Butternut Squash Lasagna Roll-Ups

Butternut Squash Lasagna Roll

Lasagna is the ultimate comfort food, but if you’re pre-diabetic lasagna, which is loaded with refined carbs and high fat cheese, can pose a serious problem.

Luckily, there are ways around this.

Take this recipe.

I saw something like this in an issue of Better Homes and Gardens’ Eat to Beat Diabetes publication. As I am incapable of leaving a recipe as is, I tinkered with it and came up with something that better suits my tastes.

This recipe swaps out half the ricotta or cottage cheese in traditional lasagna filling for frozen pureed butternut squash which has the same creamy texture without the fat. It also gives the filling a nutritional boost as it contains loads of vitamins A and C and is a good source of dietary fiber. While the lasagna noodles in this dish are rolled up, you could simply layer noodles and filling, top everything with sauce and cheese and bake it as you would traditional lasagna. The advantage of the roll-ups is portion control. One or two rolls will satisfy most people.

Here’s How You Do It

Difficulty Level: Easy to Medium

Prep time: 15-20 Minutes

Cook Time: 35 Minutes

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

1 Box of Regular Lasagna Noodles

2 or 3 Cups of Tomato or Meat Sauce – Homemade, Jarred, or Canned is fine but if you’re using the latter, be mindful of sodium and sugar in them

1 1/2 Cups of Low Fat Mozzarella – Grated

1 Teaspoon of Jarred Pesto

1 Tomato – Sliced

1 Package of Frozen Chopped Spinach – Thawed and Drained

1 Package of Frozen Pureed Butternut Squash – Thawed – You can find this with the frozen vegetables but if your grocery store doesn’t have it, try the Asian markets. They often carry it too.

1 Container of 1 % or 2 % Fat Cottage Cheese

1 or 2 Cloves of Garlic – Minced or Grated

1 Large Egg

1 ½ Teaspoons of Salt - divided

1 Teaspoon of Pepper

1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil

Equipment

1 Large Pot

Tongs

1 Large Plate

1 Large Baking Dish

Measuring Cups and Spoons

Cheese Grater

Spoons

1 Mixing Bowl

1 Wooden Spoon

1 Knife and Cutting Board

Fill your pot with water, add a teaspoon of salt and put it on the stove.

Bring the water to a boil and dump in your Lasagna Noodles.

Put the teaspoon of Olive Oil in the water. This will keep it from bubbling over.

Boil the noodles until they’re soft but not falling apart, stirring them around every once in a while to keep them from sticking together.

Put the noodles on a plate to cool, preheat the oven to 350 ^oF and prep your filling.

In your mixing bowl, dump the spinach, cottage cheese, butternut squash, half a cup of the mozzarella, pesto, garlic, egg, and ½ a teaspoon of salt and pepper and stir it all with a wooden spoon.

Spread the filling over the length of a lasagna noodle, roll it up, and put it in your baking dish. The little fat in the cheese will be all the grease the pan needs.

Repeat until the pan is full.

Put the tomato slices in between each roll and top everything with your sauce of choice.  

Top with the remaining mozzarella cheese.

Bake for 35 minutes to set the filling, melt the cheese, and heat everything through. If you want the cheese extra brown, you can turn the oven on broil and leave the rolls in the over for an extra 5 or 10 minutes.

Cool it on a trivet for 10 minutes and serve!

Enjoy!

-Samantha R. Gold

Questions? Comments? Requests?

Bring it on!

I can be reached at:  for.the.culinarily.challenged@gmail.com

Trolls will be unceremoniously deleted and dismissed.