Low Carb, Gluten Free, Cauliflower Lasagna

What do you do when you want some yummy lasagna but you are a diabetic, or just want to cut the carbs?  Make up something different.

I thought, why not try cauliflower instead of noodles.  They both are kind of tasteless.  Could cauliflower substitute for lasagna noodles?  If I do it and it doesn’t work, will I waste all those ingredients, and a whole lot of time?

One way to find out.  It was a gamble, but it really turned out great.  Carol and Jay loved it too.  Maybe you will too.  It is also gluten free.

Here is a “semi”-recipe.  It is not a “measure and pour” kind of a recipe, but a general “what I did” kind of a recipe.  At the end, I will put a couple of things I may do differently the next time we make the cauliflower lasagna.  And yes, there will be a next time!

Here we go…

Ingredients:

    • 1 can diced tomatos
    • 1 can tomato sauce
    • onion flakes
    • celery leaves, chopped
    • pizza spice
    • or Ragu sauce instead of all the above
    • 1 lb hamburger
    • 1 head of cauliflower
    • riced cauliflower if needed
    • mozzarella cheese, shredded
    • Parmesan cheese, grated
    • Colby jack cheese, shredded
    • whole savory
    • cottage cheese (See my notes at the end.)

The process…

I started by making the sauce.  I used 1 can of diced tomatoes and 1 can of tomato sauce.  Put them in a small sauce pan and cooked it.  I added some dehydrated onion flakes, some chopped fresh celery leaves, and some pizza spice.  You could just use Ragu spaghetti sauce as I have used for regular lasagna in the past, but I didn’t have any Ragu.  Cook it while and add the spices to taste.

Brown a pound of hamburger.  Chop it up pretty fine.  Drain excess water and grease if needed.

Pour the sauce into the hamburger.  Mix.  If it is too liquidy, simmer it uncovered a while to reduce it a bit.

Slice up a head of cauliflower.  Cut the greens off first and a bunch of the core.  Some of the core is OK because it tastes and has the texture of the cauliflower florets.  Lay a layer of sliced cauliflower in the bottom of a lightly sprayed 9″ x 13″ casserole dish.

Spoon about half of the hamburger – sauce mixture onto the sliced cauliflower.

Add a layer of Mozzarella cheese and Colby Jack cheese.

Spoon on the remainder of the hamburger – sauce mix.

Add another layer of sliced cauliflower.  I ran out of sliced cauliflower so I added riced cauliflower, which comes frozen and pre riced.

Add some Parmesan cheese, more Mozzarella cheese and top with more Colby jack cheese.

Add a light sprinkle of whole savory on the top.

Cook in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Cook until golden in color.  Let it set a few minutes before cutting.

Enjoy your cauliflower lasagna!

The lasagna was extremely good.  But, there are a couple of things I might do differently next time.

    • Add cottage cheese.  Since, this was a spur of the moment deal, I did not have cottage cheese, which I really like in home made lasagna.  Spoon it on top of the hamburger – sauce mix, before adding the other cheeses, in both layers.
    • Precook the sliced cauliflower.  The sliced cauliflower was a little tough.  It wasn’t bad, but tougher than lasagna noodles.  Maybe parboil it for a couple of minutes or put it on a sheet pan and roast it for 10 or 15 minutes first.
    • Skip the sliced cauliflower and use the riced cauliflower.  The riced cauliflower I used in it blended in real nicely and I might try a layer of that on the bottom next time.  We buy it frozen at Costco.

In conclusion…

We were very pleased in this experiment and will definitely make it again.  It is a very tasty, low (not “no”) carb meal.  There is a small amount of sugar in the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce and a few carbs in the other ingredients.  We are not concerned with gluten, but it is a great gluten free meal also.  I encourage you to give it a try, it is really good.

-John.