game, adding another can or even some marinara.
I love your website and recipes, even if this didn’t turn out as expected! Saenz is a family name for me, by the way!
Mine was soup too but I think it was supposed to be soup. It may thicken in the fridge some.
Is there a reason you add the tomatoes half way through cooking? It would be easier to add them in at the beginning and just leave it all day till adding the noodles and spinach at the end.
Yeah, I thought of that. The problem is that when you cook lentils with tomatoes (or other acidic ingredients), they often won’t cook all the way. One work around would be to use precooked lentils and just add them at the end with the noodles and spinach.