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.
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
Ingredients
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
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!
OMG this soup was so delicious! I served it with homemade garlic bread. Thanks for the amazing recipe!
Made this two weeks ago bc I got a lasagna craving and my oven is broken and I didn’t want to go to a restaurant. HOLY CRAP, IT WAS DELICIOUS. Going to make it again today!
Hi:
Could no-boil lasagna noodles go in this recipe?
Thank you!
I’ve actually never worked with no-boil noodles. I bet they would work, but they will soften much faster than traditional noodles.
Great recipe for a summer dinner. I love it, and the children really enjoyed it as well. You’re the best.
I made this soup tonight for thirty people and they loved it (we’re in Switzerland, where ricotta can be expensive, so we used a little cottage cheese in the mix and it turned out very well). We did garlic bread on the side. Thanks for a great, cheap recipe.
YUM! This was delicious and will most definitely be made again! I’m not a big carrot fan so I swapped those for mushrooms, and I did add in sausage like you suggested (my husband is a meat-lover). Thank you for yet another amazing recipe! :)
My husband, who does not like soup that much, ate a second helping. SO much easier than making lasagna and way more veggies and less cheese than most lasagna I make so it is much healthier too!
evelynaird@aol. com
Would like nutrition info for your recipes
I’m sorry, I don’t have nutritional information for the recipes.
Is there any particular reason the spinach has to be frozen? I have a bunch of fresh spinach I’m looking to use up!
No, I just used frozen for the price and convenience factors. :) You can definitely throw in a few handfuls of fresh spinach.
This was a huge crowd pleaser (like all the other dishes I make from your blog)! That cheesy goodness is to die for, ugh. I added mushrooms and red pepper flakes which was perfect. I loved this recipe so much!
This went over well at my house – the ricotta was the touchy thing. I did add a pound of ground sausage (browned while the veggies were cooking, added when noodles were about half done), but mainly because I love in a carnivorous family and I had 3 vegetarian meals on the menu this week. What would have been even better would have been done grilled sweet Italian sausage cut into pieces – amazing flavor.
I was cooking a couple of things that required chopped/minced/diced pieces, so I let my food processor do all the dirty work for me. Not as pretty, but much faster and easier for bulk work.
Thumbs up. Love your site!
Made this last night, pretty much as printed – absolutely wonderful! It’s in the rotation, winter or summer – tastes exactly like lasagna and is so simple. Thank you, Beth!
Delicious! I made this with italian seasoned turkey sausage, farfalle pasta and cottage cheese for the ricotta (a family tradition for lasagna).
I cooked the pasta with the cover on the pot for most of the time which kept the liquid right for a soup consistency.
your recipe was copied from this site, it is not ok for they to do this
http://www.restaurantedelux.ro/reteta-zilei-supa-de-legume-cu-paste-si-sos-de-branza.html
Thank you for letting me know. :(