I was in the mood for lasagna this week, but it’s already in the 80’s here in New Orleans, so I decided to make a garden vegetable lasagna soup instead. Lasagna soup is great because you get all the fantastic flavors of lasagna without it being quite so heavy. To lighten things up even further, I made a vegetarian version chock full of vegetables, like tomato, onion, carrot, zucchini, and spinach.
This post contains some affiliate links, which means that we make a small commission off items you purchase at no additional cost to you.
Vegetable Soup vs. Lasagna Soup
So what makes this a Garden Vegetable Lasagna Soup and not just a tomato based vegetable soup? It’s not just the broken up lasagna noodles, it’s also the dollop of three cheese ricotta blend that hides in the bottom of each bowl. This melty cache of cheese mimics the creamy filling of classic lasagna and really brings everything together.
Garden Vegetable Lasagna Soup… with Meat
Want to do a meat lasagna soup? No problem. Just brown up 1/2 lb. Italian sausage in the pot before adding the onion and garlic in the first step below. Because Italian sausage is already packed full of delicious Italian seasonings, you can also cut the amount of Italian herb blend listed below in half.
Other Vegetable Options
Not a fan of the vegetables I used? There are a few other vegetables that I think would also go well in this soup, like sliced mushrooms, summer squash, or broccoli florets. Use any combo that fits your taste buds, just try to keep the number of vegetables used to 3-4 so the lasagna flavor doesn’t get over shadowed.
Inspired by A Farm Girl Dabbles.
Garden Vegetable Lasagna Soup
Servings 6 1.5 cups eachIngredients
SOUP
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.16)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.40)
- 4 cloves garlic ($0.32)
- 2 carrots ($0.24)
- 1 zucchini (1/2 lb.) ($0.77)
- 15 oz can diced tomatoes ($0.65)
- 15 oz can tomato sauce ($0.70)
- 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning blend ($0.30)
- 4 cups vegetable broth* ($0.52)
- 8 oz lasagna noodles ($0.95)
- 1/4 lb frozen spinach ($0.40)
THREE CHEESE RICOTTA BLEND
- 15 oz ricotta ($2.99)
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella, divided ($1.00)
- 1/4 cup Parmesan (grated or shredded) ($0.48)
- 1/8 tsp salt ($0.01)
- Freshly cracked pepper ($0.03)
Instructions
- Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Add both to a large soup pot along with the olive oil. Sauté over medium heat until the onions are soft and transparent (about 3-5 minutes).
- While the onions and garlic are sautéing, peel and slice the carrots. Slice the zucchini and then cut the slices into quarter rounds. Add the carrots and zucchini to the pot and sauté for about 2 minutes more, or just until the zucchini begin to soften.
- Add the diced tomatoes (with juices), tomato sauce, Italian seasoning blend, and vegetable broth to the soup pot. Stir to combine. Place a lid on the pot, turn the heat up to medium-high, and bring the pot to a boil.
- While waiting for the pot to boil, break the lasagna noodles into 1-inch pieces. Once the soup is boiling, add the broken lasagna noodles and continue to boil for 10-12 minutes, or until the noodles are tender.
- While the pasta is boiling in the soup, combine the ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella, Parmesan, salt, and freshly cracked pepper in a bowl (save the other half of the mozzarella for topping the soup bowls). Stir until the cheeses and seasonings are well combined.
- Once the pasta is tender, add the frozen spinach and stir until the spinach is thawed and mixed well into the soup.
- To serve, place a dollop of the cheese blend in each bowl, then ladle the hot soup over top. Add a pinch of the remaining shredded mozzarella on top.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Check out more of our Vegetable Soup Recipes!
How to Make Lasagna Soup – Step by Step Photos
Dice one yellow onion and mince four cloves of garlic. Sauté both in a large soup pot with 1 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat until the onions are soft and transparent.
While the onion and garlic are sautéing, peel and slice two carrots. Slice one zucchini (about 1/2 lb.) and then cut the slices into quarter rounds. Add the carrots and zucchini to the pot and sauté for just a couple minutes more, or until the zucchini begin to soften. They’ll cook further while the soup is boiling.
Add one 15oz. can of diced tomatoes (with juices), one 15oz. can of tomato sauce, and 1 Tbsp of Italian seasoning blend. For more flavor, you can use fire roasted diced tomatoes or diced tomatoes with onion, garlic, and basil seasoning already in the can.
I’m usually not that into pre-mixed spice blends, but for something like Italian seasoning blend that is just SO versatile, it’s easier to buy one bottle of this for $2.79 than to buy each of the six spices and measure each one out every time. I use this for pasta, pizza, and many, many other things.
Add four cups of vegetable broth and stir everything to combine. Place a lid on the pot, turn the heat up to medium-high, and let it come to a boil.
While waiting for the soup to boil, break 1/2 lb. of lasagna noodles into 1-inch pieces. The pieces will get larger when they’re cooked, so you want them slightly smaller than you’d think.
Once the soup is boiling, add the broken lasagna noodles and let them boil for 10-12 minutes, or until they’re tender. Stir occasionally while boiling to prevent the pasta from sticking. If your soup becomes too thick from the pasta, just add some water or more vegetable broth.
Finally, add 1/4 lb. (4oz.) frozen spinach to the soup and stir until it’s thawed and well mixed in. When buying the frozen spinach, look for the type that says “cut spinach” rather than “chopped spinach”. Chopped spinach will be in teeny tiny pieces and won’t be quite as pretty as the cut spinach. This spinach comes loose in a bag, so I just estimated 1/4 of the 1 lb. bag.
The frozen spinach probably won’t bring the temp of the soup down too much, but if it does, just let it warm back up for a second.
Meanwhile, make the delicious three cheese ricotta blend. Stir together one 15oz. container ricotta with 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella (save the other 1/2 cup mozz for topping the soup), and 1/4 cup shredded or grated Parmesan. Also add 1/8 tsp salt and some freshly cracked pepper. Stir them all together.
To serve the Garden Vegetable Lasagna Soup, start with a dollop of the three cheese ricotta blend. There should be about 2 cups of the cheese blend, so you can use up to 1/3 cup in each bowl. That seems like a lot to me, so I stick to around 1/4 cup.
Ladle the soup over top, add a pinch of the remaining shredded mozzarella on top, and then go, “Oooooh-Ahhhh!” I added a little chopped parsley for color and photographic styling, but it’s not necessary. This Garden Vegetable Lasagna Soup is amaze-balls all on its own!
I tried this recipe a while back and found it delicious. have Sorrell in my garden right now. Could I use it in place of the frozen spinach? If so, since it is fresh, should it be added earlier in the recipe or blanched / sauted separately.
It think that would be delicious, Lorene! I don’t think you’d need to blanche it first, unless you want to remove some of that sour flavor before adding it to the soup. I think you’d be fine to add it towards the end of the noodles boiling so that it gets simmered for just s few minutes longer.
I swapped in tinned lentils for the garden vegetables, which made it actually very quick to cook. The way the flavours melded was great, and then with the finishing touch of the three cheese mix, I was in comfort food heaven. I used a fresh rocket-spinach mix, as well as leftover radish greens, for the green side of the soup. I will definitely be making this again! I had a large helping and there were leftovers. Woot!
I only had ~4 oz lasagna noodles so I added a 1/2 lb italian sausage. This totally hit the lasagna craving I had. I’m attempting to freeze a serving, don’t think it’ll be an issue.
I have made this soup a few times,we love it.
Is it possible to put some of the cheese mixture in the bottom of the freezable container then put soup on top and freeze it.
This is really wonderful—all the flavor and texture of lasagna with like 15% of the effort. I agree with other commenters that the noodles soaked up a lot of liquid so if you want it to be soupy you should probably add additional broth, but I enjoyed it as is so I didn’t bother.
I used half red onion and half yellow because that’s what I had in the house, and chucked in some chopped red bell pepper and frozen peas on top of the veggies in the recipe.
Very good soup! I’ll be sure to par-cook the carrots first next time. I cooked the soup extra long and they were still too crunchy. Also, needed extra seasoning and extra time for the pasta to cook.
Delicious! Very hearty without being heavy. I love a thick soup and this was perfect. I couldn’t find ricotta at the store so I just sprinkled the shredded parmesan and mozzarella on the soup in bowls so it would melt. It was great! I served it with Monti’s soda bread recipe. Perfection for a cool, fall-is-coming, dinner.
It was superb, I made a few modifications, used Rumi cheese ( an Egyptian cheese) instead of parmesan and mozzarella. for ricotta, i used square of kiri. I also used bell pepper instead of zucchini. It turns out great and yummy.
This is such a delicious soup recipe!
I found the lasagna noodles to be a bit too messy so I just replace them with regular noodles now. A great recipe to go back to for a fast meal.
This was delicious and filling due to the amazing cheese. It really doesn’t need meat, I subbed bell peppers for the carrots and cheddar for mozzarella. I also added more liquid as others have suggested. Turned our great!