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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.
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