Keto Lasagna

Lasagna is one of my favorite foods in the whole wide world! I absolutely love it! One of the drawbacks of a keto diet, or any low-carb diet is the absence of pasta. Other diets have pasta made from ingredients other than wheat flour, but the keto diet is more strict about that sort of thing. Dreamfields and other brands make low-carb or high-protein pasta, but they have way too many carbs for a keto diet. I have tried using thinly sliced zucchini, but my vegetable-resistant teenager did not like that at all; however, my husband and I did. I also tried using steamed cabbage. I was really excited about this alternative because my son actually likes cabbage. If anything else, I thought maybe the lasagna would taste like a cabbage roll, but alas….none of us liked this version. It was not the same at all.

I was watching a YouTube channel by The Keto Twins and they had an idea that I really wanted to try. They used a low-carb tortilla in place of the lasagna noodles. I was intrigued! I was intrigued enough to make it the next week on my meal plan. As my luck would have it, I had just bought several packages of the new Aldi Keto Tortillas on the same day that I watched the YouTube channel that gave me the idea. Make sure you read all the way to the end to see what everyone thought of this dish.

Ingredients

Instructions

1. In a large saucepan or dutch oven, brown the ground beef with the onion and garlic.

2. Pour in your spaghetti sauce, spices and red wine. Pour some red wine into the sauce containers to swish around and get every drop of the sauce; add to the pan and stir to combine. You can use more red wine according to your taste. The red wine really deepens the flavor of the sauce. Stir to combine.

3. Let the sauce simmer on the stovetop for at least 30 minutes,, but if you have time, let it simmer longer than that.

4. While your sauce is simmering, prepare your tortillas. Cut your tortillas into lasagna noodle-size pieces.

5. In a medium size skillet sprayed with cooking spray, toast your tortillas for 1 minute on each side. The tortillas must be somewhat crispy like a dry lasagna noodle. If the tortillas are placed in the lasagna in their raw state, the lasagna will be a mushy mess and not very appetizing. I found out that it doesn’t matter if the edges are a little bit dark. You will not notice it.

6. In a small bowl, combine the ricotta or cottage cheese, egg and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan. Mix well.

7. Begin layering the lasagna by placing a couple of ladles of sauce on the bottom of a baking dish. Top with the tortillas. Spread half of the ricotta mixture over the tortillas. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and grated parmesan. Repeat the layers ending with sauce. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on top of the sauce along with some parmesan.

8. Bake in a 350-degree oven for at least 30 minutes or until the lasagna is bubbling and the cheese is slightly browned on the top.

9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving.

Lasagna is one of those dishes that tastes better than it looks when it is served fresh from the oven, so let’s be real here! Mine is not pretty, but it was sure delicious! Using the tortillas was the best option to replace the lasagna noodles that I found. There is a slight texture and taste difference, but when you are on a special diet, you will find creative ways to work around it and embrace the differences.