Slow Cooker Zucchini Noodle Lasagna: an easy recipe for a red sauce lasagna with gooey cheese, spicy sausage and sliced zucchini that is used in place of noodles all made in your crockpot!
Slow Cooker Zucchini Noodle Lasagna
Because it’s the season of all things ZUCCHINI and my mother-in-law gifted me with 2 large zucchinis I decided I needed to make a lasagna that uses sliced zucchini in place of the noodles. It’s crazy because I didn’t even miss the the noodles! I loved the tender pieces of zucchini which soaked up all the yummy sauce. The total bonus of making Slow Cooker Zucchini Noodle Lasagna is that it’s made in the slow cooker instead of the oven. This time of year it’s pretty darn hot and my air conditioner is working full time. There is no way that I want to turn on my oven for an hour.
Other Zucchini Recipes
If you’re drowning in a garden full of zucchini, here are some of my other recipes you may want to try:
- Slow Cooker Zucchini Lasagna Roll-Ups
- Creamy Basil Pesto Hummus Zucchini
- Slow Cooker Chicken Curry with Zucchini Ribbons
- Slow Cooker Sour Cream Chocolate Zucchini Bread
- Zucchini Linguine
And some more recipes from other talented food bloggers:
- The Best Chocolate Zucchini Cake from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
- 5-Ingredient Zucchini Fritters from Just a Taste
- Spicy Zucchini Soup from Simply Recipes
- Loaded Chicken Enchilada Zucchini Boats from Averie Cooks
How to get liquid out of sliced zucchini
One thing that I noticed when I made this lasagna the first time was how much liquid was on the bottom of the slow cooker. The zucchini releases a lot of water while it is cooked and can make your lasagna a soupy mess. For the best results I recommend salting your zucchini using the method in the video below to get all the excess liquid out of the zucchini. This video is from the cookbook, 23 Zucchini and from the blog The Perfect Pantry.
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Slow Cooker Zucchini Noodle Lasagna
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Total Time: 4 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 servings 1x
Description
Slow Cooker Zucchini Noodle Lasagna: an easy recipe for a red sauce lasagna with gooey cheese, spicy sausage and sliced zucchini that is used for the noodles all made in your crockpot!
Ingredients
- 2 medium zucchini (sliced into quarter inch rounds)
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 1 cup cottage cheese
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese
- 1 (12 oz) roll of ground sausage, browned and drained of excess grease
- 1 (24 oz) jar of pasta sauce
Instructions
- Take the zucchini and place in a strainer. Salt the zucchini rounds with a pinch of salt and let sit for about 15-20 minutes. The water from the zucchini will drip out of the strainer so make sure you have a bowl underneath the strainer. Rinse off the zucchini and dry with a towel. You can see how to do this in the video above.
- In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, cottage cheese and Parmesan cheese. Use a hand mixer to mix until smooth.
- In a 6 quart slow cooker or casserole crock layer half of the zucchini in the bottom.
- Combine the browned sausage and pasta sauce together. Spread half of the pasta sauce on top and half of the cheese mixture. Then repeat the layers (the rest of the zucchini, pasta sauce and cheese mixture).
- If desired sprinkle with additional Parmesan cheese.
- Cover and cook on HIGH for 2-3 hours or on LOW for 4-6 hours.
Have you tried freezing this?
nope, I’d be nervous on how the cheese mixture and the zucchini would freeze.
Just an observation. You don’t have any instructions in your recipe as to what to do with the sausage other than to brown it. Although most of us would assume to mix into the pasta sauce.
oops!! I’ll fix it 🙂 Thanks for the heads up.
i dont own a slow cooker. how would i bake this in the oven?
I’d bake it at 350 for about an hour.
Should you want, sneak a little…or a lot…of tofu into the cheese mix and leave out the meat from the pasta sauce mixture
Or use veggie meat crumbles