Easy One Pot Lasagna Soup

All the flavors and comforts of the traditional lasagna dish, only lightened up and healthier, as well as made easier. No layering needed! Simply dump it into the pot and allow the pot to simmer, doing all the work for you!

Course Main Dish

Cuisine Italian

Keyword Easy and Quick Meals, Lasagna, Lasagna Soup, One Pot, Soup

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 20

Total Time 35

Servings servings, 1-cup servings

Calories 225kcal

Author Samantha Buckner

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped fine
1 tbsp minced garlic, approximately 3-4 cloves
1 lb lean ground beef
4 cups low-sodium beef broth, 1 (32 oz) carton, *see notes below
2 (15 ounce) cans tomato sauce
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, with juice
1.5 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt, more or less, to taste
1/4 tsp black pepper
1.5 tsp dried basil
4 cups Gigli pasta, or sub 8 lasagna sheets, broken into bite-size pieces
2 cups water, more or less, as needed
2 cups baby spinach, chopped

Instructions

Place a large soup pot with olive oil over medium-high heat. Once the olive oil is heated, add the chopped onion and sauté for 3-4 minutes. Or until translucent.
Add the minced garlic and cook for one minute. Add the ground beef, breaking it apart with a wooden spoon as it begins to brown. Once the beef has browned, drain off any excess fat (if desired or using regular ground beef rather than lean).
Add the beef broth, tomato sauce, tomato paste, diced tomatoes, water*(see notes below), and remaining seasonings. Stir to combine and bring to a boil.
Add the pasta and cook it according to the packages instructions for 'al dente'. Approximately 7-10 minutes. Taste test for doneness at 7-8 minutes. Add the chopped spinach the last few minutes the pasta is cooking and allow it to cook until wilted.
Garnish each bowl of soup with shredded mozzarella cheese, a scoop of ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, and freshly chopped parsley.

Notes

LIQUID: Add any additional water (or broth), as needed, throughout the cooking process. The pasta will absorb a lot of the liquid as it is cooking and will continue to absorb water as it sits.
REHEATING: If reheating leftovers, place your soup pot or a large enough pot over medium heat. Add the leftover lasagna soup to the pot and add 1 cup of broth at a time until it reaches a "soupy" consistency again. At this point, the flavors will start to become diluted from adding more and more liquid (due to the pasta absorbing so much liquid while it cooks, sits, and cooks again). I recommend "fluffing" the soup back up with additional ingredients from the recipe such as: tomato sauce or diced tomatoes, salt, and seasonings - to taste. When I reheated this, I added what I had on hand - beef broth, diced tomatoes, chopped spinach, a few dashes of salt, and I eyeballed adding more herbs. It's important to taste test and keep the main ingredients present to keep the flavor of the initial soup.
SALT: If using low-sodium beef broth, low-sodium tomato sauce, or anything low-sodium in this recipe, you may want to add salt, to taste, throughout the cooking process. If you don't use low-sodium products in this recipe, then you may want to omit adding any additional salt.
BROTH: Being that I chose to use ground beef for this recipe, I also used beef broth. You can use beef broth for either ground beef or ground turkey, but I would recommend using chicken broth if using ground chicken.
PASTA: This recipe calls for ‘Gigli’ noodles. I found mine at Trader Joes, but you can also find them online: Organic Italian Gigli Flowers (pasta). Or you can swap with 8-10 sheets of lasagna noodles, broken into bite-size pieces.
MEAT: I chose to use lean-ground beef in this recipe, but you are more than welcome to make it even leaner by using ground turkey or ground chicken. Or you can swap all and add ground Italian sausage for a bunch of flavor.

Nutrition