Crock-Pot® Slow Cooker Dairy-Free Grain-Free Lasagna

Sponsored post by Mirum Shopper and Crock-Pot® Slow Cooker. All opinions are my own. 

dairy-free-grain-free-lasagna-recipe

The New Year is around the corner and like every year, we’re all looking for healthier alternatives to our favorite recipes. 

One of my favorite cuisines is Italian food, especially pasta and lasagna. Unfortunately, I don’t have the metabolism any more to be eating these carbo-loaded recipes regularly,  so as always I have to come up with swaps and substitutions.

So for this&nbspCrock-Pot® Slow Cooker lasagna, instead of pasta we are going to be layering eggplant and zucchini and creating a dairy-free spinach ricotta cheese. Lasagna is one of my favorite comfort foods that warms me up when it’s below zero here in Chicago, and I like to make it in big batches in the Crock-Pot® while I’m cleaning my apartment or working. As you can see from my recent Crock-Pot® recipes, I love using it as one of my essential kitchen tools since it allows for me to multi-task while making delicious meals. 

Eggplants and zucchini are one of my go-to veggies that I always have on hand as they are great anti-bloating vegetables. So whenever I have a big event to go to, I make recipes with these veggies to ensure that I am bloat-free. Eggplants are special because they have phenolic compounds which play an important role in cancer prevention and act as potent antioxidants protecting us from free radicals. 

Zucchinis are also another go-to veggie because there is over 50% of the daily requirement of Vitamin C in just one of these bad boys. Zucchini is also a great source of potassium (and potassium is a great de-bloating mineral that you can read about here ), and provide us with hydration and electrolytes which also naturally helps us regulate water weight.  Between the benefits of the eggplant and zucchini, you’ll be getting some flat tummy friendly meals out of this plant-based lasagna recipe. The cheeses as usual are made of a cashew base and the ricotta is including tofu in it (but if you are sensitive to soy you can nix the tofu and it will still taste great, just a slightly different texture). So let’s get to the recipe!

 

Crock-Pot® Slow Cooker Dairy-Free, Grain-Free Lasagna

dairy-free-grain-free-lasagna

Ingredients:

  • 1 eggplant
  • 2 zucchinis
  • 2 cans of salt free diced tomatoes
  • 1 can of salt free tomato sauce
  • 1/2 white onion
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1 package of 14 oz firm tofu
  • 1 package of 10 oz frozen spinach – defrosted
  • 1/2 cup of cashews 
  • 1/3 cup and 1/2 cup of nutritional yeast
  • 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tsp Himalayan pink salt
  • Italian seasonings
  • Vegan Parmesan cheese
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil

Directions:

  1.  To make the tomato sauce: heat up 1 tbsp coconut oil in a skillet, dice 1/2 the white onion and dice 2 garlic cloves and cook on the skillet for 5-6 minutes until translucent. Add the 3 cans of diced tomatoes and tomato sauce, add 1/2 cup of nutritional yeast, add a sprinkle of your favorite Italian seasoning and simmer for 20 minutes.  Once thoroughly cooked for 20 minutes, set aside.
  2. To make the ricotta and spinach filling: soak the cashews for 1 hour, thaw out the frozen spinach. Take a paper towel and press the tofu to drain any excess water. In your food processor, blend together the tofu, 1 garlic cloves, 1/3 cup of nutritional yeast and 1/2 cup of soaked cashews. Add another tsp of Himalayan salt. Add 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar and blend again. Then add the spinach and blend until everything is evenly mixed together. Set aside.
  3. Slice the eggplant and zucchini into thin vertical slices. In your Crock-Pot®, layer the bottom with eggplant, add a layer of the ricotta cheese blend, add a layer of tomato sauce, then repeat until the Crock-Pot® is full. Turn the slow cooker settings to high and cook on high for 2 hours.  The cool thing about using the
    Crock-Pot® Slow Cooker though is that there are automated smart cooking settings to help you out if you’re using it for the first time. 
  4. Once the eggplant and zucchini slices are tender, cut the lasagna into sections, serve and enjoy!  

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Sponsored post by Mirum Shopper and Crock-Pot®. All opinions are my own.

 

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