slow cooker lasagne

Do you know, I’m never comfortable typing lasagne. I dither for ages as to whether it’s lasagne or lasagna and whenever I type it into google my eyes glaze over through boredom and I give up. So, take your pick. 

Super quick post tonight as we’ve only just got back from returning the Smart Car. Paul loves it. I hate it with the passion of a thousand suns. Admittedly, it was surprisingly roomy (but not roomy enough for any backseat shenanigans…not least because it doesn’t have a backseat, unless you fancy singeing your arse cheeks on the engine and having the Mercedes logo branded above your nipsy) but it was so…I hate to use the word lame, I’m not in Mean Girls, but yes, lame. I’ve never heard a car wheeze before. Paul stepped on the accelerator and it ‘shot away’ from a junction like a stubborn poo round a u-bend – going, but just. It did give the neighbours something to look at however and turning around at the top of the street was great fun as it can seemingly turn on a penny, but no, no, we’re not getting one. Sorry Paul! I embarrassed him today by parking outside the Smart car dealership whilst he was inside handing back the keys and putting the Black Beauty theme on loud. 

Tonight’s recipe, then – slow cooker lasagne. This serves six and only uses one 400g portion of extra lean mince, the type that you can buy from our Musclefood deal by clicking here. Just saying! You can bulk this out as much as you like by adding carrots, courgette, peas – any old shite you happen to have floating around in the back of the freezer. Also, this can easily be made vegetarian by replacing the beef mince with Quorn or similar. But ew, right. I hope they’ve improved Quorn mince since the last time I tried it – it was like digesting loft insulation. This lasagne is pretty much the same method as a normal lasagne. The pasta cooks slowly and is so soft, it’s almost like another sauce. Sounds like I’m having a joke but honestly, it’s good. That’s why it is essential to make your mince sauce as tasty as possible, it carries the dish! 

We served ours with roast potatoes and some steamed broccoli. Oh how fancy. 

SLOW COOKER LASAGNE

Look at it bubbling away…

IMG_2348

Looking good! Right. So…

to make slow cooker lasagne, you’ll need:

  • 400g lean beef mince
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • tin of chopped tomatoes
  • 500ml passata
  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • 280g lasagne sheets (about 2/3rds of a box)
  • 340g fat-free cottage cheese
  • 250g quark
  • as much reduced fat mozzarella cut into chunks as you like – 65g is one person’s HEA, and this serves six
  • whatever speed food you have about

to make slow cooker lasagne, you should:

  • in a large frying pan heat a little oil/Frylight over a medium high heat, add the onions and sweat down
  • add the garlic and the mince and stir occasionally until no pink meat remains
  • add the chopped tomatoes, passata, tomato puree and any other speed veg you are using into the pan and stir well, cook for a few minutes
  • meanwhile, add all of the cheeses into a bowl and mix together
  • spoon a quarter of the meat mixture into the slow cooker, top with a few lasagne sheets (break them up if you need to) and then spread over the top a quarter of the cheese mixture – repeat this three more times to make layers
  • cook on a low heat for 5 hours with the lid on

This freezes well, you’ll be glad to know. We portioned some up, put it in the freezer and got them about again 15 minutes later to eat. That’s portion control for you!

J


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Comments

comments

34 thoughts on “slow cooker lasagne

  1. Mmmm, just eaten this, it was delicious, I had to improvise on the quark with a jar of cheese and bacon pasta bake, which wouldn’t have been as healthy but oh well you use what you have, and it was good. Will get quark for the next time.

  2. Oh my…made this tonight, delicious, wanted eat it all but refrained. And absolutely love reading your stories, keep up the good work making people smile….xxxx
    P.s hope your second week weigh in was better than mine…

  3. This was lush! I,was very wary as I hate cottage cheese and Quark was a whole new frontier for me – but it was lush! I added Italian herbs and red wine (chose to ignore the wine syns!) thank you!

  4. Never had any luck making lasagne before, always dry and crispy on top, but this was just great. Thanks so much, looking at some of your other recipes to try.

  5. Don’t know if this helps, but when I make regular lasagne I use creme fraiche instead of a white sauce – it’s better for you & tastes lovely and fresh. You could use reduced fat creme fraiche and count whatever syns you need to. You can also whisk an egg into your creme fraiche before layering it into your lasagne, and this makes it rise a little when cooked, giving you a lovely fat white sauce layer!

  6. Hi do you think on the slow cooker lasagne I could use a tin of macaroni cheese 3 syn per tin but when I make my sw lasagne that’s over the whole thing.
    Nicky

  7. I have just made this and it was beautiful!! Made lots so will freeze it, I will definitely be making this again soon…. thanks for the recipe.

  8. Just eaten the synfree lasagne and all I can say is Fantastic himself enjoyed it as well served it with mixed veg and roast potatoes was worth waiting for and got loads left for lunches in the week.made such a nice change thank you ?

  9. I have just come across you lads and find your post hilarious…. love your recipes and will be trying some…. definitely yyurt lasagne

  10. Made this tonight and tasted OK, I cooked it on low for 5.5 hours but I think it could have done with being cooked for another hour or so as I needed to brown it off under the grill. I also think I’d use less cottage cheese next time as I think it made it a little wet. For a diet lasagne it was good, hopefully my next attempt will be spot on.

  11. I’m not a lover of quark, cottage cheese etc it’s a texture thing for me, same with the blended pasta sauce so any other ideas how to make a low sun sauce plz x

  12. Just made this and it is lovely! Good idea if having people round for dinner, do the prep and put it in the slow cooker. Tastes fabulous and I think will be one of our favourite recipes. I used cottage cheese with chives and grated some cheese on top. Also put a clean tea towel under the lid to catch the condensation. Wonderful recipe, thank you xx

  13. My quark and cottage cheese were out of date! No great surprise there! Buy, leave in the fridge, throw it out, buy another…. so I used a mixture of philadelphia light, with low fat milk and mixed it with the cheeses – it smells lovely…… 5 hours until I’ll know for sure. Thanks Lads, you rock 🙂

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