Vegetarian Lasagna Soup (One Pot, 35 Minutes)

Vegetarian lasagna soup is all the flavour of lasagna — the tomato, the noodles, the cheese — in one pot, in 35 minutes, with no meat and no oven. It is the meatless lasagna soup that actually fills you up: red lentils and browned mushrooms do the work the beef used to do, and a herbed ricotta dollop on top does the work the baked cheese layer used to do. The numbers say it all: 8,100 people a month search for “vegetarian lasagna soup”, and the page holding the top spot is 26 months stale, about 1,200 words long, and answers three questions.

This is the vegetarian lasagna soup recipe that answers the rest of them: what makes it filling without meat, which cheese goes where, which noodles to use, why the soup thickens overnight, and how many calories are in the bowl. One pot, 35 minutes on the stove, and the only thing you wash is the pot you cooked in.

You will love this:

• One pot. Everything — the vegetables, the lentils, the noodles, the cheese — happens in a single Dutch oven.
• 35 minutes. Ten minutes of prep, twenty-five on the stove, and dinner is on the table.
• Filling without meat. Red lentils and browned mushrooms make this a soup that eats like a meal, not a side.

What Is Lasagna Soup? (And Why It Works)

Lasagna soup is the bake, taken apart. Instead of layering pasta, sauce and cheese in a dish and baking it for an hour, you break the noodles into the pot, simmer them in the tomato broth, and dollop the cheese on top. Same flavours, no oven, no layering, no waiting.

The dish itself is older than the bake most people picture. Lasagne comes from Italy in the Middle Ages — the oldest written reference is from 1282, in a Bolognese notary’s records, and the first recipe appears in the early 14th-century Liber de Coquina. The famous version is lasagne al forno, the baked layers of egg pasta, meat ragù, béchamel and Parmesan from Bologna in Emilia-Romagna. But lasagne was also served in broth — lasagne in brodo — the historical soup form of this exact dish. A bowl of noodles in broth with cheese on top is not a shortcut invention. It is how lasagna started.

That is why the soup works so well. The noodles cook in the broth instead of in the oven, so they soak up the tomato flavour directly. The cheese goes on at the end, so it stays creamy instead of setting into a layer. And the whole thing takes one pot because there is nothing to assemble — the pot is the dish.

Ingredients for Vegetarian Lasagna Soup

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 8 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 medium zucchini, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1½ Tbsp Italian seasoning
• ½ cup basil pesto
• ½ cup split red lentils, rinsed
• 2 (28 oz) cans fire-roasted crushed tomatoes
• 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
• 1 tsp granulated sugar, optional
• 8 lasagna noodles, broken into bite-size pieces
• 2 cups fresh baby spinach
• ½ cup grated Parmesan, divided
• ½ cup shredded mozzarella
• 1 cup whole-milk ricotta
• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
• Kosher salt + black pepper

That is 19 lines — every one of them in the recipe card below, and every one of them on the ingredients card image. Nothing here is exotic. The lentils and the pesto are the two ingredients that make this soup taste like lasagna instead of like tomato soup with pasta in it, and everything else is the pantry doing the work.

Substitutions — what you can swap, and what changes

Ingredient	Swap	What changes
Split red lentils	1 can navy beans, drained	More fiber, beans stay whole instead of disappearing into the broth
Cremini mushrooms	8 oz sliced zucchini or 1 cup chopped kale	Lighter, less meaty — add the kale with the spinach at the end
Basil pesto	¼ cup chopped fresh basil + 2 Tbsp olive oil	Fresher, less rich — you lose the pesto’s garlic and Parmesan depth
Fire-roasted crushed tomatoes	Regular crushed tomatoes	Less smoky depth — add a pinch of smoked paprika if you have it
Whole-milk ricotta	Cottage cheese	Cheaper, higher protein, slightly grainy (see the cheese guide below)
Vegetable broth	Chicken broth	No longer vegetarian — same flavour otherwise
Lasagna noodles	Mafalda or farfalle	Same timing, different shape (see the noodle guide below)
Baby spinach	Kale or Swiss chard	Sturdier greens — add them 2 minutes earlier so they soften
Parmesan	Pecorino Romano	Saltier and sharper — use a little less

What Makes It Filling Without Meat? (Lentils vs Beans vs Mushrooms)

This is the question every vegetarian cook asks, and no page on the search results answers it. Every recipe picks one protein and never compares it. Here is the comparison, because the answer changes the soup.

Protein	What it adds	Cook time	Texture	When to pick it
Split red lentils (our pick)	~3g protein + ~2g fiber per serving, and they thicken the broth slightly	10 min, cooked in the pot	Disappear into the broth — you taste richness, not lentils	When you want the classic one-pot soup with nothing to pre-cook
White beans (1 can navy beans)	~2.5g protein + ~4g fiber per serving — the highest fiber in the cluster	None — stir in with the noodles	Stay whole and creamy	When you want the most filling bowl for the least effort
Cremini mushrooms (8 oz, browned)	Almost no protein (~0.5g per serving) — but the meaty, chewy texture	5–7 min browning	Browned, golden, savoury	When you want the soup to eat like it has meat in it

The honest version: mushrooms alone do not make a soup filling — they make it taste meaty. Lentils alone make it filling but a little one-note. That is why our recipe uses both. The lentils cook in the pot and disappear into the broth, giving the soup body and protein. The mushrooms get browned properly first, giving it the savoury chew that makes you forget there is no beef. Beans are the third option, and a good one — if you prefer them, swap the lentils for one can of navy beans, drained, stirred in with the noodles. The soup stays the same everywhere else.

Equipment You Need

Midwest has no equipment section at all — the pot gets mentioned in one step and nowhere else. Ours is short on purpose: four things, and the pot is the only one that matters.

• Large stock pot or Dutch oven. A 5–6 quart pot, heavy-bottomed. The browning, the simmering and the serving all happen in this one pot.
• Wooden spoon. For stirring the noodles in the first two minutes — the moment they stick together if you don’t.
• Measuring cups and spoons. The lentils, the pesto and the broth are the three measurements that decide whether the soup is right.
• Ladle. For serving, and for the reheat splash of broth the next day.
• Colander. For rinsing the lentils — a quick rinse keeps the broth clear instead of cloudy.

How to Make Vegetarian Lasagna Soup

Step 1–2: Brown the Vegetables

Step 1 — Sauté the onion. Heat the olive oil in the Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Cook the onion 3 minutes, until it softens and turns translucent at the edges.

Step 2 — Brown the mushrooms and zucchini. Add the mushrooms and zucchini and cook 5–7 minutes, until the mushrooms are golden at the edges. Brown them well — caramelization is the flavour here. Mushrooms that are just warmed through taste like wet cardboard; mushrooms that are properly browned taste meaty. Do not crowd the pot, and do not stir every ten seconds. Let them sit, let them brown, then turn them.

Step 3–4: Bloom the Herbs, Caramelize the Tomato Paste

Step 3 — Garlic and herbs. Stir in the garlic and the Italian seasoning and cook 1 minute, until fragrant. Blooming the dried herbs in the hot oil wakes them up — herbs tossed into cold liquid stay dusty and dull.

Step 4 — Tomato paste, to brick red. Add the tomato paste and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until it darkens to a brick red and smells sweet instead of raw. This is the best technique note on the search results, and it belongs to Dishing Out Health: tomato paste that is only stirred in tastes like a tin can. Tomato paste that is caramelized tastes like the sauce has been simmering for hours.

Step 5–6: Simmer the Lentils and Noodles

Step 5 — Pesto, lentils, tomatoes, broth. Stir in the pesto, the rinsed lentils, the crushed tomatoes and the broth, plus the sugar if you are using it. Bring it to a gentle simmer — not a rolling boil — and cook 10 minutes, until the lentils are tender. This is the part Midwest never explains: split red lentils cook through in 10 minutes in a simmering pot. Brown or green lentils will NOT cook through in this time — they need 25–30 minutes, and by the time they are tender the noodles will have dissolved. Red lentils are not a preference here. They are the only lentil that works on this clock.

Step 6 — Noodles in, 12–15 minutes. Add the broken noodles and simmer 12–15 minutes, until al dente, stirring in the first 2 minutes so nothing sticks to the bottom. The noodles are the only ingredient in this pot with a real window: undercooked they are chalky, overcooked they are glue. Taste one at 12 minutes. If it still has a white core, give it 3 more.

Step 7–8: Wilt the Spinach, Dollop the Herbed Ricotta

Step 7 — Spinach and seasoning. Stir in the spinach and cook 1–2 minutes, just until it wilts. Taste and season with salt and pepper — the Parmesan and the pesto both add salt, so season last, not before.

Step 8 — The herbed ricotta. Stir the ricotta with ¼ cup of the Parmesan, the chopped basil and a drizzle of olive oil. Use room-temperature ricotta — cold ricotta straight from the fridge clumps instead of blending smooth, and this is the one tip Marisa Moore has that nobody else does. Ladle the soup into bowls and dollop the herbed ricotta on each one, with the rest of the Parmesan and the mozzarella scattered on top. Serve right away — the noodles are at their best in the first ten minutes.

Ricotta vs Cottage Cheese — Which One Goes in Lasagna Soup?

No page on the search results explains this, and it is the question with the most traffic behind it: “lasagna recipe with cottage cheese” is an 8,100-a-month lane sitting on Midwest’s other page, and the ricotta-vs-cottage-cheese question gets asked in every lasagna comment section. Here is the answer, properly.

Cheese	What it does in the soup	Protein per ½ cup (approx.)	When to use it
Whole-milk ricotta (our pick)	A creamy dollop that melts into swirls — soft, mild, smooth	~7g	When you want the classic lasagna flavour and the smoothest texture
Cottage cheese	Holds its shape more, slightly grainy curds, a little tang	~13g — roughly double the ricotta	When you want more protein for less money, and you don’t mind the curds
Herbed ricotta mixture (the best version)	Ricotta + Parmesan + basil + olive oil — seasoned, spreadable, melts smooth	~7g, plus the Parmesan	When you want the topping to taste like something, not just like cheese
Shredded mozzarella	Melts fully into the broth — the stretchy, melty pull	~13g	Scattered on top for the melt, never as the whole topping
Grated Parmesan	Salty, granular, dissolves into the broth	~14g	For seasoning the broth and finishing each bowl

Ricotta is the right choice for this soup because it is what lasagna tastes like: mild, creamy, and soft enough to melt into the hot broth in ribbons. Cottage cheese is the honest swap — it costs less, it has nearly twice the protein, and in a baked lasagna the difference barely shows. In a soup it shows more, because the cheese sits on top in a dollop instead of hiding between layers. If you use cottage cheese, blend it first (a quick blitz in a food processor takes out the graininess) or stir it in instead of dolloping it. The herbed ricotta mixture is the version worth making: a cup of ricotta, a quarter cup of Parmesan, two tablespoons of chopped basil and a drizzle of olive oil, stirred together while the soup simmers. It takes one minute and it is the difference between cheese on soup and a topping that belongs there.

Which Noodles? Broken Lasagna vs Mafalda vs Short Pasta

Midwest’s FAQ answers one noodle question in one line — mini lasagna noodles are called mafalda — and nobody explains which noodles to actually use, or why. Here is the guide.

• Broken lasagna (our pick — the classic). Eight sheets, broken into bite-size pieces, 12–15 minutes in the simmering broth. This is the noodle the dish is named after, and the broken edges catch the sauce better than any smooth pasta. Break them small — pieces about two inches long — so they fit on a spoon and don’t tangle into a nest. The one rule: stir in the first 2 minutes, or they stick together in a clump at the bottom of the pot.
• Mafalda (the fun shape). Mini lasagna noodles with crimped, ruffled edges — the same pasta, cut short, with a shape that holds sauce in its folds. Same timing as broken lasagna, 12–15 minutes. If your store stocks them, they are the prettiest version of this soup. If it doesn’t, broken lasagna is the same thing with a pair of hands.
• Farfalle, penne or rigatoni (the shortcut). Any short pasta works — 8 ounces, 8–10 minutes, no breaking required. The soup is slightly less lasagna-like and slightly more minestrone-like, and that is a fair trade on a night when breaking noodles feels like one step too many. Rigatoni holds the most sauce; farfalle looks the best in the bowl.

One crumb, because the search results keep asking: no-boil lasagna noodles work in this soup, but they go soft faster than regular noodles. Add them in the last 8 minutes, not with the lentils, and check them at 6 — they cross from al dente to mush in about two minutes.

Slow Cooker Vegetarian Lasagna Soup

This is a method angle, not a keyword target — the slow-cooker keyword belongs to Midwest’s separate slow-cooker page, and this H2 exists because the method works, not because it is chasing that term. The rule is the same as every slow-cooker soup: the browning happens on the stove first. A slow cooker cannot brown, and a soup that starts with raw onion and unbrowned mushrooms tastes like it.

Brown the onion, mushrooms and zucchini in a skillet, bloom the garlic and herbs, and caramelize the tomato paste exactly as above. Transfer everything to the slow cooker with the pesto, lentils, tomatoes, broth and sugar. Cook on low 4 hours or high 2 hours. Stir in the broken noodles for the last 30 minutes on high — never at the start, or they will dissolve into the broth long before dinner. Stir in the spinach for the last 5 minutes, season, and serve with the herbed ricotta dolloped on top.

Instant Pot Vegetarian Lasagna Soup

The Instant Pot lane belongs to Flavor Mosaic, and this H3 takes the method without ceding the page to the pressure-cooker framing.

Pressure cook high 6 minutes + quick release

Sauté mode: brown the onion, mushrooms and zucchini, bloom the garlic and herbs, caramelize the tomato paste — same as the stovetop, in the same pot. Add the pesto, lentils, tomatoes and broth, seal, and pressure cook on high 6 minutes, with a quick release. This is also the explanation Midwest never gives: brown lentils work in the Instant Pot because the pressure cooks them — on the stovetop they stay hard, which is why her warning says they won’t cook through. Under pressure, 6 minutes is enough.

After the release, switch back to sauté and stir in the broken noodles — 5 minutes, until tender — then the spinach, 1–2 minutes until wilted. Season, and serve with the herbed ricotta on top. The noodles go in after the pressure release, never before it: pressure-cooked noodles turn to paste.

Troubleshooting — 5 Fixes

This is the section nobody on the search results has. Every page is the same soup with the protein changed; none of them explains what happens when it goes wrong. Here are the five failures, why they happen, and how to fix them.

The soup thickened overnight

Why: the noodles absorb broth — every minute they sit in the hot pot, and all night in the fridge. Kate mentions it in one FAQ line and moves on. Fix it now: a splash of broth on reheat, a quarter cup at a time, stirred in over low heat until it is soup again. Next time: make the base ahead and add the pasta later — cook the soup through step 5, refrigerate the base for up to 5 days, and simmer the noodles in fresh for 12–15 minutes on the day. The soup stays soup, and the noodles stay noodles.

The noodles stuck together

Why: they went in dry and nobody stirred. Broken lasagna sheets are flat and starchy, and flat starchy pasta welds itself together in the first two minutes. Fix it now: there isn’t a real one — pull the clump apart with two forks and serve it as a thick soup. Next time: stir constantly for the first 2 minutes after the noodles go in, and break them small. Small pieces have less surface to stick with.

The soup is too thin

Why: too much broth for the lentils, or the noodles went in before the broth had a chance to thicken. Fix it now: simmer 5 minutes uncovered, and if it is still thin, mash a few lentils against the side of the pot with a spoon — the starch thickens the broth in a minute. Next time: let the soup simmer the full 10 minutes with the lentils before the noodles go in. The lentils are doing the thickening, and they need the time.

The soup is too thick

Why: the lentils broke down further than expected, or the pot sat too long before serving. Fix it now: add broth half a cup at a time, stirred in over low heat, until it pours like soup again. Next time: pull the pot off the heat the moment the noodles hit al dente. The soup keeps thickening off the heat, and five minutes of sitting is enough to change it.

The broth tastes bland

Why: the soup is missing one of its three flavour levers — the browning, the pesto, or the acid. A soup made with unbrowned mushrooms, no pesto and no finish is a soup with no depth: tomatoey, but flat. Fix it now: a splash of balsamic vinegar, stirred in off the heat — the fastest fix in this recipe, one teaspoon at a time, tasting as you go. Next time: brown the mushrooms properly (the caramelization is the flavour), don’t skip the pesto (it carries the garlic and the Parmesan), and season last, after the cheese goes on.

Make Ahead, Storage & Freezing

• Fridge: 5 days. In an airtight container, noodles and all. Reheat gently over low heat with a splash of broth — the soup will have thickened overnight, and the broth brings it back. Don’t boil it on reheat, or the noodles go mushy.
• Freeze the base, not the finished soup. The honest answer, and the one Dishing Out Health gets right: freeze the broth-and-lentil base — everything up to the end of step 5 — for up to 3 months, in zip-top bags laid flat so they thaw fast, and add the noodles, spinach and ricotta fresh on the day. Never freeze the finished soup: the noodles turn to mush and the ricotta goes grainy.
• Store the ricotta separately. The herbed ricotta mixture keeps 3 days in the fridge in its own container. Stirred into the pot before freezing, it separates.
• Make ahead: the base (through step 5) holds in the fridge for 5 days. On the day, bring it back to a simmer, add the noodles, and finish it. This is Kate’s trick, and it is the answer to the thickening problem: the noodles only meet the broth on the day they are eaten.

Scaling — Serves 4, 8 or 12

Nobody on the search results says how to halve this soup or double it — and the noodles and the lentils are the parts that change.

Ingredient	Serves 4 (× ½)	Serves 8 (ours)	Serves 12 (× 1.5)
Olive oil	1 Tbsp	2 Tbsp	3 Tbsp
Yellow onion	½ medium, diced	1 medium, diced	1½ medium, diced
Cremini mushrooms	4 oz, sliced	8 oz, sliced	12 oz, sliced
Zucchini	½ medium, diced	1 medium, diced	1½ medium, diced
Garlic	2 cloves, minced	4 cloves, minced	6 cloves, minced
Tomato paste	1 Tbsp	2 Tbsp	3 Tbsp
Italian seasoning	2¼ tsp	1½ Tbsp	2¼ Tbsp
Basil pesto	¼ cup	½ cup	¾ cup
Split red lentils, rinsed	¼ cup	½ cup	¾ cup
Fire-roasted crushed tomatoes	1 (28 oz) can	2 (28 oz) cans	3 (28 oz) cans
Low-sodium vegetable broth	2 cups	4 cups	6 cups
Granulated sugar, optional	½ tsp	1 tsp	1½ tsp
Lasagna noodles, broken	4 noodles	8 noodles	12 noodles
Fresh baby spinach	1 cup	2 cups	3 cups
Grated Parmesan, divided	¼ cup	½ cup	¾ cup
Shredded mozzarella	¼ cup	½ cup	¾ cup
Whole-milk ricotta	½ cup	1 cup	1½ cups
Chopped fresh basil	1 Tbsp	2 Tbsp	3 Tbsp

Doubling for a crowd means a bigger pot, not a deeper one — an 8-quart stockpot, or two 5-quart pots side by side. The noodles go in in two batches when you double, so they don’t crowd and glue together. Halving is the same recipe in a smaller pot, same times — the lentils still need 10 minutes, and the noodles still need 12–15.

What to Serve With Lasagna Soup

Midwest has no what-to-serve section at all. Dishing Out Health has a serving list — four salad links, no explanation. Here is the section, with the food and the reasons.

• Crusty bread. The number one pick. The soup is rich and tomatoey, the bread is for dipping, and a torn piece of crusty bread in a bowl of lasagna soup is the whole meal.
• Garlic bread. The lasagna move — the soup already tastes like lasagna, and garlic bread is the side lasagna always had. The garlic echoes the soup’s own garlic.
• House salad. Greens, tomato, red onion, olives, Italian dressing. The cold, bright salad is the contrast the hot, rich soup needs — the same logic as the soup-and-salad lunch, at home.
• Caesar salad. The right pick if the house salad feels too light — the Caesar’s anchovy depth stands up to the tomato and the cheese instead of disappearing behind them.
• Focaccia. Soft, olive-oil-rich, and built for tearing into a bowl. The best version of this dinner if you bake, and the closest thing to eating the soup in a bread bowl.

Nutrition — How It Compares

The search results’ calories run from 285 to 403, and nobody tables it, nobody explains why, and nobody offers a lighter version. Here it is, with the numbers:

Page	Calories	Protein	Carbs	Fat (sat)	Sodium	Fiber	Serves
Midwest Foodie Blog	285	12.6g	31.2g	12.1g (4g)	468mg	4.5g	8
Dishing Out Health	403	18g	44g	18g (5g)	890mg	8g	~6
Dished by Kate	400	20.8g	49.6g	14.2g (6g)	1,836mg	10.7g	~6
Marisa Moore	385	19g	40g	18g (7g)	753mg	6g	4
Ours (est.)	~400	~16g	~45g	~18g (~7g)	~700mg	~5g	8
Ours, lighter version	~350	~16g	~43g	~14g (~5g)	~650mg	~5g	8

Ours lands at ~400 because the pot is heartier than Midwest’s leanest pot (285): mushrooms and zucchini, a full cup of ricotta, and eight servings of a soup that is meant to be a meal. The inputs, shown plainly: ½ cup split red lentils ~170 kcal, 2 cans fire-roasted tomatoes ~280 kcal, ½ cup pesto ~320 kcal, 1 cup whole-milk ricotta ~390 kcal, ½ cup Parmesan ~215 kcal, ½ cup mozzarella ~170 kcal, 8 lasagna noodles ~840 kcal, 4 cups low-sodium broth ~60 kcal, mushrooms + zucchini + spinach + onion ~200 kcal, olive oil + sugar ~280 kcal — about 3,200 kcal total, divided by 8, roughly 400. The full per-serving table is right after the recipe card below.

The lighter version — ~350 kcal. Use ¼ cup of pesto instead of ½, and swap the whole-milk ricotta for part-skim. Protein stays ~16g, fat drops to ~14g, and the soup is still creamy. The pesto is the richest ingredient in the pot after the cheese, so it is the one to cut first.

The sodium note. Kate’s 1,836mg is the highest on the search results — the fish sauce, the regular broth, and the cheese all adding up. Ours is ~700mg because we use low-sodium broth and season at the end. If your broth isn’t low-sodium, the number climbs fast, and that is the one substitution that changes the nutrition more than any other.

Variations

• Vegan. Marisa Moore’s swap, and the only vegan lane worth taking: use almond-milk ricotta instead of dairy ricotta, skip the Parmesan and the mozzarella, and the soup stays creamy without a single animal product. The cashew-butter trick from the vegan page works too — a tablespoon stirred in with the pesto.
• Beans swap. Dishing Out Health’s lane: swap the lentils for 1 can of navy beans, drained, stirred in with the noodles. More fiber, beans stay whole, and the soup needs no simmer time for the protein at all.
• Extra greens. Kale, Swiss chard or arugula in place of the spinach — add kale and chard 2 minutes earlier than the spinach, because they are sturdier. Arugula goes in at the very end, off the heat, so it wilts without turning bitter.
• Spicy. Red pepper flakes with the garlic and herbs — half a teaspoon for warmth, a full teaspoon for real heat. The heat sits behind the tomato instead of on top of it.
• Extra vegetables. Kate’s hidden-veggie angle: a carrot and a celery stalk, finely diced, sautéed with the onion at the start. The soup gets sweeter and deeper, and the vegetables disappear into the base — the way to feed a family that claims not to like vegetables.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is vegetarian lasagna soup made of? Broken lasagna noodles, red lentils, mushrooms, zucchini and spinach in a tomato broth, with a herbed ricotta dollop on top. It is the vegetarian lasagna soup recipe that tastes like the bake — the same noodles, the same tomato, the same cheese — without the oven, the layering, or the meat.

Does ricotta melt in soup? Yes — whole-milk ricotta melts into creamy swirls when it hits the hot broth, which is exactly what you want from the dollop. Use room-temperature ricotta for the smoothest blend; cold ricotta straight from the fridge clumps instead of melting. Cottage cheese is the swap — cheaper and higher in protein — but it holds its curds, so blend it first if you use it.

What are mini lasagna noodles called? Mafalda — a short, crimped lasagna noodle with ruffled edges. They cook in the same 12–15 minutes as broken lasagna and hold sauce in their folds. If your store doesn’t stock them, broken lasagna sheets are the same pasta with a pair of hands.

Can I use cottage cheese instead of ricotta? Yes. Cottage cheese has roughly double the protein of ricotta per half cup and costs less — but it is grainier, so blend it first or stir it into the soup instead of dolloping it on top. The herbed ricotta mixture is still the best version, and it works with cottage cheese too.

Can I make it vegan? Yes — use almond-milk ricotta instead of dairy ricotta and skip the Parmesan and the mozzarella. The soup stays creamy, the lentils and mushrooms do the same work, and the pesto is already vegan if you check the label.

Can I make it in the slow cooker? Yes — brown the vegetables on the stove first, then everything except the noodles and ricotta into the slow cooker, low 4 hours or high 2 hours, noodles in for the last 30 minutes on high. Never put the noodles in at the start — they will dissolve long before dinner.

Can I make it in the Instant Pot? Yes — sauté mode for the browning, then pressure cook on high 6 minutes with a quick release, noodles in after the release for 5 minutes on sauté. Brown lentils work here because the pressure cooks them; on the stovetop they would stay hard.

Why does my lasagna soup get thick overnight? The noodles absorb broth — every minute they sit in the pot, and all night in the fridge. Fix it with a splash of broth on reheat. Next time, make the base ahead and add the pasta later: cook the soup through the lentil step, refrigerate the base for up to 5 days, and simmer the noodles in fresh on the day.

Can I freeze lasagna soup? Freeze the base, not the finished soup — the broth and lentils, everything up to the end of step 5, for up to 3 months in zip-top bags laid flat. Add the noodles, spinach and ricotta fresh on the day. Never freeze the finished soup: the noodles turn to mush and the ricotta goes grainy.

How long does it last in the fridge? Five days, in an airtight container. Reheat gently over low heat with a splash of broth — the soup thickens overnight as the noodles absorb the broth. Don’t boil it on reheat, or the noodles go mushy.

More Soup Recipes

• Broccoli Cheddar Soup — 35 minutes, Panera-style at home.
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• Crockpot Beef Stew — 8 hours in the slow cooker, 25 minutes of prep.
• Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup — creamy, one-pot, 35 minutes, with a cream blend that never splits.
• Gigi Hadid Pasta — the 30-minute vodka pasta, with a no-vodka version.
• Greek Pasta Bake — a real bake plus the 15-minute stovetop version, 45 minutes.
• Crack Green Beans — bacon and brown sugar glaze, 30 minutes.
• Crockpot Chicken Tacos — 10 minutes of prep, 6 hours of waiting.
• Kings Hawaiian Sliders — ham and cheese sliders, 30 minutes.
• Ground Beef Stroganoff — creamy, one pan, 30 minutes.

Nutrition information

Calories	~400 kcal
Protein	~16g
Carbohydrates	~45g (sugars ~8g)
Fat	~18g (saturated ~7g)
Sodium	~700mg
Cholesterol	~35mg
Fiber	~5g

Nutrition is an estimate calculated from USDA FoodData Central values for the exact ingredients listed. Values will vary with brands and substitutions.

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