Eating Well Made Easy: Quick Gluten Free Lasagna Soup

I don’t eat a lot of soup in the summer, but once the weather begins to turn cold, I run back to all of my favorite soup recipes. They are generally quick from start to finish. I like to make a big pot of soup each time so that we have plenty of leftovers throughout the week. Many soup recipes are full of fiber. They are especially nourishing to the body when the base is a homemade stock made from a healthy, pastured source. This recipe for lasagna soup checks both of those boxes. As much as I love lasagna, I find it labor intensive. I don’t make it very often. But this soup will provide all the flavors and textures of lasagna in much less time. It’s a must have recipe for a busy, cold winter night.

PACKED WITH FIBER (PLUS A TRICK FOR PICKY EATERS)

Soup is a great way to include a lot of vegetable fiber in one meal. I find that many picky eaters (even children) will generally eat the vegetables found in soup. And if not, allow me to share a trick with you.

In this recipe, I make use of onions, garlic, zucchini, and spinach. All of these things can be “hidden” by blending them into the beef stock. (If you choose to blend spinach, it will turn the soup green. So if your picky eaters are also averse to green things, I would leave out the spinach.) If you want to blend the onion, garlic, and zucchini into beef stock, omit the additions as noted in the recipe below. Instead, begin by peeling the zucchini. Then add the diced onion, minced garlic, and sliced zucchini to a pan with a bit of olive oil. Sauté everything until soft. Add the softened vegetables to a blender with the beef stock. Blend until smooth. At that point, you can add the stock to the recipe like normal. You’ll have a very flavorful stock with hidden vegetables that even your picky eaters will enjoy. You can still add the spinach (whole) later, or just omit that part of the recipe.

FOR THE NOODLES

As written, this recipe calls for the use of gluten free noodles. You can obviously make use of any noodle you wish. Even beneath the gluten free umbrella, there are several options. In my own pantry, I keep gluten free noodles made from green lentils, red lentils, brown rice, and chickpeas.

For this particular recipe (as pictured), I used Jovial Lasagna Noodles. For ease of use, I recommend using Farfalle Pasta Noodles instead of lasagna noodles. The lasagna noodles are a fun touch, but they tend to stick together when they’re cut into smaller pieces. It’s not really worth the hassle unless you really enjoy the presentation of lasagna noodles in the soup.

Gluten free noodles have the potential to absorb more water than noodles made from wheat flour. This means they can easily become a soggy mess. To avoid this, I cook the noodles separately for about half the amount of time specified on the box. Then I remove them from the water and rinse them off. When I add them to the soup (which is otherwise done), I allow them to soften up a bit before serving. To do this, I remove the pot from the heat of the burner so that the residual heat of the soup finishes the noodles. This helps to achieve the right consistency without soaking up all of the soup liquid.

DAIRY FREE OPTION

Generally, when I think of lasagna, I think of cheese. As much as I love it, cheese doesn’t always love me back. When I’m looking to enjoy the flavors of lasagna without the all of the heavy cheeses, this soup hits the spot. I will even sometimes finish it off with a dollop of Kite Hill’s Almond Ricotta or Violife’s Dairy Free Mozzarella. This provides the allusion of cheesy goodness while still being dairy free. If this is a need for anyone in your household, or for guests, these may provide a satisfying option.