New Recipe: Paleo Butternut Squash Lasagna

Before you get too excited about the title, this is not like your average lasagna recipe. I think the only reason lasagna is in the title of the recipe is because it is a layered dish and has a meat sauce, other than that it doesn’t consist of lasagna noodles nor cheeses. I didn’t think I would ever be able to give up my love for pasta and Italian dishes, but surprisingly I don’t miss it. When I started the Whole30 back in January I had a friend that was doing it with me and she was given a recipe for Paleo Lasagna and told me I had to try it, I wouldn’t regret it! I was a little skeptical at first, but I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome of the dish. My hubby has even requested it multiple times since, but yesterday was only the 3rd or 4th time that I have made it because it does take some time to make. This time was the best one out of all my attempts. There was a good squash to meat sauce ratio and the squash was cooked through all the way and had just enough spice to it. Maybe because I actually followed the recipe exactly (except for the mushrooms) this time and didn’t ver from it.

A little background of the recipe:

• concept of the recipe comes from health-bent.com (another great paleo inspired blog)
• meat sauce is from my friend’s friend’s mom (hope that makes sense?)

Without further adieu. Here is the long anticipated recipe.

Butternut Squash Lasagna (Credit: recipe provided to you by my friend, Amanda. If it wasn’t for her this recipe post wouldn’t be possible ):

Prep time:10 minutes (includes slicing squash and onions/garlic)

Cook time: 80 minutes (meat sauce)

Lasagna bake time: 60 minutes

Total time: 2 hours and 30 minutes

Servings: 4 adult size servings or 6 toddler/kid size servings (bakes in a 9×9 baking dish) (can obviously double or triple recipe)

Ingredients:

• 1 small butternut squash
• 1 recipe of the meat sauce

Prepping squash:

1. Cut ends off of squash and in half

2. slice the bigger end lengthwise and scoop sides out

3. Slice squash into sections (easier to manage)

4. Slice off the skin

5. Try to slice squash into thin circles ( as you can see, my squash was an odd shape so I didn’t get as many half circles as I would have liked)

Ingredients for meat sauce:

• 3-4 garlic cloves
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 TBL oregano
• 1 tsp fennel seed
• 1 tsp rosemary (not ground)
• 1 tsp red chile pepper (flakes)
• 3 links hot or sweet italian sausage (I actually used chicken not pork)
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• mushrooms (optional + I didn’t put them in)

Prep for sauce:

1. gather all ingredients together

2. have the 2 cans ready to be poured into onion/garlic pan

3. combine all spices in a small bowl

Instructions for meat sauce:  

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

1. Heat about 2 TBL olive oil into saute pan + add diced onion and minced garlic until soft

2. Add spices to onion/garlic mix and stir until well combined

3. Crumble sausage into onion/spice mix + brown sausage + soak up any unwanted grease with some paper towels

4. Add the cans of tomato sauce and diced tomatoes+ simmer for 45-60 minutes (or until desired thickness–I did the latter)

Putting it all together! :

1. Put a thin layer of the meat sauce on the bottom of a glass 9×9 baking dish (to keep the squash from sticking to the pan)   +  place 1 layer of the sliced squash on top of the sauce

2. Alternate between the meat sauce and squash (I ended up having 3 layers of the squash and 3 layers of sauce)

3. Make sure  to leave some meat sauce for the very top + place in oven at 400 for 60 minutes (or until squash is fork tender) (covered with foil for first 30 minutes + uncovered for last 30 minutes)

4. Once lasagna is browned and bubbly on top, lasagna is done+ let set on countertop for 20-30 minutes to let everything thicken

5. Divide up servings and enjoy!!

***I did pair this meal with a cucumber salad, which made a good balance.

+++I broke up this recipe into two parts so I wouldn’t have to be in the kitchen all afternoon.

1st part–>>prepped the squash and cooked the meat sauce

2nd part–>>about an hour before I wanted dinner to be ready I layered the lasagna and baked in the oven.

This recipe is Paleo and 21 Day Sugar Detox approved!! Double brownie points!!

(source–same friend that provided me with this recipe)

If anyone tries this recipe, please let me know how it turned out. I would love to hear!

Do you follow recipes exactly or are you a free-flowing type? I am both, in baking I follow exactly the ingredients and measurements, but in cooking I like to experiment 🙂