This Whipped Cottage Cheese Taco Lasagna couldn’t be any easier. It’s got all the Mexican-inspired flavors you love: spicy ground beef, fresh veggies, and lots of cheese, all layered in perfectly al dente lasagna noodles.
What makes this recipe extra special is the addition of blended cottage cheese. It makes the cheese mixture extra creamy and adds a major protein boost! You’ll find 27g of protein per serving in this delicious recipe 👏.
Here at Fit Foodie Finds, we like to keep our lasagna exciting. From our Vegetarian Sweet Potato Lasagna to our Quinoa Lasagna Casserole, we’ve got a little bit of everything. But our current favorite? This taco lasagna, hands down. It’s an Italian-Mexican fusion, and packs a sneaky amount of protein thanks to our good friend COTTAGE CHEESE 😃
Cook your pasta, beef, and veggies. Toss with in our homemade taco seasoning. Then mix and blend your cheese, assemble, and bake. It’s a simple, straightforward recipe that takes very few brain cells… which I very much appreciate when busy weeknights are the norm.
Great for meal prep: this taco lasagna can be prepped ahead of time and either stored in the fridge or the freezer before baking.
Protein-rich: thanks to the protein powerhouses of ground beef and whipped cottage cheese, this lasagna packs 27g of protein per serving.
Easily customizable: pretty much any taco fixins’ would taste delish in this lasagna, making this lasagna easy to mix and match based on what you have on hand.
How to Whip Cottage Cheese for Taco Lasagna
To blend the cottage cheese, simply add it to a blender or food processor and pulse until smooth. You can also use an immersion blender directly in the container of cottage cheese. Either way, you’re looking for a creamy, smooth texture that you’ll spread onto the lasagna noodles 😊.
Our Favorite
Beast Blender
The Beast Blender is our go-to blender for smoothies, dips, soups, and everything in between. It’s the perfect size and moderately priced. Oh, and oh-so powerful!
I know cottage cheese isn’t everyone’s favorite, but it actually tastes SO different when blended with other ingredients. If you’re still not convinced, you can substitute it for ricotta cheese instead.
Absolutely! You can omit the ground beef and add extra beans or use a plant-based ground.
We used 12 lasagna noodles for this recipe, which is a little more than half a box. However, it is always a good idea to have extra noodles on hand just in case some break or tear during the assembly process.
This tex-mex lasagna is super adaptable, so no worries if you’d rather use what you’ve already got at home. For instance, if you’d rather not use ground beef for the protein, you could also use ground chicken or turkey instead.
You can also add some extra veggies to the filling, like zucchini, mushrooms, or even spinach. Want some extra heat? Add in some jalapeños or top it with your favorite hot sauce before baking.
Serving Suggestions
We like to serve this lasagna with all our favorite taco fixins’, like:
- Salsa
- Sliced avocado
- Cilantro
- Greek yogurt or more blended cottage cheese
- Hot sauce
- Sliced jalapeños
here’s a tip!
To make ahead, assemble the lasagna and cover it with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for up to 24 hours, then bake as directed. If assembling from cold, you may need to add an extra 10-15 minutes of baking time.
If you have any leftovers, store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. You can also freeze the lasagna for up to 3 months.
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Preheat the oven to 350ºF and bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the lasagna noodles to the water and cook the noodles until al dente, about 7 minutes.
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Strain the noodles and lay them out flat until ready to assemble.
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Heat a large skillet over medium/high heat. Add the beef to the skillet and season with salt. Break up the beef and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the onion, peppers, garlic, taco seasoning, and ½ cup of salsa to the skillet and mix. Cook for an additional 3-4 minutes or until the veggies start to soften. Remove the skillet from the heat.
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Blend the cottage cheese in a high-speed blender. Blend until smooth.
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Add the blended cottage cheese and Mexican-style cheese to a bowl and mix to combine.
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Assemble the lasagna. Add about ⅓ cup of the salsa to the bottom of the 9×13-inch pan. Top with 4 lasagna noodles, overlapping just slightly. Next, add ⅓ cup of the cottage cheese mixture to the top of the noodles and gently spread the mixture with a spatula. Spread ½ cup of the meat mixture over the top of the cottage cheese sauce. Repeat this process until the cottage cheese sauce and meat mixture have been used.
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Top the last layer of noodles with the remaining ½ cup of salsa and top with any remaining cheese.
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Bake the lasagna for 20 minutes at 350ºF, uncover, and bake for an additional 20-30 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown.
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Remove from the oven and let the lasagna rest for 15 minutes before serving. Top with fresh cilantro and enjoy.
- Option to replace the blended cottage cheese with ricotta cheese.
- We used ground beef, but any ground meat can be used.
- We used 12 lasagna noodles for this recipe, which is a little more than half a box.
Calories: 406 kcal, Carbohydrates: 39 g, Protein: 27 g, Fat: 16 g, Fiber: 5 g, Sugar: 5 g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Photography: photos taken in this post are by Erin from The Wooden Skillet.
