Searching lasagna sweet potato? We have THE lasagna sweet potato recipe to share with you today!
This no pasta lasagna sweet potato recipe is simple to make. It is also a hearty meal for cold days and would be an ideal dinner for your family. This simple basic lasagna recipe will quickly become a family favorite, hands down.
Sweet potato lasagna... what? Are you serious Cara?
Oh yes, I am serious, so serious! First of all, can I tell you how delicious this meal is? It is actually really easy to make too, and has now moved up to the slots reserved as one of my beloved recipes of all time. With a little prep, yes, I did say a little prep, and we all know how much I am not a fan of that. Despite the prep, I can tell you it is totally worth it in the end when you are scarfing down this tasty dinner, thinking you know what? That Cara did know what she was talking about afterall.
Would you believe me if I told you that hubby and I discuss recipes on the weekends? Just a barrel of fun we are, huh? Seriously though, we do this most every weekend. He has his input with recipes, and not just the sampling part or opinion part either. So when he mentioned sweet potato lasagna, I thought about it and wondered if this would be a good meal, an okay meal, or one of the best meals of all time? I just ran with the idea after I thought about how much I love sweet potatoes.
And I love, love, love sweet potatoes! You will probably be surprised to learn that despite my sweet tooth, I have never had a sweet potato with marshmallows and brown sugar and the rest of the fixins. True story. I was never interested in them until a few years ago that is, and then it all flourished from there.
I now crave them, only I like my sweet potatoes savory. I have been known to slice them up and cook them with onions, I am a huge fan of that as a side dish, it just works together for me. Don't worry, it surprised me too when Mr. VS mentioned a sweet potato lasagna since he is not exactly the huge fan of them like I am. Surprised yes, but I was ready and willing to make this dish and see how it turned out.
Let's get to it!
What you will need:
- 1 large sweet potato (thinly sliced)
- 1 onion
- 1 pound ground beef
- 8 oz ricotta cheese
- 2 c spaghetti sauce (or more if you like)
- 8 oz mozzarella cheese shredded
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- Parsley for garnish
What you will need to do:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Wash and slice sweet potato into thin slices, set aside
- On stovetop, brown ground beef with onion
- Once ground beef is browned, and onion is cooked down, add spaghetti sauce
- Mix well
- Spray or coat 9x13 baking pan with oil or cooking spray
- Begin lining the bottom of your baking dish with sweet potatoes
- Layer meat mixture over top of sweet potatoes
- Spoon ricotta cheese over top
- Sprinkle mozzarella cheese
- Repeat two more layers
- Place into oven and bake for one hour
If you have never had a lasagna like this, I highly recommend it! Mr. VS and I were like ohhh... this is a new favorite, for sure. Now I just have another way to get my husband to eat veggies, and I have a new way for consuming sweet potatoes, how lucky is this gal?
I usually make my own sauce, but I decided with all of the prep of slicing those thinly cut sweet potatoes, I was going to skip the homemade sauce and use store bought. I mean, I had to shorten my prep time somehow, right?
Plus, I know you are not a fan of prep either, you have voiced your opinion, and I get it. Prep, schmep... who needs it, right? Well, we do need to slice up those taters. I need to look into a mandolin to make this part easier for me. Can you believe it? I do not have one? I know, add it to the list of kitchen must have's... I am right on top of that.
The best part of making this meal? I actually browned the beef and onion and added the spaghetti sauce, then prepped everything else, put a lid on the lasagna, and put it in the fridge. I baked it later.... nice, huh?
So what I am trying to say is, you could assemble this the night before or over the weekend, and then bake it when you are ready. I am even betting you could assemble this, freeze it, and then bake when you are ready to make this meal for dinner. We all need ways to make life a bit easier. Save it for those nights when you dread making dinner. The family will think you slaved all afternoon and evening making them dinner, when in reality, all you had to do was thaw it, and bake it!
I have a great aunt who spent her weekends preparing and assembling meals all weekend long. Don't worry, I am not suggesting that at all! Who wants to work all week and then work all weekend making dinners too? She has since passed, but this is how she was able to always have a homemade meal every night while she and her husband worked through the week.
Her thought was, it was always nice to come home to a hot, homemade meal after she worked all day. She was not a fan of coming home after a long day, and making a long day even longer cooking. This was her solution. She would just bake or heat up and viola, dinner was ready. Do you know how much I enjoy hearing stories such as this? I think it definitely helps in giving ideas to the rest of us when we learn how others live.
Now, some folks order already made dinners, and heat them up through various meal services. My sister does this, and has had success with the meals she has chosen.
She thinks it is wonderful since that lessens her trips to the grocery too. She is not a fan of cooking after a ten hour shift, nor does she enjoy strolling the isles of the grocery store in the evenings or on weekends. She mentioned she has learned how to cook many meals with recipe cards provided by some meal subscriptions she has had too. She finds it all very helpful.
Me? I prefer to make my own meals, especially since I need to be careful with food allergies. I think even if allergies did not play into it I would still prefer to make meals myself. There is just something about taking basic ingredients and seeing what you can create.
I have said before, I liken cooking to being a scientist in my lab. Did you just picture me as Frankenstein's wife? I have to say, the thought crossed my mind for a minute. Those gray streaks in my hair (which have now become a reality) and my hair all over the place with goggles over my eyes to protect my eyes from the steam coming from my dishes. Ha, if nothing else, I am good for a laugh every now and then.
If you are still on the fence about sweet potato lasagna, just do yourself a favor and give it a try. I can assure you that you will not be disappointed. We have decided to add it to our loved it list so we can make it over, and over, and over again! It really was that big of a hit, plus guess what? Yep, you are so right, multiple meals from me cooking once! Now that is worth it's weight in gold if you ask me.
Are you salivating yet? Well, I am off to make this for dinner again. Even Mr. Bentley loved it, but he will eat as many sweet potatoes as you will let him too so that may not be a good example of how well liked this dish was. That kid loves them, even occasionally raw. I cannot say I am a fan of them raw, but cooked? They are actually one of my favorite vegetables, plus they are so filling. Let us know if you decide to give this recipe a try. Hope you have a wonderful week!
We included items we used to make this dish, and then also included some of our wish list items. Since we have a wish list, we thought you may too. We have been seeing so many new items on the market we would like to try since it is ever changing in the kitchen.
We have the onion holder, and who knew you actually needed one of these? It really does help when you are trying to slice up onions.
