This recipe is primal if you use goat cheese (optional), and paleo without any goat cheese added. Adding the meat is also optional – just substitute additional veggies for a delicious vegetarian or vegan meal.
Ingredients:
- 1 medium butternut squash, peeled and thinly sliced (see notes below)
- 2 pounds ground beef or venison
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1 large green pepper, seeded and diced
- 1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms (portabella, shitake, etc.)
- 5 cloves fresh garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon dried or fresh oregano
- 32 ounces marinara sauce, homemade or paleo/primal-approved
- 16 ounces soft goat cheese, crumbled (optional)
- sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper, to taste
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- In a large pan, combine beef or venison with onion, green pepper and mushrooms. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until meat is browned and vegetables are soft. Add garlic, oregano, sea salt and pepper, stir and remove from heat.
- Add marinara sauce to the meat/vegetable mixture and stir to combine. Set aside. ( Ineskohl.info)
- Carefully cut butternut squash in half width-wise, separating the round, bulb end from the long skinny end. Stand the long end up on the freshly cut side, and using a sharp knife, carefully slice away the outer skin (see photos below).
- Slice into four manageable pieces, and start slicing off thin pieces. These are your lasagna “noodles.”
- I like to use my trusty spiral vegetable slicer to slice thin butternut squash “chips.” This machine is AMAZING.
- In a 9×13″ pan, spread a small cup of sauce on the bottom of the pan to prevent sticking.
- Take 1/3 of the butternut “noodles” and spread them on top of the sauce in the pan so they form a thin layer.
- Cover the butternut layer with 1/2 of the goat cheese crumbles (optional).
- Cover the goat cheese layer with 1/2 of the remaining meat sauce.
- Repeat, layering butternut, goat cheese, and sauce.
- Top with remaining butternut squash in a thin layer. Use a broad flat spoon to squish lasagna down into the pan evenly. Bake for 45 minutes until lasagna is bubbling and the top layer of butternut squash is starting to brown.
- Remove from oven, allow to cool at least 10 minutes before serving.
- Enjoy!