Low Carb Keto Lasagna
Surprisingly, pasta was one of the easier things for me to give up when I started keto. Pasta was cheap and filling (which are great qualities in food as a college student) but the pasta itself always seemed more like a neutral delivery vehicle for the meat and sauce that was the actually desirable part of the meal.
Zucchini does that job just as well in most applications that I’ve tried, but when I wanted to try my hand at making a keto lasagna, I just couldn’t see it working out well there. I worried that the texture wouldn’t be quite right because of zucchini’s high water content. I was almost ready to give up on finding a suitable pasta replacement when I came across a Reddit thread that suggested using sliced chicken. I headed to the deli the next day.
There’s no slicing, salting, and drying of zucchini or eggplant, which saves some time over a lot of other keto lasagna recipes. In fact, other than swapping out the pasta for chicken, I made this lasagna pretty much exactly like I’d make traditional lasagna. Just make sure that you don’t get the chicken sliced too thin, or it won’t actually hold up to layering very well.
This recipe makes a pretty hefty pan of lasagna, so prepare for plenty of leftovers. I usually cut mine into 12 pieces and stick some in the freezer. It thaws and reheats perfectly, so it’s a good option for weekly meal preppers. You can also tweak the macros to make a leaner keto lasagna by using ground turkey instead of beef, or lower fat cheese.
Keto Lasagna Recipe
This recipe for keto lasagna uses sliced deli chicken to replace the pasta. This keeps the carb count low while adding extra protein.
- Prep Time: 30m
- Cook Time: 30m
- Total Time: 1h
- Serves: 12
Ingredients
- 1/8 medium red onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 pound Italian sausage
- 1 1/2 cups low carb pasta sauce
- 1 ounce pepperoni, chopped
- 12 ounces deli sliced chicken
- 1 cup whole milk ricotta
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/2 tablespoon dried basil
- 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
- 3 cups shredded mozzarella
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- In a small bowl, combine ricotta, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, parmesan, red pepper, and basil. Set aside.
- Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and Italian seasoning to pan. Saute until onion is slightly browned and tender.
- Add meat to pan, removing casings from Italian sausage if needed. Cook until browned.
- Add tomato sauce and chopped pepperoni to meat, stirring to distribute. Lower heat, and cover the pan to simmer for 7-10 minutes, or until sauce has thickened.
- Cover the bottom of a greased baking dish with sliced chicken. Spread about 1/3 of the ricotta mixture on top. Add 1/3 of the meat mixture, and top with a cup of mozzarella. Repeat the sequence of layers twice more.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the top layer of cheese is browning and no longer bubbly.
When divided into twelve, each slice of keto lasagna is about 380 calories, including 26g fat, 30g protein, and 5g net carbs.
YOU MUST try this, it is Fantastic,it’s Great
This is the BEST lasagna recipe I’ve ever made. Even my non-Keto family just loved it and have asked me to bring it to holiday dinners! I went with thicker sliced deli chicken and we couldn’t tell the difference between the chicken and regular noodles! It is absolutely fantastic, and truth be told, I made an absolute pig out of myself and it was okay because it’s so low in carbs! I added additional Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes (we like stuff HOT), tossed in some baby Bella mushrooms and used bulk Italian sausage. I will make this over and over and over again!
Tried this tonight for dinner, it went great! I used Boar’s Head sliced chicken and spicy Italian sausage. Instead of shredded mozzarella I used whole milk low moisture mozzarella that I had sliced thin at the deli. That gave me nice layers of cheese.
It wasn’t 100% like lasagna but pretty close. The chicken helped with creating layers but was otherwise pretty invisible in the final dish. I will definitely be making this again!
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