Healthy turkey lasagne…unexpectedly good!!! We both really like lasagne but don’t have it that often at home as it’s not particularly healthy, especially when you make a cheese sauce rather than a white sauce like I do…and layer the cheese sauce through the tomato sauce and pasta!!! We were looking for something healthy to take to work for lunches during the week instead of soup, and knowing that turkey is a healthier protein, I decided to buy a pack of turkey mince and then look online for some inspiration. I found this recipe from Olive Magazine and have adapted it slightly. The main difference I made is to the ingredients/instructions for the white sauce as their way just didn’t work for me at all.
I’m sure when I suggested this recipe to David that he was thinking it would be bland, tasteless, NOT lasagne!!! Well, from one sceptic to another, believe me when I say that he loved it and so do I – it was really delicious. Actually, it proved that you don’t need to make a full on cheese sauce, and it doesn’t need to go into each layer either!! The addition of spinach to the white sauce was different, but really good. Just make sure to get the seasoning right in both the tomato sauce and the white sauce, for your taste.
Tips
- I had bought a packet of fresh egg lasagne sheets from Asda thinking I’d need the whole lot for the recipe. I guess the dimensions and depth of the dish will dictate how many sheets you actually need, but I only needed 3, with 2 of them being cut in half. Obviously you can used dried lasagne sheets – you’ll probably need a few more (8-10) as they are generally narrower than the fresh sheets.
- This recipe serves 6 for lunch or 4 for an evening meal. Serve with a salad on the side or if you’re feeling a bit ‘naughty’ because it’s a healthy lasagne have some reduced fat garlic bread slices instead/as well – we like these ones from Asda
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Ingredients
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 2 carrots peeled and finely diced
- 3 onions finely chopped
- 2 celery stalks finely diced
- 2 peppers any colour, chopped
- 500g lean turkey mince
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 1 bay leaf
- 125g/3 sheets of fresh lasagne – see Notes below
- 65g parmesan split into 35g and 30g
- 15g butter
- 20g plain flour
- 300ml semi skimmed milk
- 180g bag spinach roughly chopped
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Now let’s get cooking…👩🏼🍳
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4.
- Heat the olive oil in a large pan or casserole dish, and fry the carrot, onion, celery and peppers for 15 minutes over a medium heat until they are very soft and starting to caramelise.
- Add the mince and fry until brown all over.
- Add the tomato purée and stir into the mince, then add the chopped tomatoes with half a tin of water and the bay leaf. Bring to the boil and then simmer on a low heat for 30 minutes until the sauce is thick. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Remove the bay leaf!
- To make the white sauce, melt the butter on a medium to low heat in a medium saucepan and then add the flour and cook for one minute.
- Stirring continually, add the milk gradually until completely incorporated and there are no lumps (I like to use a wooden spurtle).
- Turn the heat to low and add 35g parmesan and stir until melted into the sauce.
- Stir the spinach though the sauce, and simmer until it wilts. Season with some freshly ground black pepper.
- Put half of the tomato sauce in a large baking dish (I used a square Pampered Chef stoneware dish – dimensions: 24cm x 24cm x 5cm deep), and cover with one and a half of the fresh lasagne sheets.
- Layer the rest of the sauce on top and the finish with the other one and a half fresh lasagne sheets. Pour over the white sauce, and scatter with the remaining 30g of parmesan.
- Bake for one hour or until the sauce is bubbling and the top is golden. Cover with foil if it’s getting too dark – I topped ours with foil for the last 15 minutes.
Healthy Turkey Lasagne
Ingredients
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 2 carrots peeled and finely diced
- 3 onions finely chopped
- 2 celery stalks finely diced
- 2 peppers any colour, chopped
- 500g lean turkey mince
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 1 bay leaf
- 125g /3 sheets of fresh lasagne see Notes below
- 65g parmesan split into 35g and 30g
- 15g butter
- 20g plain flour
- 300ml semi skimmed milk
- 180g bag spinach roughly chopped
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4.
- Heat the olive oil in a large pan or casserole dish, and fry the carrot, onion, celery and peppers for 15 minutes over a medium heat until they are very soft and starting to caramelise.
- Add the mince and fry until brown all over.
- Add the tomato purée and stir into the mince, then add the chopped tomatoes with half a tin of water and the bay leaf. Bring to the boil and then simmer on a low heat for 30 minutes until the sauce is thick. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Remove the bay leaf!
- To make the white sauce, melt the butter on a medium to low heat in a medium saucepan and then add the flour and cook for one minute.
- Stirring continually, add the milk gradually until completely incorporated and there are no lumps (I like to use a wooden spurtle).
- Turn the heat to low and add 35g parmesan and stir until melted into the sauce.
- Stir the spinach though the sauce, and simmer until it wilts. Season with some freshly ground black pepper.
- Put half of the tomato sauce in a large baking dish (I used a square Pampered Chef stoneware dish – dimensions: 24cm x 24cm x 5cm deep), and cover with one and half of the fresh lasagne sheets.
- Layer the rest of the sauce on top and the finish with the other one and a half fresh lasagne sheets. Pour over the white sauce, and scatter with the remaining 30g of parmesan.
- Bake for one hour or until the sauce is bubbling and the top is golden. Cover with foil if it’s getting too dark – I topped ours with foil for the last 15 minutes.
Notes
- I had bought a packet of fresh egg lasagne sheets from Asda thinking I’d need the whole lot for the recipe. I guess the dimensions and depth of the dish will dictate how many sheets you actually need, but I only needed 3, with 2 of them being cut in half. Obviously you can used dried lasagne sheets – you’ll probably need a few more (8-10) as they are generally narrower than the fresh sheets.
- This recipe serves 6 for lunch or 4 for an evening meal. Serve with a salad on the side or if you’re feeling a bit ‘naughty’ because it’s a healthy lasagne have some reduced fat garlic bread slices instead/as well – we like these ones from Asda
You might also like to try:
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