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This One-Pot Vegan Lasagna Soup is made with a homemade tomato broth, nutritious vegetables, protein-packed lentils and hearty pasta. Serve with a dollop of rich vegan ricotta, vegan mozzarella, and fresh herbs. Gluten-Free Option.
If you love lasagna, you’ll love this quick and easy deconstructed Vegan Lasagna Soup. It comes together in just one-pot and has all the flavors of your favorite lasagna recipe but without the work! Customize this comforting soup to use your favorite shaped pasta, veggies, and plant-based cheese. Have this well-balanced lasagna inspired soup on the table in just over 30 minutes. And try not to eat all of the vegan ricotta by the spoonful while you cook!
Table of Contents
The One-Pot Soup That Has it All
If you love my Easy One-Pot Pasta and are looking for an equally easy weeknight dish, you’ll love this One-Pot Vegan Lasagna Soup. It’s made with simple ingredients – your favorite pasta, a rich and savory broth, lentils, veggies and a creamy dollop of plant-based cheese. It’s the ultimate creamy, filling and delicious one-pot meal even meat lovers will enjoy.
Not to mention, it’s ready in 40 minutes or less and cooks start to finish in one-pot. This vegan lasagna soup recipe truly does have it all. The whole family won’t mind curling up with a big bowl of this vegan soup and a piece of crusty sourdough bread after a long day.
What You Need for Vegan Lasagna Soup
Aside from your favorite soup pot, you’ll need 5 nutritious and tasty “layers” of plant-based goodness:
- Aromatics: The soup base is made with onions, carrots, cloves of garlic, and simple spices sautéed until fragrant and deep in sweet, earthy notes.
- Tomato broth: A combination of tomato paste, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, and low-sodium vegetable broth makes a rich, well-spiced broth that is full of flavor.
- Brown or green lentils: Adds heartiness and nutritious plant-based protein that will help keep you full and satisfied for hours. Note that green lentils will hold up and make a more textured soup compared to brown lentils, but both work fine! I have not tested this soup with red lentils.
- Pasta: You can choose to use broken lasagna noodles for a true lasagna soup, but I find that gets a little messy since they don’t break evenly. I prefer to use Campanelle pasta – they look like mini lasagna curls and cook evenly.
- Vegan Ricotta Cheese: It’s not a true lasagna soup without a dollop of ricotta. For the ultimate cheesy lasagna flavor, I recommend topping off with a sprinkle of vegan mozzarella cheese, too.
How to Make Vegan Lasagna Soup
- In a large pot, sauté the onion, then stir in the carrots, tomato paste, fresh garlic, Italian seasoning, black pepper and additional salt until fragrant.
- Add the crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and lentils. Pour in the vegetable broth and water and bring to a boil. Simmer until the lentils are almost fully cooked.
- Stir in the pasta and cook until the pasta is cooked to your liking. Lastly, add the chopped spinach, stirring until wilted.
- Serve warm in individual serving bowls with vegan ricotta, shredded vegan cheese and fresh herbs, or as desired.
Caitlin’s Cooking Tips
- Use high-quality canned tomatoes – There is a notable difference in taste between brands of lower quality versus good quality brands. Since the tomatoes add a lot of flavor to the broth, it is worth it to use quality tomatoes here.
- Cook the pasta separately for meal prep – If you plan on making this lasagna soup to eat over several days for meal prep or know you will have leftovers, I do recommend cooking the pasta separately so it doesn’t get soggy or absorb all of the broth overnight. If you do choose to cook the pasta separately, omit the 3 additional cups of water in the soup broth.
Serving Suggestions
This lasagna soup is hearty enough to serve on its own with a dollop of Vegan Ricotta, but can be paired with simple sides to round out the meal. Some of my favorites include a simple loaf of crusty bread, garlic bread, Pumpkin Cornbread, or quick salads such as Kale Apple Walnut Salad or my Winter Kale Salad.
If you’re looking for more one-pot hearty soups, you’ll also love this Coconut Curry Lentil Soup with Kale, Hearty Vegan Chorizo Chili and this Sweet Potato, Red Lentil, and Peanut Stew!
How to Store Vegan Lasagna Soup
Leftover lasagna soup will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Freezing this soup is not recommended – the pasta does not freeze well and will become mushy and over-cooked upon defrosting and reheating.
If you’d like to freeze this soup, I would recommend freezing the tomato-based soup broth without the pasta or spinach. Then, when ready to eat, defrost it overnight in the refrigerator before bringing it to a simmer again on the stovetop. For best results, I recommend cooking the pasta separately according to package instructions and stirring it in along with the spinach just before serving.
Reheat leftover soup in the microwave or on medium-low heat on the stovetop with additional vegetable broth to thin out the soup, if desired.
Substitutions and Variations
- Pasta options: Campanelle, or gigli pasta (my favorite), macaroni or rotini are good alternatives to lasagna sheets. Really any small pasta shape of your liking will work and still make a lasagna-reminiscent soup.
- Lentil options: Canned lentils can be used in place of dried lentils, if desired. If using, drain and rinse them well and add them in at step 3 with just 2 cups of water instead of 3.
- Oil-free option: Instead of oil, sauté the vegetables in ¼ cup of water. If things begin to stick to the bottom of the pot, add in 2 tablespoons of water at a time to loosen things up.
- Gluten-free option: Opt for gluten-free pasta! Corn or rice based gluten-free pastas hold up better than bean based pastas, but feel free to use your favorite gluten-free brand.
- Vegan cheese options: If you do not have ingredients on hand to make my homemade vegan tofu ricotta, any plant-based cheese will work here. I’d suggest mozzarella shreds, vegan parmesan cheese, or even smoked gouda. Or keep it simple and make a homemade cashew cream to stir in.
Recipe FAQs
In this vegetarian version, I’ve swapped the traditional ground beef or Italian sausage with lentils. They’re equally protein rich, hearty, yet good for you too. I also use a lentil filling in my Vegan Eggplant Lasagna, or even a vegetable filling in lasagna like my Vegetable Lasagna with White Sauce. No one will miss the meat – promise!
Plant-based ricotta is typically made from tofu or nuts, or both! My homemade vegan ricotta recipe is made from tofu, cashews, nutritional yeast, lemon juice and a few other ingredients to give it that tangy, savory flavor. Brands like Tofutti and Kite Hill sell store-bought brands of vegan ricotta you can buy when you are short on prep time.
Ricotta gives this lasagna soup the classic flavor and makes it rich and creamy. It’s optional, but adding some sort of vegan cheese is highly recommended.
I have not tested an Instant Pot version of this lasagna soup and cannot recommend one at the time.
Enjoy! If you make this recipe and decide to share it on Facebook or Instagram, don’t forget to tag me @FromMyBowl + #FromMyBowl! I would also love it if you could leave a comment below with a recipe rating! Thank you for the support 😊
One Pot Vegan Lasagna Soup
Ingredients
For the Soup:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion diced
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 carrots peeled and diced
- 3 to 5 garlic cloves minced
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper plus more to taste
- 1 teaspoon sea salt plus more to taste
- 1 14.5 ounce can petite diced tomatoes*
- 1 14.5 ounce can crushed tomatoes*
- 1/2 cup dry brown lentils (see notes for canned)
- 5 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
- 3 cups water plus more if necessary
- 8 ounces Campanelle pasta or broken lasagna noodles*
- 3 ounces baby spinach
For serving:
- 1/2 cup Vegan Ricotta
- Shredded vegan mozzarella cheese optional
- Fresh basil and/or parsley to sprinkle on top
Instructions
- Aromatics: Warm the olive oil in a large dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the carrots and stir in the tomato paste and sauté for an additional 3 minutes. Finally, add the garlic, Italian seasoning, black pepper, and 1 teaspoon salt. Sauté for one more minute, until the garlic is fragrant.
- Make the Broth: Add the crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and lentils to the pot. Pour in the vegetable broth and water and increase the heat to high. Reduce the heat to medium-high once the soup begins to boil. Simmer for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring the soup occasionally. The lentils should be almost fully cooked before proceeding.
- Pasta: Add the pasta to the pot and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the pasta is cooked to your liking. Reduce the heat to medium if the soup starts to splatter, but maintain a simmer. Turn the heat off and stir in the spinach until wilted. Season with additional salt and black pepper to taste, if necessary. If the soup is too thick you can thin it out with water (or more vegetable broth).
- Serve: Divide the soup into serving bowls and top with 1-2 tablespoons of vegan ricotta, shredded vegan cheese, and fresh herbs (or as desired). Serve warm; leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Recipe Notes
- Pasta options: Lasagna noodles tend to break unevenly, so I prefer to use Campanelle pasta (but either will work!) Rotini would also be a good choice here, and you can use either gluten-free or regular pasta. If you know you will have leftovers, it might be best to cook the pasta separately and add only before serving, otherwise it will get soggy in the fridge and soak up a lot of the broth. If you choose to cook separately, only add 1 cup of water instead of 3.
- Lentils: if you opt to use canned lentils, drain and rinse them well. Add them in step 3, but only add 2 cups of water instead of 3, and simmer the soup for 5-7 minutes only before adding the pasta. If you are adding canned lentils and cooking your pasta separately, don’t add any water to the pot.
- Tomatoes: Try to purchase high-quality canned tomatoes here if you can; there is a difference in taste between brands and the tomatoes add a lot of flavor to the broth.
- Oil-Free: sauté the vegetables in 1/4 cup (60 mL) of water instead of oil, adding more in 2 tablespoon increments if things start to stick to the bottom of the pan.
Delicious!! Def will be on the rotation at our house.
Thank you, Grace!
I love this Recipe. I always freeze a lot of it (Single Household) If you freeze it skip the spinach because it gets really strange and dry when you do that. But despite that…amazing
Thank you for the tip and we’re glad you found it amazing! ♥
This was delicious! I’m glad I tried it; this one will be going in my recipe book.
It was delicious <3.
Thank you!
This soup is absolutely amazing! One of my family members doesn’t like lentils, so I put a can of garbanzo beans into a food processor and processed until it was smooth. It thickened the soup of quite nicely. And your vegan ricotta is so good I was eating it by the spoonful!
Thank you for the review, Bekka! Glad it turned out amazing for you.
Thank YOU, Caitlin! Your recipe is very easy to follow (for a beginner like myself), and always delicious & delightful. I now make it a mission to try one of your recipes every Sunday, be it from your blog or your book 😃 ~Ivonne, Jakarta
You’re so welcome, Ivonne!
Caitlin, this soup is AMAZING! I followed the recipe exactly, used Jovial gluten free lasagna noodles, which take a little bit longer to cook. The vegan ricotta is a must. As a newer vegan (longtime vegetarian), eating this rich, creamy soup just validates that plants are DELICIOUS and I will survive without cheese! Thank you for creating this fabulous dish! Erin, Michigan
So glad you found it amazing, Erin! Thank you for the feedback. ♥
Big hit with my family! Yum!
Happy to hear that, Julie!
Nice Recipe I Made It Couple Times
Thank you, Robi!
What brands do you recommend for high quality canned tomatoes?
The Muir Glen Organic one is great!
Hey! Do you have to use brown lentils? I have a mix of green/black/brown that I need to use up. Just curious how that might impact cooking/flavor.
Hi Nikki! You can use what you have.
In general, the brown and green varieties retain their shape well (some more fully than others). Black lentils might not be quite as common as the other varieties. They’re small and can be mistaken for brown lentils with a darker shade of brown. What sets them apart is a thicker skin.