Low-carb Eggplant Lasagna Recipe (Video)
I love making lasagna without traditional noodles. Instead, I always make it with zucchini or eggplant slices. Almost every month, I make my Spinach and Zucchini Lasagna for my husband, but since he doesn’t like eggplant (and refuses to eat it!), it’s been a while since I’ve made lasagna using eggplant. Even though I like eggplant, I really don’t enjoy cooking only for me.
A few weeks ago, my husband was traveling for work, and my mom came to visit us in Canada for three weeks. We were buying groceries when she saw eggplants and said: “Can we buy them, and make eggplant lasagna?” I couldn’t believe my ears. OMG, I’ll finally be able to make eggplant lasagna again!! That’s awesome! So, we bought the eggplants, made this low-carb eggplant lasagna, and enjoyed it all week.
Tips to avoid the Low-Carb Eggplant Lasagna Recipe from becoming watering or soggy:
- First, sprinkle some coarse salt on top of the eggplant slices.
- Second, set it aside for about 10 minutes.
- Third, pat them with a paper towel to remove the excess moisture and the coarse salt.
- Finally, grill the slices for about 3 minutes per side. This is the most important step. It keeps the lasagna nice and firm.
I promise you that if you follow these four tips your Low-carb Eggplant Lasagna will be very flavourful and not very watery. Please, do not skip these four steps before assembling the lasagna.
My favourite Mandoline Slicer.
After these initial steps, I assemble the lasagna, first adding the homemade tomato sauce to a casserole. Then, I add the eggplant slices, ricotta mixture, and mozzarella. I repeat the layers until all the ingredients are used. Finally, I sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top and bake it for about 50 minutes. Done!
Oh, I can’t forget to say: before serving, let the lasagna cool for about 20 minutes. It also helps keep it less watery.
This lasagna is very flavourful and perfect if you are on a low-carb or gluten-free diet. The best part of this low-carb eggplant lasagna is that it’s so good that you won’t even miss the noodles. Even if you are a carb lover, you will enjoy having this eggplant lasagna for dinner with your family.
More veggie noodles recipes to try:
- 4-Ingredient Chicken Zucchini Rolls: This recipe is a healthy dinner for the entire family. It’s very easy to make, healthy, gluten-free, and low-carb. But best of all, it’s so D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S.
- Spinach and Zucchini Lasagna: Replace traditional noodles with low-carb zucchini noodles and make this amazing healthy meal for your family.
- Low-carb Chicken Zucchini Enchilada: This recipe is made with “zucchini tortillas” and is loaded with enchilada sauce, chicken, and cheese.
See below for how to make Low-carb Eggplant Lasagna:
Low-carb Eggplant Lasagna
Ingredients
- 2 large eggplants — sliced 1/8" thick (I used my mandoline to create perfect eggplant slices.)
- coarse salt
- 15 ounces part-skim ricotta
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese — save some to sprinkle on top
- 4 cups homemade tomato sauce or your favourite sauce
- 16 ounces part-skim mozzarella cheese — shredded
- 2 tablespoons parsley — chopped, for garnishing
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Arrange the eggplant slices in a single layer on a clean surface.
Sprinkle the slices with coarse salt, and set aside for 10 minutes. Remove the excess moisture and salt with a paper towel.
- In a greasy grill pan, place the eggplant slices, and grill for about 3 minutes per side. The pictures above illustrate these 2 steps. (Please, don't skip the steps 3 and 4. They are very important to avoid the lasagna becoming too soupy.)
- In a medium bowl, mix the ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, and an egg. Stir well.
- In a 9x12-inch casserole, spread some tomato sauce on the bottom.
Place 5 or 6 eggplant slices on top to cover the sauce.
Spread some of the ricotta cheese mixture over the eggplant slices, and top with the mozzarella cheese. Repeat the layers until all your ingredients are used.
Top with the sauce, mozzarella, and Parmesan.
Bake 40 minutes covered and then 10 minutes uncovered.
- Let stand about 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with parsley.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information
Amount per serving (1/9) — Calories: 223, Fat: 12.4g, Cholesterol: 53mg, Carbohydrates: 10.6g, Sugar: 4.4g, Protein: 18.5gIf you make this recipe, please don't forget to snap a photo and hashtag it #primaverakitchen. I really want to see!
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Do you know if this will freeze well? I love eggplant but no one else in my family does.
Oh yes. It freezes very well.
Do you peel the eggplant? I’m making this tomorrow
No I didn’t.
Made this last night. it was somewhat hard to get the water out of the eggplant, but cooking it on the grill pan got a lot of it out. Next had eggplant before. It tasted okay before I assembled everything, but afterwards, the eggplant tasted weird. Could have just been the eggplant I used. Everything else tasted great.
Did you “swet” the eggplants before you grilled them? Salt each side after cutting and lay on paper towels for 15-20 minutes. Then brush or quickly rinse the salt off before grilling (pat dry if you rinse). This takes the bitterness out of the eggplant.
yes I did.
Can I put this together and freeze it before baking?
Yes you can 😉
How does freezing change cooking time?
You need to thaw this recipe over night in the fridge before cooking.
Is there an option to put it in the oven or use a regular pan if you don’t have a grill pan?
You can broil the eggplant slices in the oven before assembling the lasagna.
With this method, is it useful, or flavorful to brush the eggplant slices with extra-virgin olive oil before broiling?
It’s not necessary because you will broil the eggplant slices to make them dry and avoid having liquid on your lasagna.
I made this for thanksgiving and it tasted delicious! The only problem was that it was difficult to cut the eggplant. The knife kept getting hung up on the “noodles” causing the whole thing to pull apart and not look very appetizing. I was using a very sharp knife and I’m wondering if there’s anything I can do to prevent this in the future. (I didn’t peel the eggplant btw)
It sounds like your eggplant was a little over ripe. Make sure they are fairly firm with a gentle finger press on the fat part.
Good recipe but be careful to wipe off as much salt as you can from the eggplant before grilling it. As the recipe said to salt the eggplant to get the water out, I did so and I patted the water off with a paper towel before grilling. The lasagna turned out SO SALTY that we could not manage to eat it, and we like salt around here.
Sorry to hear that. Yes, you have to be very careful about the salt, but this is a very important step to avoid your lasagna to become watery. If you use coarse salt it will be better because it is easier to remove it out from the eggplant before grilling it.
Love this recipe and have never made lasagna with pasta. Therefore, for your recipe to taste as good if not better than lasagna, I’m going to continue to perfect it! Thank you.
KT
Happy you liked it 😉
this is an absolutely beautiful recipe thank you so much I’ll definitely do that more often☺️
Awesome! Happy you liked it 😉
Hi Ingrid, I just made your stuffed eggplant and didn’t use the scooped out eggplant after I read the previous posts. Did you eat any of the eggplant or just use it as a boat to serve the hamburger and rice? I just ate hamburger, rice, tomatoes, spices a little bland and thought it was going to be more of an eggplant dish. I usually love your recipes but was a bit disappointed in this one. It may totally have been my preparation! I did like the tahini sauce. custom written essays
I made this for my veggie loving fam tonight and it was a huge hit! I followed the egg plant prep directions and the consistency was perfect. I also layered sliced zucchini, mushrooms, and spinach! Delicious!
Awesome I think your lasagna sounds delicious. I love that you added mushrooms and spinach too!
Despite following the eggplant prep directions, my lasagna was pretty soggy and did not hold any form once served out of the baking dish. Just a big pile of cheesy veggies. It tasted fine, just not very pretty in appearance once served.
Sorry to hear that. Do you have any idea what that happened? Every time I follow the eggplant prep directions the lasagna holds really well.
I thought this was pretty good. I doubled the ricotta mixture. (like icing, there is never enough cheese!) My mandoline didn’t work so well, maybe my eggplant weren’t firm enough, so I hand cut them. It needed something else, maybe meat to perk it up.
Have you tried this recipe with Ground beef? It works great!
Since others have said that their lasagne didn’t hold well I decided to cut my eggplant 1cm thick as I read in another recipe and it held VERY WELL. After sweating the eggplant off (used 3 instead of 2) I pan fried it in butter then set it aside while I cooked 500g minced beef with some finely diced onion then mixed in your tomato sauce. Layered some of your tomato sauce (which now has the minced beef) then some eggplant, alternating then topped with the cheese. It turned out absolutely delicious as hubby and I are on the Keto menu. Thanks for your recipe as it the basis, but I’ll now continue to make it with my changes.
I made this. Followed the tips. Followed the recipe. Cooked it for 50 minutes…. was still not done. Cooked another 20 minutes. Tough and chewy, bitter and salty. Sorry. I did not enjoy this.
Sorry to hear that. I’m actually surprised how yours turned out because normally when you over cook eggplant, it tends to become soggy and mashy. And for the “salty part”, when you pat the eggplant slices with a paper towel, you will do that to remove the excess moisture and the coarse salt too.
This is definitely the best low-carb eggplant lasagna I’ve ever made! Amazing!
Awesome! So happy you liked this recipe. Thanks for the 5 stars 😉
So so so GOOD! Love this low-carb eggplant lasagna recipe. I made it every Sunday for my family. Everybody enjoys it.
SO happy you enjoyed this recipe! Thanks a lot for your great feedback 😉
I tried this recipe yesterday, I followed the instructions to avoid the eggplant from being soggy and I had some chicken already on the grill so I grilled the eggplant. Turn out perfect. Looking forward to other low carb recipes.
Awesome. I’m glad to hear that. Thanks for stopping by and try one of my recipes 😉
I made this for dinner and it was wonderful. I made two adjustments. I did not use oil on the grill pan and I prefer shaved parmesan cheese to grated parmesan cheese in the ricotta egg mixture. My husband loved it!!
Mm… Sounds delicious!
Really easy to make and you could not get it wrong. I fried a small chopped onion and minced meat in a bit of olive oil and added to the tomato sauce. My kids loved it and so did I! Super healthy for those on diet.
That’s absolutely awesome! Happy to hear that 😉
This was a perfect low carb dish. I made this and a big pan of regular lasagna as well and many folks kept coming back for more of the eggplant dish. Delightful!
It’s so good that we don’t even realize this dish is low-carb 😉
Amazingly delicious! I will make this often.
That’s awesome. Happy to hear that 😉
Great recipe. Delicious. I made this as directed, with the following small tweaks…I broiled the eggplant 3-4 minutes per side instead of using a grill pan… I baked the lasagna at 350 for 30 minutes covered and 30 minutes uncovered since I used my toaster oven. It wasn’t salty (I really was careful about wiping off all the salt and water with paper towel) and it stayed together on the plate. I have diabetes so this was a perfect way for me to enjoy lasagna without all the carbs. Thanks! This is a keeper.
thanks a lot foe your comment. Yes, when you are wiping off all the salt you just need to be careful and it won’t be salty at all. Happy to hear you enjoy this recipe 😉
i am not a cook. Fast and frozen foods were part of our busy everyday lives. But I am trying to be healthy and actually start cooking. I came across your blog and browsed your recipes. This lasagna was my first attempt. Halfway through I wondered what I had gotten myself into. But I followed your instructions carefully and WOW. It was tasty, and My husband loved it. It was not soggy at all. I have never cooked an eggplant in my life. Your instructions were easy to follow. Look forward to trying more of your recipes.
That’s absolutely awesome. So happy to hear that. Thanks for your lovely feedback 😉