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Hearty lentils and tender noodles are simmered up in chunky tomato soup and topped with creamy vegan pesto ricotta to make this cozy vegan lasagna soup. It’s easy to make and hearty enough for a meal!
This vegan lasagna soup is a comfort food favorite in my house! It’s one of those super hearty soups that you can have for dinner all by itself (although I totally encourage you to eat it with a bit piece of crusty bread!).
If you haven’t yet seen the non-vegan versions of this soup floating around on Pinterest, here’s the deal: tomato heavy soup, all the flavors of lasagna, noodles, and in most cases, copious amounts of cheese. Obviously, I had to work around the whole cheese thing.
Fortunately, vegan ricotta cheese is ridiculously easy to make. I have a few formulas for vegan ricotta, but since I’m trying to keep things simple, I went with my basic cashew-tofu blend, flavored with some premade pesto. Easy!
I had some homemade vegan pesto hanging out in the freezer, but if you’d rather go with store-bought, Amore is a vegan brand that’s pretty widely available.
Jump to:
- What You’ll Need
- How to Make Vegan Lasagna Soup
- Leftovers & Storage
- More Vegan Pasta Soups
- Vegan Lasagna Soup
What You’ll Need
- Olive oil. You only need this for the stove-top version of the recipe, and even then you can sub water or broth if you want to keep the dish oil-free.
- Onion.
- Garlic.
- Vegetable broth. I used Better Than Bouillon in seasoned vegetable flavor.
- Lentils. We’re using basic brown lentils for this recipe. Green lentils will work, but will take a bit longer to cook. Red lentils will probably work as well, but will fall apart when you cook them, giving your soup a whole different consistency.
- Spices. We’re using dried basil and oregano. Feel free to substitute with an Italian seasoning blend if that’s what you have on hand.
- Canned tomatoes. You’ll need one can of crushed tomatoes and one can of diced. Can’t find crushed? Use another can of diced and blitz them in the blender for a few seconds.
- Lasagna noodles. Feel free to substitute with another variety of pasta if you’d like. Use a gluten-free pasta if needed.
- Fresh spinach. Frozen spinach works too, though it requires less time to cook. Other greens like kale and chard can also be used, but these will require a bit more cook time.
- Raw cashews. We’re using these for our vegan ricotta. They absolutely need to be raw for the right flavor and consistency. You’ll also need to soak them in water for a bit to soften them up.
- Non-dairy milk. Use any variety that’s unflavored and unsweetened.
- Extra-firm tofu.
- Vegan pesto. You can use store-bough or homemade vegan pesto. Amore brand is a popular vegan one that you can find in many supermarkets.
- Lemon juice.
- Salt & pepper.
How to Make Vegan Lasagna Soup
The following is a summary of the process used to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you’d like to skip right to the recipe!
Stove-Top Method
- Heat your oil in a large pot, then briefly sweat some diced onion until it begins to soften up. Add your garlic and cook it with the onion for about 1 minute.
- Stir in your broth, lentils and spices. Raise the heat and bring the liquid to a boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer until the lentils are almost tender, but still a bit undercooked.
- While the soup simmers, prepare the ricotta topping. First blend the cashews and non-dairy milk, then add the tofu, pesto, lemon juice, and salt. Pulse the machine until the mixture is chunky.
- Add the tomatoes, pasta and spinach to the soup. Let it continue simmering until the spinach and pasta are tender.
- Serve each bowl with a dollop of pesto ricotta.
Slow Cooker Method
- Stir the broth, onion, garlic, lentils and spices together in your slow cooker. Set the machine to high, cover it, and let everything simmer for about 2 hours.
- Prepare the ricotta while your soup simmers.
- Stir the tomatoes, pasta and spinach into the soup and let it continue simmering until the spinach and pasta are tender.
- Ladle the soup into bowls, and top each with the pesto ricotta.
Leftovers & Storage
Store your leftover soup and ricotta in separate, sealed containers in the fridge for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. The pasta will continue to absorb liquid from the soup during storage and it will become very thick. Feel free to thin it with some broth or water during reheating.
