Low Carb Lasagna with Fathead Noodles

The first time we tried to make this dish, the power went out mid-bake! And it didn’t come back on for a few hours so we were never able to fully finish making our lasagna. On the bright side, everything was already cooked before baking so we at least had some kind of dinner.

And it was still tasty – hard to go wrong with cheese on top of cheese, but it still needed that baking time to fully marry all the flavors and make the bubbly cheese crust on top. Since the first time wasn’t super successful but delicious, we gave it another go. Test 2 for this lasagna is now part of our Ketofy My Favs challenge!

Jump to: Low Carb Fathead Lasagna Recipe | Lasagna Noodle Substitutions

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So. Let’s talk about Fathead (i.e. dough made of cheese) as noodles before diving into this recipe. We’ve used fathead to recreate countless types of food from hot dog buns to pizza to cinnamon rolls and you can see some of those over on our Easy Keto Cheesy Bread post. This is the first time we’ve attempted a noodle style with fathead and we’re actually impressed with the results.

Cheesy dough is surprisingly sturdy in a 400 degree oven (didn’t melt into cheesy mush) and despite turning this into more of a batter for the thin noodle texture, it still holds its noodly sheet shape perfectly inside the casserole. That paves the way to recreate many other noodle-based casseroles which is actually kind of exciting.

We’ve seen many low carb recipes use various types of fathead to recreate this beloved lasagna classic for years on end but as always, we had to be a little bit picky and needed to create something more to our tastes. This is our very own spin on that classic.

Note: This is a VERY decadent meal. Translation – there’s a lot of fat (and calories) per serving, which is why it tastes so good. 1 slice is absolutely delicious and completely filling, but if you’d rather reserve some of those calories, there are options beyond the obvious of replacing or omitting the fathead noodles.

You could slice the casserole into smaller servings and just eat 1 small slice (if you can resist) or use ricotta cheese instead of cream cheese in the Cheesy Filling. Last but not least, you could always have a light lunch before your fatty, delicious, cheesy lasagna dinner =P

Keto Friendly & Low Carb Fathead Lasagna Recipe

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Brief Summary: Make the Noodles. Make the Bolognese. Make the Cheesy Filling. Assemble Lasagna. Bake!

The Noodles

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Ingredients

• 3 oz Cream Cheese
• 1 cup Mozzarella Cheese (shredded, low moisture/part skim)
• 2 large Eggs
• 1/4 tsp Italian Seasoning
• 1 tsp Parmesan Cheese, dry grated (optional)

Directions
These directions are for assembling noodles into an 8×8 pan for a 2 noodle layer lasagna. If you’d like 3 noodle layers, try an 8×4 bread loaf pan, or double the recipe to cover a larger area.

1. Preheat oven to 375°f.

2. In a medium sized mixing bowl, slightly melt the cream cheese and mozzarella in the microwave (about 30 seconds) or in a small stovetop pot on very low heat and smoosh the two together with a spatula.

Note: If using stovetop, remove from heat before the next steps so the eggs don’t cook.

3. Add the 2 eggs, Italian seasoning, combine well then sprinkle in the optional parmesan and continue to gently mix everything together – this requires lots of folding and smooshing. Silicone spatula helped a lot here considering how sticky fathead doughs tend to be. Be patient – it won’t fully combine and that’s ok. See pictures above for reference.

Tip: We recommend using parchment paper here because the thinner batters tend to stick to our silicone mats too much at higher temps. If you’d rather use a mat, try baking at a lower heat for longer and/or lightly grease the mat beforehand.

4. Pour the cheesy batter on a lined 9×13 (or larger) pan and spread it out evenly with the back of a spoon. We usually spread it out to an 8x12ish rectangle. You may need to adjust your size if you use a different pan size.

5. Bake at 375°f for about 15 minutes but we recommend checking on it at 12 minutes if your oven runs hot. The cheese should just start to bubble and turn a light golden brown.

6. Cut the noodles into 6 even pieces (each should be about 8 x 2 inches for an 8×8 pan, don’t worry if it’s uneven – it will be tasty). Set aside until you’re ready to assemble your lasagna. These will keep in the fridge for 1-2 days.

The Bolognese (Meat Sauce)

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Ingredients

• 1 lb Ground Beef
  We used 90% Lean and usually have ours precooked from leftovers.
• Salt and Pepper, to taste
• 1/4 tsp Italian Seasoning (optional)
• 1 cup Baby Spinach (optional)
• 3/4 cup Marinara, no sugar added
  We used Lucini No Sugar Added marinara here – sometimes we use Rao’s or Mezzetta or simply make our own out of crushed red tomatoes and small amounts of onion, carrots, celery and Italian Seasoning.

Directions

1. In a medium to large skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef with salt and pepper. Drain the fat.

2. Stir in the marinara and baby spinach, let simmer on low for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let cool slightly.

The Cheesy Filling

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Ingredients

• 3 oz Cream Cheese or Ricotta Cheese
• 3 tbsp Sour Cream or more Ricotta Cheese
• 1/4 tsp Italian Seasoning
• 1 cup Shredded Mozzarella

Directions

1. In a small mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, sour cream, and Italian seasoning.

2. Set aside the mozzarella cheese. You’ll use this during assembly. If you’d rather, you can combine 1/2 cup of the mozzarella with the other cheeses and set aside. I just think it’s more difficult to evenly spread the softer cheese once mozzarella is combined.

The Assembling

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Directions
We like having the noodles on the bottom to soak up all the top layer flavors but really these are just suggestions – assemble however you’d like! It holds together well no matter which order you choose.

• Start with 1 layer of noodles, 3 small sheets.
• Smooth half of the cream cheese/sour cream mixture over the noodles and sprinkle 1/4 cup of the mozzarella on top.
• Pour half of the bolognese on top and smooth corner to corner.
• Add the final 3 layers of noodles.
• Smooth the cream cheese/sour cream mixture over the noodles and sprinkle 1/4 cup of the mozzarella on top.
• Pour the remaining bolognese on top and smooth corner to corner.
• For the final layer, sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella on top.

Bake!

1. Bake the lasagna in a 400 °f oven for 15-20 minutes or until top layer of cheese starts to bubble and turn golden brown. You could also broil the top for about 1 minute to get the crispy cheesy crust.

2. Let cool for 10-15 minutes.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge. My husband actually likes it even better the 2nd day heated up in the microwave.

Makes 4 large servings | Serving: 1 piece | Net Carbs: 7.8g | Calories: 636
Disclaimer: Info provided here by entering the ingredients used into Carb Manager. These numbers can change based on the ingredients/brands/etc. you choose to use.

Lasagna Noodle Substitutions

Zucchini has been our favorite noodle substitutions for the last several years (check out our Keto Friendly Zucchini Lasagna Recipe here). Zucchini actually makes for an absolutely delicious casserole while seriously cutting back on the calories – not just the carbs. But we have to say, if you’re looking for a copycat lasagna sheet noodle – fathead noodles are definitely the way to go.

Below is an excerpt from our Easy Low Carb Substitutions post about alternatives for lasagna noodles:

Lasagna: Zucchini, Heart of Palm, Fathead Noodles

Not interested in a noodle-less lasagna? No problem, just slice zucchini length-wise and thinly and voila! Lasagna noodles. Certain brands of heart of palm offer pre-sliced noodles in a variety of shapes including lasagna sheets. Our recent favorite is creating a very thin sheet of fathead (with an extra egg) then slicing it into noodle sheets and it honestly tastes very close to the real thing.

Brands to look for:
Palmini
Natural Heaven
Thin Slim Impastable