Light Yogurt Lasagna

A light yogurt lasagna with lean ground beef and Greek yogurt, yet nobody will notice that they are not eating the original.

Greek Yogurt Lasagna
This healthy Greek yogurt lasagna is a twist on the traditional bolognese. Just as much taste, but fewer calories due to the yogurt sauce used instead of the Bechamel sauce. And honestly, nobody ever noticed the difference!

I’ve been making the traditional bolognese lasagna for years. It tastes great, everybody loves it! The only thing about it is that I mostly ate it with a bad conscience. I mean ground meat, noodles, and bechamel sauce all in one pot.

A few weeks ago, my son and my cousin who was visiting us, wanted me to make lasagna again. I meant to cook the classic one with bolognese sauce, but incidentally, I had found this recipe for a healthier version just a day or two before on Chefkoch.de.

It had such good reviews that I decided to give it a try and I am so glad I did. It was absolutely great. Nobody noticed anything was different, they all said I make the best lasagna ever and that settled everything.

casserole dish with yogurt lasagna bolognese
We do love any kind of lasagna and I have quite a few recipes on the blog to prove it!

Why not try some of our favorite healthier recipes, like the vegetable lasagna with white sauce (yes, this time a real white sauce), another vegetarian one with butternut squash and lentils, or try a low-carb zucchini lasagna with no noodles?

light lasagna bolognese sliced on a plate
Ingredients
To begin with, you will need the typical ingredients needed for a bolognese dish: ground beef, tomatoes, dried herbs, and pasta sheets. Then, untypically, you will need some low-fat Greek yogurt to make the sauce.

Ground beef:

Lean ground beef, which has a maximum of 17% fat.
However, if you don’t care about that, using regular ground beef is fine.
Noodles:

I always use no-boil lasagna sheets Yogurt:

Low-fat yogurt, the creamy kind like Greek yogurt, which has 1.8 % fat.
Cheese:

I am usually not into low-fat cheese, I rarely buy it, but for this recipe, I use a low-fat Gouda cheese, about 12% fat.
Cheddar cheese can be used instead.
Or any other kind of cheese you like to use for this kind of dish.
Again, low-fat is not mandatory, only if you are watching the calories, otherwise use whatever you like.

How to make it?
Meat sauce:
A typical bolognese sauce needs a couple of hours of cooking time. I do that from time to time, but not in the case of this Greek yogurt lasagna. After browning the meat and the vegetables, the meat sauce will only need about 5 minutes of simmering on the stove.
Heat the oil and saute the chopped onion, then add garlic and grated carrot. (1)
Add the ground beef and brown it, breaking the clumps with a wooden spoon while the meat cooks. (2, 3)
Stir in the tomato paste for 1 minute, then add the canned tomatoes, dried oregano, sweet paprika powder, some salt, and pepper. (4)
Simmer for 5 minutes and adjust the taste again.
frying vegetables, ground meat and making bolognese sauce
Yogurt sauce:
Not only that substituting the white sauce with dairy makes the dish lighter and healthier, but the substitution also makes cooking quicker and easier.
Instead of stirring a white sauce, taking care that it doesn’t get clumpy, and then letting it cook for a while, you just have to stir the dairy with some hot stock and ¾ cup of the grated cheese. It doesn’t get any easier.
yogurt sauce for light lasagna
How to assemble?
You will need a rectangular casserole dish of about 30×20 cm/12×8 inches.

 2-3 tablespoons of the meat sauce, just enough sauce to thinly cover the bottom of the dish.
 Pasta sheets
 1/3 of the meat sauce
 1/3 of the dairy sauce.
Repeat steps 2 + 3 + 4 : pasta sheets + 1/3 meat sauce + 1/3 dairy sauce.
Repeat steps 2 + 3 + 4 again: lasagna sheets + 1/3 meat sauce + 1/3 dairy sauce.
Step 5: Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
Step 6: Bake for about 30 minutes or until the noodles are cooked through and the cheese is golden brown. Check by inserting a fork in the casserole, the pasta should be soft.
assemble lasagna step by step

How to serve?
Let the Greek yogurt lasagna set in the dish for about 5 to 10 minutes before slicing it. You can cover it loosely with aluminum foil, if you wish, to make sure it doesn’t lose too much heat. But I usually don’t bother for a few minutes.

Light Yogurt Lasagna
A lighter yogurt lasagna with lean ground beef and Greek yogurt, yet nobody will notice that they are not eating the original.

Ingredients

▢Meat sauce:
▢1 onion
▢4 garlic cloves
▢2 medium carrots
▢1 tablespoon olive oil
▢1.8 lb lean ground beef
▢2 tablespoons tomato paste
▢3 cans chopped tomatoes about 400 g/14 oz each
▢2 teaspoons dried oregano
▢1 teaspoon sweet paprika powder
▢Yogurt Sauce:
▢1 1/4 cups low fat Greek yogurt
▢1 cup hot stock Note 1
▢Yogurt lasagna:
▢1 3/4 cups low fat cheese, grated divided, Note 2
▢12 no-boil lasagna sheets as needed
▢fine sea salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
Meat sauce:
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius/ 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Chop the onion and the garlic cloves finely. Grate the carrots.
Saute: Heat the oil in a pan and saute the onions until translucent. Add the garlic and the carrots, saute for a couple of minutes more.
Cook: Add the ground beef and let it get a bit brown. Break the meat lumps with a wooden spoon while the meat is cooking. Add the tomato paste, stir well and saute for 1 more minute. Add the tomatoes, oregano, paprika, salt, and pepper to taste and bring everything to a boil. Simmer gently for 5 minutes.
Yogurt sauce:
In the meantime, mix the yogurt and the hot stock. Add ¾ cup of the grated cheese to the yogurt mixture and stir well.
Assemble the yogurt lasagna:
First layer: Place 2-3 tablespoons of the meat sauce in a rectangular casserole dish of about 30×20 cm/12×8 inches, just enough sauce to thinly cover the bottom of the dish. Place lasagna sheets on top, add 1/3 of the meat sauce and 1/3 of the yogurt sauce.
Repeat: lasagna sheets, 1/3 of the meat sauce, 1/3 of the yogurt sauce.
Repeat: lasagna, rest meat sauce, rest yogurt sauce.
Cheese: Sprinkle with the remaining 1 cup grated cheese.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until the lasagna sheets are cooked through, and the cheese is golden brown. Check by inserting a fork in the casserole; the noodles should be soft.
Rest: Let the lasagna sit for 5 to 10 minutes, cut into squares and serve with one or two of the sides suggested above.
Notes
Made from a ½ vegetable stock cube dissolved in 200 ml/ scant 1 cup hot water.
I used Gouda, but Cheddar is just as fine. Or any other kind of cheese you usually take for lasagna.
Nutrition
Serving: 1/6 of the dish | Calories: 523kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 55g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 11g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 131mg | Sodium: 802mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 8g