Recipe This | Slow Cooker Lasagne (2024)

How to cook the most delicious slow cooker lasagne. This slow cooker minced beef bolognese lasagne recipe is easy to prep, tastes amazing, is topped with the best ever cheese sauce and loaded with great lasagne flavours.

What makes this the best slow cooker lasagne is that it’s a healthy lasagne with a flourless cheese sauce and hidden veggies. And your kids will never know the difference!

Updated after originally sharing with you how to make a healthy lasagne in the slow cooker back in 2017. New photos and even better recipe ideas included in this updated version.

Slow Cooked Lasagne

If you are anything like me, then you will remember watching lasagne being made and all the washing up and effort that went into lasagne. You cooked the onions, you made the Bolognese sauce, you made the cheese sauce, and then you placed it in an oven dish and waited an eternity for it to be cooked.

That was back then, and now we have these amazing gadgets that can make slow cooked lasagne a much easier recipe.

Not necessarily for cook time as its slow cooked lasagne, but for the prep and for the washing up.

Whilst that was my memory of cooking lasagne for Dominic in 2000 now when I make lasagne I:

Make a delicious cheese sauce using either the Thermomix or the Soup Maker. It makes a fantastic batch and leftovers can then be used for some mac and cheese or for a veggie bake.

Cook the Bolognese sauce in the slow cooker, take half out, add lasagne sheets, then after adding the rest of the Bolognese sauce I can add lasagne sheets and cheese sauce.

As the kitchen gadgets do the hard work so we don’t have to, you don’t have much kitchen time and the washing up is just the two gadgets.

Plus, you can use your slow cooker to warm up leftover lasagne.

If you have not yet tried slow cooker lasagne then you are in for a real treat.

Are You New To The Slow Cooker?

This is perfect for you if you want to get more recipes for your slow cooker. Loaded with a lot of British classics and something for everyone.

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Slow Cooker Mince Recipes

Over the next few days on Recipe This I am celebrating one of my favourite ingredients in the slow cooker and that is mince aka ground meat. I love how you can grab a cheap pack of it from the supermarket and use it to make your favourite comfort food and also have great variety too.

You can follow our slow cooker mince series below:

• Slow Cooker Cottage Pie
• Slow Cooker Shepherds Pie
• Slow Cooker Spaghetti Bolognese
• Slow Cooker Quorn Bolognese
• Slow Cooker Lasagne (todays recipe)
• Slow Cooker Cumberland Pie
• Slow Cooker Mince Cobbler

You can also get all our slow cooker mince recipes here.

Lasagna or Lasagne

You will notice that there are many recipes that call it lasagna and several others that call it lasagne.

In my spell check right now, I am being told off for mentioning “lasagna” like I have spelt it wrong.

The truth is both lasagna and lasagne are used, but it depends where you live to what you call it.

As this is a lasagne recipe UK we are using lasagne not lasagna. But if you call it slow cooker lasagna then that is fine too.

Do You Have To Cook Meat Before Making Lasagne?

No, you don’t have to cook meat before cooking lasagne, but you do need to brown the meat first so that it’s cooked on the outside and easy to add sauce to before lasagne sheets are added.

Otherwise the texture is all wrong and the lasagne wont be ready and come together properly on time.

Do You Put Dry Sheets In A Lasagne?

Yes, most lasagne recipes need dry lasagne sheets to be added. But by doing this it can take 45 minutes to cook in the oven, so in some countries they partly cook the lasagne sheets first.

Because a lasagne is rather flimsy to put together in a slow cooker, its recommended that for a slow cooker lasagne recipe that you use dry sheets only.

What Order Does Lasagne Go In?

The order of lasagne layers needs to be mince, then lasagne sheets, then mince, then lasagne sheets and then cheese sauce.

It’s important that you don’t add a layer of the lasagne sheets first, as it will stick to the bottom of your slow cooker and will be a nightmare trying to scrub the lasagne from the bottom.

What Herbs Go In Lasagne?

The dried herbs for lasagne I am sure are herbs that you already have in your kitchen cupboard.

Salt, pepper, oregano, and basil and of course garlic is what we suggest for making a typical lasagne in the slow cooker.

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Lasagne Slow Cooker Ingredients

Mince – The most important ingredient is the minced beef, or ground beef as you may call it in the US. We used lean beef mince which is best for the slow cooker because there is a lot less fat and then it won’t make your lasagne taste greasy.

Pasta – We used dried lasagne sheets and then broke them up to fit the shape of our slow cooker. You can use any type.

Sauce – Then for the cheese sauce I recommend you try our soup maker cheese sauce. Its amazing and a quick way to do a cheese sauce the day before and then use some of it in the lasagne. In this cheese sauce we cooked butternut squash first in the slow cooker and loaded it into the soup maker to blend. It then created a delicious cheese sauce.

Onion – I recommend starting with sauteing an onion with some extra virgin olive oil. It adds amazing flavour to the slow cooker.

Garlic. Frozen garlic is a genius. I buy chopped garlic from the supermarket (usually Tesco or Iceland) and you can just add a little to a recipe without needing to peel and slice garlic.

Tomatoes – I also use both tinned tomatoes and tomato puree or as you might call it tomato paste. The tomato combo adds a delicious flavour to your Bolognese.

Seasoning – Then for seasoning we used salt, pepper, basil, and oregano.

Then for the kitchen gadgets that we have used in this slow cooked lasagne recipe it has just been our Ninja Foodi. We have this one and its wonderful for many types of slow cooker recipes and also great for easy Sunday lunches.

Plus, we recommend you head over to our slow cooker recipes category as we have more than 100 tried and tested slow cooker recipes and have been using slow cookers for 18 years.

Ninja Foodi Lasagne

You will notice that for our slow cooker we have used the Ninja Foodi. Lasagne in the Ninja Foodi using the slow cooker function is just as good as using a Crockpot or another slow cooker brand.

Plus, you can slow cook lasagne and sauté it meaning that you don’t need to move your slow cooker to the hob.

Healthy Slow Cooker Lasagne

What??? A lasagne that is healthy.

Yes, the cheese sauce is made without flour and with loads of butternut squash and tastes amazing.

Then the mince just has a small quantity of extra virgin olive oil and uses 5% lean minced beef.

Then the Bolognese sauce is free of jarred sauce.

If you are looking for a healthy slow cooker lasagne that would even be low points on WW or low Syn on SW then this is it.

How To Slow Cook Lasagne?

• Sauce. Load the sauce ingredients into the slow cooker and cook on high for 2 hours. Remove from the slow cooker and move to the blender and add cheese and blast with the blender. Put to one side for later.
• Onion. Next peel and dice your onion and sauté in the slow cooker with some extra virgin olive oil.
• Brown. Then load up the slow cooker with the mince and give it a good browning. Next dump in the rest of your Bolognese ingredients and give it a good stir.
• Stir. Remove half the meat into a spare bowl. Press down the Bolognese still in the slow cooker.
• Layer. Then add a layer of lasagne sheets over the Bolognese, overlapping to make sure there are no gaps and breaking up the lasagne sheets if you need to. Then add the rest of the Bolognese, another layer of lasagne sheets and the cheese sauce.
• Slow. Now slow cook for 3 more hours before serving.

And I am sure you can see why this recipe for lasagne in slow cooker is a true favourite of mine.

How Long Does Lasagne Take To Cook?

Our lasagne slow cooker recipe takes JUST 5 hours on high or 8 hours if using the low setting.

Though of course, this includes using the slow cooker to make a cheese sauce first, so if you are not doing this, then it cuts down the cook time.

Also, this 5 hour cook time doesn’t take into account the time taken to brown the meat and to sauté the onion.

More Slow Cooker Dinners

• Slow Cooker Corned Beef Hash
• Slow Cooker Pork Leg Joint
• Slow Cooker Vegetable Stew
• Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon
• Slow Cooker Bacon Chops
• Slow Cooker Stovies

Your slow cooker lasagne recipe is below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.

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