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Butternut squash

overhead shot of butternut squash lasagna no noodles
Main CourseNourishing Recipes

Butternut Squash Lasagna Without Noodles (gluten free)

by From Scratch Farmstead January 27, 2022

This simple butternut squash lasagna without noodles recipe has everything to make it the perfect cozy comfort food. Oozing with cheese, filled with meat, and butternut squash replaces noodles, making it a nourishing meal that comes together in a few minutes time and only requires a few basic ingredients. It is sure to satisfy both the big and little in your family.

baked lasagna without noodles

There are a lot of noodle substitutes going around the inter webs these days but we have found replacing noodles for butternut squash to be our favorite. The squash holds up well amongst the meat and cheese and gets less soggy than zucchini. It has the hearty and comforting taste of traditional lasagna with more nutrients and less calories.

Growing Winter Squash

Any type of winter squash would work but we have found a lot of success growing butternut squashes and can also easily source these locally. We love their creamy texture, bright orange color and their shape makes them very conducive for this butternut squash lasagna without noodles recipe.

We grew a lot of squash this past summer. In this post, we go into detail about our three sisters garden, which included an abundance of corn, beans, and squash. I’m not complaining though, we love winter squashes and have found so many creative ways to put these beauties to use. We’ve mashed them, roasted them, turned them into pancakes, used them in baking, and throw them into almost anything and everything these days.

While we aren’t strictly gluten free and do incorporate locally grown grains on occasion and in sourdough, in large part I avoid grains and opt for replacing them with more nutritious alternatives. Hence, the creation of this butternut squash lasagna without noodles recipe. And, using butternut squash here was the inspiration for another family favorite, our butternut squash enchilada casserole.

butternut and acorn squash

Why substitute squash for lasagna noodles?

  1. You get more bang for your buck so to speak. From a nutrition standpoint, butternut squash is rich in vitamin A, Vitamin C, and fiber for a relatively small number of calories and a low glycemic index. When you compare it with lasagna noodles, there are a significantly greater number of overall calories, almost exclusively coming from carbohydrates, with less nutrients.
  2. Butternut squash is a starchy, comforting vegetable and holds up well with the meat, sauce, and cheese present in this recipe.
  3. The butternut squash leaves you feeling full and satisfied without spiking your blood sugar nearly as much as the noodles would. And if you have any allergies or intolerances to gluten, this is a great alternative to nourish your body and avoid tummy troubles.
  4. You can likely find winter squashes locally and they store super well throughout the winter. Before we grew enough to last us through the winter, I used to always stock up on these in the fall from local farms.
  5. They are so yummy! Winter squashes are one our favorites from a taste standpoint and go perfectly in both savory dishes like this one as well as sweet dishes.

Butternut Squash Enchiladas - cutting squash

Recipe tips and tricks

  • Feel free to replace the ground beef in this recipe to your ground meat of choice. Substituting sausage here is delicious. This butternut squash lasagna without noodles is quite meaty and can easily be made with only 1-1.5 pounds of meat instead of the 2 pounds listed here if preferred.
  • Add more veggies to your meat filling. If you have other veggies on hand that you want to use up and add some extra nutrition, throw them into your meat/sauce filling. If we have them on hand, I will often add mushrooms and peppers.
  • After pulling the lasagna out of the oven, let set for 5-10 minutes. Alternatively, I often like to cook it earlier in the day and just keep it warm in my oven until ready to serve.
  • There may be some excess juice that seeps out from the squash and filling as the lasagna cooks but we have not found this liquid impeding the taste or texture.
  • Extra cheese never hurts. ☺

Notes about serving

Instead of cutting this into squares like a traditional lasagna, we generally use a serving spoon and scoop this butternut squash lasagna without noodles into bowls, more like a casserole. Serve it by itself or along side a salad and you are good to go. This butternut squash lasagna without noodles recipe will feed our family of 5 for two meals and we find that we like the leftovers just as well, if not more, than the first day. It reheats well if kept tightly covered in fridge for up to five days.

portion of butternut squash lasagna served up

Ingredients

1 Medium Butternut squash lasagna, cut into 1/8” slices*
1-2 tbsp olive oil or cooking fat of choice
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 lbs ground beef
3 cups tomato sauce
Italian seasoning or add oregano and basil
salt and pepper to taste
3-4 cups shredded mozzarella**

Instructions

  1. In a large pan heat your olive oil and sauté onions and garlic.
  2. Once soft, add ground beef and stir until the meat is browned.
  3. Add tomato sauce and spices to your ground beef mixture.
  4. Once everything is thoroughly incorporated, set aside.
  5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  6. Ladle a thin layer of your sauce mixture to the bottom of a 9×13 pan.
  7. Add your first layer of butternut squash over the sauce. You want the pan covered but try not to stack the squash on top of each other.
  8. Put 1/3 of the remaining sauce mixture over squash.
  9. Sprinkle 1/3 of cheese on top of sauce.
  10. Repeat layer of squash, sauce, cheese.
  11. Last layer (third layer) of squash, sauce, and cheese.
  12. Cook covered for 30 minutes. Uncover and cook an additional 30 minutes until squash is tender, sauce is bubbling, and cheese is starting to brown.
  13. Let sit for 5-10 minutes before serving to set.
spreading bottom layer of sauce for lasagnafirst layer of butternut squash for lasagnaadding layer of meat sauce to lasagnaadding layer of cheese for lasagna

*Uniform butternut squash slices are ideal. You can easily do this with a food processor, mandolin slicer, or my favorite, by hand.

**Any type of cheese will do but we prefer mozzarella for this one. The more cheese the merrier. I try to reserve a bit extra for the top layer to make it extra cheesy.

served baked lasagna without noodles

Want more inspiration and recipes for a healthy kitchen?

Sadie @wisconsinhomesteader – 5 tips so you can cook from scratch without a meal plan

Britt @thesimplesalvagedfarmhouse – How to keep a well stocked fridge to cook from scratch

Janelle @crowdedtablefarmstead – Chicken enchilada soup

portion of butternut squash lasagna served up

Butternut Squash Lasagna Without Noodles (gluten free)

Yield: 8 servings
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

This simple butternut squash lasagna has everything to make it the perfect cozy comfort food. Oozing with cheese, filled with meat, and butternut squash replaces noodles, making it a nourishing meal that comes together in a few minutes time and only requires a few basic ingredients. It is sure to satisfy both the big and little in your family.

Ingredients

  • 1 Medium Butternut squash lasagna, cut into 1/8” slices*
  • 1-2 tbsp olive oil or cooking fat of choice
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 lbs ground beef
  • 3 cups tomato sauce
  • Italian seasoning or add oregano and basil
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 3-4 cups shredded mozzarella**

Instructions

    1. In a large pan heat your olive oil and sauté onions and garlic.
    2. Once soft, add ground beef and stir until the meat is browned.A
    3. dd tomato sauce and spices to your ground beef mixture.
    4. Once everything is thoroughly incorporated, set aside.
    5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
    6. Ladle a thin layer of your sauce mixture to the bottom of a 9x13 pan.
    7. Add your first layer of butternut squash over the sauce. You want the pan covered but try not to stack the squash on top of each other.
    8. Put 1/3 of the remaining sauce mixture over squash.
    9. Sprinkle 1/3 of cheese on top of sauce.
    10. Repeat layer of squash, sauce, cheese.
    11. Last layer (third layer) of squash, sauce, and cheese.
    12. Cook covered for 30 minutes. Uncover and cook an additional 30 minutes until squash is tender, sauce is bubbling, and cheese is starting to brown.
    13. Let sit for 5-10 minutes before serving to set.

Notes

*Uniform butternut squash slices are ideal. You can easily do this with a food processor, mandolin slicer, or my favorite, by hand.

**Any type of cheese will do but we prefer mozzarella for this one. The more cheese the merrier. I try to reserve a bit extra for the top layer to make it extra cheesy.

© From Scratch Farmstead
January 27, 2022 0 comment
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Main CourseNourishing Recipes

Butternut Squash Enchilada Casserole without Tortillas

by From Scratch Farmstead December 23, 2021

This butternut squash enchilada casserole is a delicious alternative to standard enchiladas, nourishing comfort food at its finest.  It can easily be made keto friendly without beans or vegetarian by substituting extra veggies for the meat. It is a perfect way to use that extra shredded meat from a roast or whole chicken or leftover roasted vegetables. And you’ll find butternut squash to be the perfect, tasty substitute for tortillas.

Jump To Recipe

 

Why We Love Enchilada Casserole!

Enchilada casserole is a family favorite, frequently requested on birthdays and special occasions. Swapping butternut squash for the tortillas increases the nutrients without compromising anything in the taste or texture. It is a great fall and winter dish that puts to use squashes that store well for months when seasons of green grass and fresh veggies from the garden are long gone.

Growing up, enchilada casserole was a dish that we busted out maybe once a year for a special occasion. Assembling it would be a family affair with cans upon cans lining the counter. Chili, enchilada sauce, beans, almost everything in the recipe was poured from a can.

Just a portion of our 2021 squash haul!

I’m always on a mission to take our favorite recipes and figure out how I can adapt them to pack them full of more nourishing, from scratch, and fresh ingredients. Once I discovered how to make a simple from scratch enchilada sauce, enchilada casserole was immediately on the menu.

Why We Use Squash

This year, our goal was to feed our family all year, as much as possible, through the food that we grew or raised. With this goal in mind, we emphasized growing crops that stored well through the winter and winter squashes ranked high on that list. We planted a large three sisters garden (corn, beans, and squash) and were delighted to harvest a couple hundred winter squashes come October.

Now, I’ve been trying to figure out creative ways to incorporate all of those beautiful, orange fruits into our cooking. Roasted, mashed, pancakes, baked, you name it, we’ve been doing it. When there was a request for enchilada casserole, I tried swapping the tortillas for butternut squash slices and the result was a resounding success.

This butternut squash enchilada casserole has three main layers that you alternate each three times: Butternut squash slices, filling, and cheese in addition to the enchilada sauce that is incorporated throughout. Our favorite way to eat the enchilada casserole is over a bed of Spanish rice or cauliflower rice. The rice absorbs the extra liquid in the butternut squash enchilada casserole and they pair beautifully. This recipe makes a hefty portion perfect for leftovers or when having guests for dinner.

The players:

Butternut Squash Slices – You’ll want these slices to be thin (roughly 1/8”) and uniform in width. The slicing attachment on a food processor or a mandolin slicer would make cutting these a breeze. However, my preference is still to slice them by hand with a sharp knife!

thin butternut squash slices

Filling – This part of the recipe is so versatile and where you have the chance to customize your casserole to your family’s preference. Beef, pork, chicken, fish, or vegetarian. Beans or no beans. Spicy or mild. Loaded with vegetables or more meat based. It’s all up to you. I’ll share our basic recipe where we used shredded beef, black beans, onions, peppers, and garlic, but feel free to adjust it to incorporate what you love. We have never made a combination we haven’t devoured.

Cheese –  We used a combination of mozzarella and cheddar because that is what we always have on hand but you can use whatever sliced or shredded cheese you prefer.

Enchilada Sauce – With a bone broth base, thickened by arrowroot starch and seasoned with tex-mex spices, this enchilada sauce recipe is an easy, nourishing alternative to the standard canned version and in our opinion really takes this recipe up a few notches. It avoids the top allergens making it a friendlier option for serving to a crowd without lacking any of the flavor. You can find the recipe here or our video.

laying butternut squash on casserole

Adding a layer of butternut squash.

Butternut Squash Enchilada Casserole without Tortillas Recipe

Ingredients:

Keep in mind this recipe is highly adaptable to what you have on hand, but here’s what we used:

1 medium butternut squash (sliced 1/8” thick)
3 cups shredded beef (or meat of choice)
1 onion, diced
1 pepper, diced
3 cloves garlic
4 cups black beans (or bean of choice)
3 cups shredded cheese
3 cups enchilada sauce
Spanish rice or cauliflower rice to serve casserole over (Optional)

How to prep and assemble your enchilada casserole:

Step one: Prepare three cups of your enchilada sauce. Here’s the recipe for our simple, from scratch version.

Step two: Make your filling. In this recipe, I used a combination of shredded beef from a chuck roast, black beans, onions, garlic, and peppers. Dice and sauté your onions, garlic, and peppers. After your veggies are cooked, stir in beef and beans. Pour and incorporate 1.5 cups of enchilada sauce into the filling mixture. Set aside.

Step three: Peel, seed, and slice your butternut squash into uniform slices (1/8”) either by hand or with a slicer. We use both the half circle and rainbow shaped portions – just adjust accordingly while laying on your pan so that it is fully covered as much as possible.

Step four: Assemble your layers. Begin with a layer of enchilada sauce (roughly ½ cup) at the bottom of your pan. This is important because having this liquid surrounding your squash layer will help the squash cook thoroughly. Then layer 1/3 of your squash, filling, and 1 cup of cheese. Repeat – squash, filling, and cheese. For the last layer, layer the remaining 1/3 of your squash and filling and then pour the last cup of enchilada sauce over your whole casserole. Lastly, cover with the last cup of cheese.  

Step five: Bake at 350 for 30 minutes covered with aluminum foil. Remove covering and bake for remaining 30 minutes until casserole is bubbling, cheese is melted and beginning to brown, and squash is fork tender. Let rest for at least 10 minutes before serving. Because the squash contains more moisture than tortillas would, the casserole does have a bit of liquid but this doesn’t impede the flavor or texture at all, especially when served over rice.

enchilada casserole with rice

Top as desired. Avocado slices or guacamole, sour cream, diced tomatoes, green onions, extra cheese. The more the merrier.

Serve and enjoy. This is one of those recipes that gets better with age and reheats perfectly, so we strongly encourage making enough butternut squash enchilada casserole for leftovers!

Butternut Squash Enchilada Casserole without Tortillas

Butternut Squash Enchilada Casserole without Tortillas

Yield: 8 servings
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour

This casserole is a delicious alternative to standard enchiladas, nourishing comfort food at its finest. It can easily be made keto friendly without beans or vegetarian by substituting extra veggies for the meat. It is a perfect way to use that extra shredded meat from a roast or whole chicken or leftover roasted vegetables. And you’ll find butternut squash to be the perfect, tasty substitute for tortillas.

Ingredients

  • Keep in mind this recipe is highly adaptable to what you have on hand, but here’s what we used…
  • 1 medium butternut squash (sliced 1/8” thick)
  • 3 cups shredded beef (or meat of choice)
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 pepper, diced
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 4 cups black beans (or bean of choice)
  • 3 cups shredded cheese
  • 3 cups enchilada sauce
  • Spanish rice or cauliflower rice to serve casserole over (Optional)

Instructions

    1. Prepare three cups of your enchilada sauce. Here’s the recipe for our simple, from scratch version.
    2. Make your filling. In this recipe, I used a combination of shredded beef from a chuck roast, black beans, onions, garlic, and peppers. Dice and sauté your onions, garlic, and peppers. After your veggies are cooked, stir in beef and beans. Pour and incorporate 1.5 cups of enchilada sauce into the filling mixture. Set aside.
    3. Peel, seed, and slice your butternut squash into uniform slices (1/8”) either by hand or with a slicer. We use both the half circle and rainbow shaped portions – just adjust accordingly while laying on your pan so that it is fully covered as much as possible.
    4. Assemble your layers. Begin with a layer of enchilada sauce (roughly ½ cup) at the bottom of your pan. This is important because having this liquid surrounding your squash layer will help the squash cook thoroughly. Then layer 1/3 of your squash, filling, and 1 cup of cheese. Repeat – squash, filling, and cheese. For the last layer, layer the remaining 1/3 of your squash and filling and then pour the last cup of enchilada sauce over your whole casserole. Lastly, cover with the last cup of cheese.
    5. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes covered with aluminum foil. Remove covering and bake for remaining 30 minutes until casserole is bubbling, cheese is melted and beginning to brown, and squash is fork tender. Let rest for at least 10 minutes before serving. Because the squash contains more moisture than tortillas would, the casserole does have a bit of liquid but this doesn’t impede the flavor or texture at all, especially when served over rice.

    Top as desired. Avocado slices or guacamole, sour cream, diced tomatoes, green onions, extra cheese. The more the merrier.

© From Scratch Farmstead
Category: Nourishing Recipes

 

December 23, 2021 0 comment
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From Scratch Farmstead
  • About
  • Homestead How-to’s
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  • Nourishing Recipes
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  • Natural Living