This is a delicious recipe even without carb-heavy pasta noodles. The basic recipe, which is equally as yummy, comes from my friend Tiana Johnson, but I’ve made some changes to enhance the taste even more.

Ingredients:

1-1/3 to 1-1/2 pounds of ground turkey

28 oz. jar of marinara sauce

2 medium zucchini

small bag of fresh baby spinach

16 oz. container of part skim ricotta cheese

1 egg

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep the sauce, ricotta cheese and zucchini as noted below.

Sauce:

Sauté ground turkey in large pan until cooked through. Add marinara sauce, garlic powder, oregano, and salt and pepper. Heat through and set aside.

Ricotta Cheese:

Put ricotta cheese in medium bowl. Mix in the egg, 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese, 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, and oregano. Set aside.

Zucchini:

Use a carrot peeler or mandolin to make long, thin, but wide strips of zucchini. Set aside.

Assemble lasagna:

Coat the bottom of a 9″ X 12″ pan with a thin layer of the meat sauce.

Cover sauce with a layer of zucchini strips (just as you would lasagna noodles). On the zucchini strips, add a layer of spinach leaves.

Add all of the ricotta mixture and smooth out to completely cover the spinach leaves.

Add another layer of zucchini strips and then spinach leaves.

On top of the spinach leaves, layer half of the meat sauce, covering the spinach as much as possible. Top meat sauce with 1/4 cup of shredded mozzarella.

Add another layer using the rest of the zucchini strips and then spinach leaves (you may only need half of the bag for this recipe).

On top of spinach leaves, add the rest of the meat sauce. Add the final 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese on top of sauce.

Bake uncovered in oven for 30 to 40 minutes until cheese is melted and lasagna is bubbling.

Some liquid from the zucchini and spinach will accumulate in the bottom of the pan. When cool enough, you should be able to ladle off some of the liquid from a corner of the lasagna or you can very carefully pour some of the liquid off.

Let the lasagna cool a little for more even cuts or serve hot out of the oven. It can also be refrigerated and cut later and individual pieces microwaved to heat.

Enjoy!