Healthy lasagna soup, with the cheese on top where you can see it
Everything lasagna tastes of, in a bowl at about 479 calories and 30 g of protein. Three swaps take it under 400, and one habit stops the pasta going soggy.
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Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 450 g ground beef (beef mince), 85% lean
- 150 g onion, finely chopped, 1 large onion for the pot
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1.5 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tbsp tomato paste, tomato purée in the UK
- 794 g crushed tomatoes, a 28 oz can for the pot, or two 400 g tins of chopped tomatoes in the UK
- 960 ml reduced-sodium chicken stock Out of chicken broth or stock?
- 180 g short pasta, dried, such as campanelle, or lasagna sheets broken into pieces
- 120 g baby spinach
- 240 g whole-milk ricotta, for the topping Out of ricotta?
- 60 g mozzarella, low-moisture, part-skim, grated
- 30 g parmesan, finely grated
- 6 g fresh basil leaves, to serve
Method
- Heat the oil in a large pot over a medium-high heat. Add the beef, press it flat and leave it alone for 2 minutes to brown before you break it up, then cook until no pink remains.
- Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes, until soft. Stir in the garlic, oregano and tomato paste and cook for a minute more, until the paste darkens a shade.
- Pour in the crushed tomatoes and the stock, bring it to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a separate pan of boiling water for 2 minutes less than the packet says, and drain it.
- Stir the spinach into the soup until it wilts, then taste and season with salt and pepper, remembering the cheese is still to come.
- Mix the ricotta with the mozzarella and parmesan. Divide the pasta between bowls, ladle the soup over it, and top each bowl with a spoonful of the cheese and a few basil leaves.
Lasagna soup is lasagna without the layering: a tomato and beef broth with pasta in it and a spoonful of cheese on top. Made this way it comes to about 479 calories and 30 g of protein a bowl by our estimate, and three swaps take it to 399.
Is lasagna soup healthy?
It is a reasonable dinner, and whether it is a light one comes down to three things: the meat, the cheese and the salt.
The meat and the cheese carry most of the calories and fat, and the table below shows exactly how much. The salt is the one people miss. A bowl carries about 890 mg of sodium by USDA values, 39 percent of the 2,300 mg daily value, and the stock and the tomatoes bring most of it, about 620 mg between them, against 200 mg from all three cheeses. Reduced-sodium stock is already in the list, and no-salt-added tomatoes take out most of the tomatoes’ share.
At under 500 calories with 30 g of protein, it fits a day of eating for weight loss as easily as any dinner. The pasta is the part to portion, which is one more reason to cook it separately and add it to each bowl.
Where the calories are
Per bowl, a sixth of the pot.
| Part of the bowl | kcal | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ground beef, 75 g | 161 | 14 g | 0 g | 11 g |
| Pasta, 30 g dried | 111 | 4 g | 23 g | 1 g |
| Ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan | 111 | 7 g | 4 g | 8 g |
| Crushed tomatoes and tomato paste | 47 | 2 g | 11 g | 0 g |
| Stock, onion, garlic, spinach and herbs | 29 | 3 g | 4 g | 0 g |
| Olive oil | 20 | 0 g | 0 g | 2 g |
| Per bowl | 479 | 30 g | 42 g | 22 g |
The beef is the biggest line, a third of the calories and half the fat. The cheese is the second, and it is the one you control bowl by bowl, which is why it goes on top rather than into the pot. The figures count all the fat from the beef; if you tip any off after browning, the real bowl is a little lighter.
The three swaps, and what each is worth
| Swap | kcal | Protein | Carbs | Fat | Running total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beef to 93% lean turkey | −49 | 0 g | 0 g | −5 g | 430 kcal, 30 g protein |
| Pasta to chickpea pasta | −10 | +2 g | −4 g | +1 g | 420 kcal, 32 g protein |
| Ricotta to blended cottage cheese | −21 | +1 g | −2 g | −2 g | 399 kcal, 33 g protein |
Turkey is a fat swap. Per 100 g raw, 93 percent lean turkey carries 18.7 g of protein against 18.6 g for 85 percent lean beef, by USDA figures, so it moves the fat and leaves the protein where it was. It browns less readily, so give it the full two minutes pressed flat.
Chickpea pasta adds protein, not lightness. At 30 g a bowl it adds 2 g of protein and a gram of fat, by Banza’s label. It goes from firm to soft quickly, which is one more reason to cook it separately.
Cottage cheese for the ricotta is the swap that changes least on the spoon. Blend it smooth first and it sits on a hot bowl the way ricotta does, with a little more protein and a little less fat.
High protein lasagna soup
At 30 g a bowl, it already is one, and the swaps add 3 g. If you want more, the cheapest lever is more of the topping: another 60 g of cottage cheese, blended and spooned on, adds about 7 g of protein and 59 calories. For the full dish rather than the soup, the cottage cheese lasagna is 521 calories and 36 g of protein a slice.
Lasagna soup in the slow cooker
Brown the beef and the onion in a pan first. It is the step that makes this taste of lasagna rather than boiled mince, and a slow cooker cannot do it. Then put the beef, onion, garlic, oregano, tomato paste, tomatoes and stock in the slow cooker and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours, or on high for 3 to 4.
Cook the pasta separately, just before you eat, and stir the spinach in at the end, when it needs only a minute. Pasta left in a slow cooker for hours turns to paste.
Lasagna soup with zucchini instead of pasta
Dice three medium zucchini, courgettes in the UK, about 600 g, and simmer them in the soup for the last 10 minutes in place of the pasta. By our estimate that takes about 94 calories and 19 g of carbs off a bowl, and 3 g of protein with them. It stops being a pasta dish, which is the trade, and the cheese on top is what keeps it tasting of lasagna.
Vegetarian lasagna soup
Leave out the beef, use vegetable stock, and stir a drained 400 g tin of green or brown lentils in with the tomatoes. By USDA values the lentils in place of the beef take about 115 calories and 11 g of fat off a bowl, and about 10 g of protein with them: lentils are not a like-for-like swap for meat. Traditional parmesan is made with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian hard cheese if that matters.
Keeping the pasta from going soggy
Pasta keeps drinking the broth after the heat is off, so a pot of lasagna soup with the pasta in it is a thick stew by the next day. Cook the pasta separately, keep it separately, and add it to each bowl as you serve.
The soup itself keeps for 3 to 4 days in the fridge and 2 to 3 months in the freezer, the FoodSafety.gov times for soups with meat. Freeze it without the pasta and the cheese, and add both fresh.
What goes wrong
Soggy pasta. It was cooked in the pot and left there. Cook it apart and add it to the bowls.
A soup that tastes of boiled mince. The beef went in and was stirred straight away. Press it flat and leave it for two minutes so it browns.
Too salty. Stock, tomatoes and three cheeses all bring salt. Taste only once the spinach is in, and season last.
Every figure here is an estimate from USDA values, and Banza’s label for the chickpea pasta, rather than a measurement. Why recipe macros are estimates explains how far they move with the brands you buy.
Where next
This recipe is one of the dishes in High protein meal prep: one Sunday, five days, about 100 g of protein a day and How to hit your protein goal without tracking every meal.
Worth cooking next:
- Cottage cheese lasagna, with the ricotta question answeredCottage cheese replaces ricotta in lasagna 1:1, with more protein and under half the fat. A slice here is about 521 calories and 36 g of protein by our estimate.
- Turkey bolognese, and what the turkey actually saves youTurkey mince is a fat swap, not a protein one. A plate here is about 723 calories and 41 g of protein by our estimate, against 835 with standard beef mince.
- Healthy broccoli cheddar soup, and what Panera's bowl really costsPanera's bowl is 360 calories with 1,330 mg of sodium by its own figures. This one is about 335 calories with 17 g of protein and about half the sodium.
Cooking it as part of a week? ReciPop plans seven days of meals around the time you have, the appliances you own and how many you are feeding, then turns them into one grocery list sorted by aisle. How the weekly plan works