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This ground turkey lasagna recipe is great for feeding a crowd! Pair it with a salad for a meal that everyone will love. 326 calories and 6 Weight Watchers SP
When you’re hosting a crowd around the holidays, recipe that feed everyone in one fell swoop, like this ground turkey lasagna, are mandatory. With three layers of filling, this healthier lasagna is anything but wimpy. Pair it with a salad for a satisfying meal that will keep the masses happy.
Every year, the kitchen is filled with Nutella fudge, my mother-in-law's traditional butter cookies and treats from friends. The “No Grinch” rule requires that I dig into some of those treats. It’s a tough job, I admit. But a little indulgence means that I need to balance the day with healthier meals.
This lightened-up lasagna is a great option, but we also turn to shepherd’s pie, a traditional Canadian meat pie, chicken butternut squash stew and soups.
After doing a little research on various beef lasagnas, I found that the average serving consisted of 22 grams of fat. That's a little hard to swallow when you're trying to avoid wearing nothing but pants with elasticized waistbands.
How to make low fat lasagna:
After doing a little research on various beef lasagnas, I found that the average serving consisted of 22 grams of fat. That’s a little hard to swallow when you’re trying to avoid wearing nothing but pants with elasticized waistbands.
I set to work slashing fat and pumping up the fiber in a classic meat lasagna. First, I switched to whole wheat lasagna noodles and used lean ground turkey and Italian chicken or turkey sausages.
Instead of using traditional ricotta cheese, or an even heavier Béchamel sauce, I used low fat cottage cheese. Sounds kind of weird, right? When you purée it, the cottage cheese becomes smooth and creamy…perfect for lasagna! This is something I’ve done for a couple of years, using the smooth cheese in everything from baked ziti to vegetarian lasagna rolls.
If you’re short on time, use your favorite store-bought tomato sauce. However, if you have a bit of extra time, this homemade sauce is worth the extra effort.
Healthy recipes to feed a crowd:
{Cookin' Canuck}
{Cookin' Canuck}
Slow Cooker Taco Soup {iFood Real}
Vegetable Lentil Soup {My Natural Family}
Printable Recipe
Best Ground Turkey Lasagna
This ground turkey lasagna recipe is great for feeding a crowd! Pair it with a salad for a meal that everyone will love. 326 calories and 6 Weight Watchers SP
4.50 from 10 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Entrees
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: Healthy Dinner Recipes, Pasta
Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour hour 45 minutes minutes
Total Time: 2 hours hours 15 minutes minutes
Servings: 12 Servings
Calories: 326.5kcal
Author: Dara Michalski | Cookin' Canuck
Ingredients
The Sauce:
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- ½ onion chopped
- 1 pound lean ground turkey
- 2 spicy Italian chicken or turkey sausages
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground pepper
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 6 ounce can tomato paste
- 2 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
- ½ cup chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons minced flat-leaf parlsey
- 2 bay leaves
The Rest:
- 12 ounces whole wheat lasagna noodles
- 16 ounces low-fat cottage cheese
- 3 tablespoons minced flat-leaf parsley
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅔ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 6 large basil leaves thinly sliced
Instructions
The Sauce:
Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick saucepan or skillet set over medium heat. Add the onion, ground turkey and sausages. Cook, crumbling the meat with a wooden spoon, until the turkey and sausages are cooked through.
Add the garlic, oregano, thyme, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes, and cook for 1 minute.
Add the tomato paste and stir to combine with the ground turkey mixture, cooking for 1 minute.
Stir in the crushed tomatoes, chicken broth, parsley and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
The Rest:
Cook the lasagna noodles according to package instructions. Drain and rinse with cold water. Lay out the noodles on kitchen towels in a single layer.
Place cottage cheese, parsley and salt into a blender, and puree until smooth.
Assembling The Lasagna:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Spread 1 cup of the sauce in the bottom of a 9- by 13-inch baking dish.
Lay a few lasagna noodles in a single layer over top of the sauce. When fitting in the lasagna noodles, it may be necessary to cut some in half lengthwise or crosswise so that they fit properly.
Spread ⅓ of the cottage cheese mixture over the noodles. Top with 1 ½ cups of the sauce, ¼ of the Parmesan cheese, and ⅓ of the sliced basil.
Repeat these layers 2 more times, starting with the lasagna noodles. End with an additional layer of lasagna noodles, and the remaining sauce and Parmesan cheese.
Cover with foil and cook for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and baked until the lasagna is bubbling, 25 to 30 minutes.
Let rest for 15 minutes, cut into 12 squares and serve.
Notes
Weight Watchers Points: 6 (Freestyle SmartPoints), 8 (Points+)
Nutrition
Serving: 1Piece | Calories: 326.5kcal | Carbohydrates: 43.3g | Protein: 25.7g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 2.9g | Cholesterol: 47.7mg | Sodium: 964.1mg | Fiber: 7.5g | Sugar: 9.6g
Tried this recipe?If you make this recipe, I'd love to see it on Instagram! Just use the hashtag #COOKINCANUCK and I'll be sure to find it.
This post was first published on December 8, 2014 and updated on December 17, 2019.
Disclosure: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
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Reader Interactions
Comments
Robert F Mulhearn Injury Lawyer
Oh my gosh, lasagna is one of my comfort foods and I love that this one is semi-healthy! This sounds amazing! I also love the idea of skillet lasagna because a whole casserole is always way too much for a 2-person family.Reply
Paulina
This recipe was very easy to follow and very easy to make ahead. I changed a few things to accommodate the items that I had on-hand; I didn't have turkey sausage because my SO is not a fan of sausage in general but I did have 26oz of ground turkey (Butterball @ Costco) so I just used all that turkey, since I used a little bit more turkey I also used 1 cup of chicken broth, I didn't have fresh parsley/basil so I used ground dried parsley/basil. I found that the 1/3 cup of cottage cheese mixture was too little because I used 1/3c of it in the first 2 layers but then noticed I still had a lot left! I will probably just eye it next time so all the layers are pretty even 🙂 I used 280g of chopped yellow onion an 14g of garlic. It was a great success and came out super yummy, I made the sauce and the cottage cheese mixture almost 2 hours before I actually assembled it, each serving was very hearty and since it was only feeding my SO and I, I had leftovers for next days dinner.Mine came out with these stats: calories: 257 cal | Fat: 6g | Saturated fat: 2g | Carbohydrates: 32g | Sugar: 9g | Sodium: 585mg | Fiber: 5g | Protein: 23g | Cholesterol: 45mg
Thank you for this recipe 🙂
Reply
Kellie+|+The+Suburban+Soapbox
I definitely need a healthy alternative with the holidays looming. The cookies and candy and creamy beverages are definitely taking a toll on my waistline!
Reply
Colleen (Souffle Bombay)
You know, I have never had turkey (or chicken) lasagna...Hmmm! I switch out those with beef in other dished but never dod with lasagna...smartypants! Oh and using ground turkey & turkey sausage...my kinda gal! Looks crazy delish!
Reply
Kim+(Feed+Me,+Seymour)
Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing this! I adore lasagna with every fiber of my being. My husband is usually in charge of making it but his version is super fatty, loaded with cream and so much cheese. I'm switching things up this Christmas Eve with this recipe!
Reply
Rachel+@+Baked+by+Rachel
This is perfect!! I've had lasagna on the brain recently.
Reply
Kim+Beaulieu
This looks so amazing, I just want to run right into my kitchen right this minute to make this. Gorgeous photos.
Reply
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