Christmas 2015 came out of nowhere – mostly because I’d just gotten back to Oklahoma after being in Ohio for several weeks, but also because the weather just wasn’t saying holiday time to me. Even so, at about 2 pm on Christmas Eve I decided Kel and I just had to have a “special” meal to celebrate the day. And it had to be lasagna.
Now, in my family, lasagna was the traditional Christmas Eve meal and my father made it. It took him days of special shopping to gather just the right ingredients and then a whole day of prep and cooking. The end result was an absolute towering monster of Italian deliciousness. Layers of noodles, slow-simmered meat sauce, spinach, mozzarella, Parm, ricotta, green olives, slices of hard-boiled eggs and spicy Italian sausage baked to browned-on-top perfection. We ate until our stomachs were bursting. And the leftover ‘zagna? – fuggetaboudit! – we couldn’t wait for the next day to get into it. So it was kind of madness (with a touch of hubris) for me to think I could create a decent lasagna at the last minute. But this post isn’t really about that lasagna, delicious as it was.
It’s about soup – and how soup makes meal time a whole hell of a lot of easy. Lasagna soup has all of the rich flavor of the classic bake but because it’s prepared in a pressure cooker, it’s ready to eat in under 30 minutes – and no layering! You can pare down the prep even a bit more by using Field Roast sausage or other plant-based Italian sausage substitute instead of making it. (But really, it’s dead simple, and if you do decide to make your own, you’ll need a cup of Butler Soy Curls.) The ingredient list looks ridiculously long, but there are a lot of herbs and spices in this dish, so don’t be intimidated! Speaking of spices, do not skip the fennel seed and anise seed in this recipe – their flavors are absolutely imperative to getting that classic Oliverio lasagna/sausage flavor.
*You can absolutely make this on your stove-top as well. Just follow the instructions below, simmering the soup until the noodles are tender.
Vegan Lasagna Soup
- Cook Time: 10
- Total Time: 30
Description
All the rich flavors of (labor intensive!) slow-cooked lasagna with a fraction of the hands-on time. Plant-based and oil-free.
Ingredients
For the sausage
- 1 cup soy curls
- Boiling water
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp. oregano
- 1/2 tsp. rosemary
- 1/4 tsp. fennel seeds
- 1/4 tsp. anise seeds
- 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
- sprinkle red pepper flakes
- 1/2 cup (or a bit more) dry red wine
For the soup
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 carrot, chopped into small pieces
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp. basil
- 1 tsp. oregano
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp. rosemary
- 1/2 tsp. anise seed
- 1/2 tsp. fennel seed
- 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
- sprinkle red pepper flakes
- 1 zucchini, chopped
- 1 15-ounce can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
- 2+ cups low-sodium vegetable broth
- 1 28-ounce can petite-diced tomatoes (or crushed)
- 1 15-ounce can fire-roasted tomatoes
- ~4 cups kale or other sturdy green, cut or torn into small pieces
- 1 cup (about 5) lasagna noodles, broken into small pieces
Instructions
Prepare the sausage
- Place the soy curls in a glass bowl. Pour enough boiling water over them to cover. (If you want to get extra fancy, add a pinch of black pepper and a splash of red wine.) Let curls sit for about 15 minutes. Drain thoroughly.
- Warm a skillet (preferably well-seasoned cast iron) over medium heat. Add the soy curls and then – leave them alone! Let them brown before turning/scraping them up. Add a splash of water, wine, or vegetable broth if they stick. Continue to brown the soy curls until they have lovely crispy edges. Now stir in the garlic and the spices, cooking for about 1 minutes before adding 1/4 of the red wine. Stir and let the wine cook off before adding more. The soy curls will be very fragrant and boast a nice deep red-brown. Continue to cook until you’ve used up all of the red wine. Then set the “sausage” aside until you need it for the soup.
Prepare the soup
- Set the pressure cooker to (low) sauté. Add a splash of water or broth and cook the onion, carrot, and celery until beginning to soften. Don’t let the pot dry out – keep adding water or broth as necessary. Add the remaining ingredients and set the cooker to manual pressure (make sure you have the vent set to “sealing”) and the time to 10-15 minutes. Once the cooking has finished, let the cooker depressurize naturally.
- Open, stir, taste and adjust seasonings. You can either stir in the “sausage” or when serving, sprinkle some on top of each bowl of soup. Further adorn the soup with vegan Parm is you are so inclined.
Notes
- Reader feedback reports that this cooks up in about 10 minutes – not the longer amount I originally stated. Let the cooker depressurize “naturally.”
- Break the lasagna noodles into pretty small pieces – they really expand as they cook.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 6
- Calories: 180
- Sugar: 7
- Sodium: 2794
- Fat: 1
- Saturated Fat: 0
- Unsaturated Fat: 1
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 34
- Protein: 9
- Cholesterol: 0
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This looks amazing!! I love the recipe and your photos are gorgeous ❤️
Thanks, Kathy!
My family used to have Italian themed meals for Christmas too, and this looks fantastic!
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Love the artichoke hearts and all those spices!
What a great memory from your Dad and did he make as much mess of the kitchen as my Dad always does? So fun how cultures bring their best to American traditions too.
I discovered soy curls this year and am actually getting positive comments on them from hubs
No pressure cooker but your stove top soup sounds perfect. We’ve had soup everyday this week with the snow and I love that this ones a full meal even.
Dad made a horrendous mess! Seemed like every pot, pan, and utensil was used – splashes and drips everywhere! No such thing as “clean as you go….”
Soy curls are the best! I use them in so many recipes because they have a great “mouthfeel” and absorb whatever flavors one is using in their recipe.
Looks like just the thing 🙂
This looks delicious Annie. Soup is my favorite meal ever and this looks like such an amazing idea for one and so much flavor!
This looks delicious. I’m going to try it this weekend. Thirty minutes seems like a long time to pressure cook. Depending on the size of the cut vegetables, they should cook in less time. Is it the lasagna noodles that need 30 minutes. I have never cooked pasta in my Instant Pot.
Thanks, Terri! 30 minutes is probably overdoing it – I’m still wrapping my head around the pressure cooker concept! The pasta turns out great, btw.
I made this in my Instant Pot using manual setting for 15 minutes. It was perfect and delicious.
Ah!! Great to know! Thanks so much, Terri!
Vegan lasagna soup: what a great idea! I agree that soup makes meal time a lot easier. Great post!
I loved this recipe. I cooked it in my Instant Pot pressure cooker for ^ minutes on Manual and 10 minutes Natural pressure release. It was perfect.
30 minutes would have obliterated everything….
I cooked it for 6 minutes that was supposed to say….
Thanks for the input, Billie! Very helpful. The longer time worked out fine w/ mine, but shorter is definitely better – you get to eat sooner :-)!
made this today. My husband and I loved it. Thank you for sharing
That is awesome! I’m so glad – thanks for letting me know!
I did 30 minutes which seems like a long time in the IP. Is this a typo? Should it be 3 min? Everything turned out fine, but I’m thinking less time would be fine
Hi Pam – well, I’m a relative newby to pressure cooking so I’ve tended to err on the side of overcooking, but thanks to some great reader feedback like yours, I’ve adjusted the cooking time. Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know!
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