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This EASY Slow Cooker Beef Lasagna is the ultimate comfort food dinner the whole family will love!
Our crock pot lasagna recipe is great for those busy nights, and tastes like you spent all day making traditional lasagna! Serve this delicious lasagna with some garlic bread and a side salad and you’ve got the perfect easy meal!
Ingredients needed to make Slow Cooker Beef Lasagna:
- Ground beef (or Italian sausage)
- Spaghetti sauce
- Water
- Ricotta cheese
- Shredded Italian Cheese
- Grated Parmesan cheese
- Egg
- Fresh parsley
- Regular Lasagna noodles
Equipment Needed
For this recipe, you only need a few simple kitchen tools. We recommend using the following equipment:
How to make Slow Cooker Beef Lasagna:
- Brown lean ground beef in a large skillet with wooden spoon; drain grease and rinse well.
- Stir in spaghetti pasta sauce and 1 cup water.
- In a medium bowl mix ricotta, 1 ½ cups Italian cheese, 2 Tablespoons Parmesan, egg and parsley.
- Spoon one layer of meat sauce (1 cup) into bottom of the slow cooker; top with 3 lasagna uncooked noodles, broken to fit; and half of cheese mixture.
- Cover with 2 cups meat sauce. Top with remaining uncooked noodles, broken to fit; cheese layer mixture and meat sauce. Cover with lid.
- Cook on low temperature 4-6 hours or until liquid is absorbed.
- Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
- Let stand, covered for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Change up this Easy Crockpot Lasagna Recipe:
- A great substitute for ricotta cheese is cottage cheese.
- Most spaghetti sauces are lacking on flavor and taste more like tomato sauce, so this is what I add to my spaghetti sauce:
- 2 Tablespoons Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon fennel
- 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ cup diced onion
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- You can also add diced zucchini, sliced mushrooms, and diced green peppers to add extra vegetables and flavor to your spaghetti sauce.
- I have not tried cooking it on high for a shorter amount of time in the slow cooker (I am afraid it might not be adequate time for the noodles to cook). If you try it, leave us a comment below and let us know!
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge.
Enjoy More Delicious Pasta Recipes
We’ve rounded up some of our best pasta recipes, including creamy tomato rigatoni, puttanesca, macaroni and cheese, and more. Check out our comprehensive collection of pasta recipes here.
- Baked Spaghetti Casserole
- Beef and Noodle Casserole
- Cheesy Pizza Pasta Casserole
- Chicken Cordon Bleu Lasagna
- Chicken Pasta Casserole
- Creamy Chicken Lasagna
- Homemade Lasagna
- Instant Pot Creamy Macaroni and Cheese
- Instant Pot Loaded Mac and Cheese
- Skillet Lasagna
Slow Cooker Beef Lasagna Recipe
Our Slow Cooker Lasagna can be put together in less than 20 minutes! Layer ingredients in the crockpot and let it slowly cook all day.
Serving Servings
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef, (or Italian sausage)
- 1 jar spaghetti sauce, (24 ounces)
- 1 cup water
- 1 container ricotta cheese, (15 ounces)
- 2 cups shredded Italian Cheese, (divided)
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese, (divided)
- 1 egg
- 2 Tablespoon fresh parsley, (chopped)
- 6 lasagna noodles, (uncooked)
Instructions
- Brown ground beef in a large skillet; drain grease and rinse well.
- Stir in spaghetti sauce and water.
- In another bowl mix ricotta, 1 ½ cups Italian cheese, 2 Tablespoons Parmesan, egg and parsley.
- Spoon 1 cup meat sauce into slow cooker; top with 3 lasagna noodles, broken to fit; and half of cheese mixture.
- Cover with 2 cups meat sauce. Top with remaining noodles, broken to fit; cheese mixture and meat sauce. Cover with lid.
- Cook on low 4-6 hours or until liquid is absorbed.
- Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
- Let stand, covered for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Notes
A great substitute for ricotta cheese is cottage cheese.
Nutrition
Calories: 440 kcal · Carbohydrates: 23 g · Protein: 28 g · Fat: 26 g · Saturated Fat: 13 g · Cholesterol: 113 mg · Sodium: 762 mg · Potassium: 571 mg · Fiber: 2 g · Sugar: 5 g · Vitamin A: 935 IU · Vitamin C: 7 mg · Calcium: 316 mg · Iron: 3 mg
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
I use cottage cheese and puree it in my food processor. You don’t notice the difference! Saves money and calories.=) bellesbazaar-heather.blogspot.com
Did you use the ready-to-bake lasagna noodles or regular lasagna noodles? This sounds soo good!
@Penny,
I just used regular lasagna noodles!
Thanks for letting me know. I am so anxious to make this! Love your site!
How big of a jar of spagehtti sauce? Also the recipe doesn’t mention mozz cheese but it is in the instructions. Not a fan of ricotta so may sub mozz for all of it.
@SouthMplsMommy,
I used a 24 oz. jar of spaghetti sauce. The mozzarella mentioned in the instructions is the package of the Kraft Italian cheese, so I’m sure it would be okay. I’ve also heard of people substituting ricotta for cottage cheese.
Would this work without eggs? We have an egg allergy in our house. Or what could you do to substitute?
@Kristy,
I have never tried it without eggs, but you could just substitute it with any egg substitute you usually use and it should work. I’m sorry I’m not more help!
I’m in the process of making this and in my excitement I completely forgot the water – I added it at the end around the edge and tried to let it seep to the bottom. What are the chances this will work? Please help 🙂
Sorry it took so long to get back to you! I hope it turned out okay!
so you place uncooked lasagna noodles in the crock-pot, am i reading this right? a little unsure about that part. sounds yummy though. Just wanted to comment real quick on the ricotta vs cottage cheese my mom has been using cottage cheese for over 40 yrs in her lasagna recipe, you cant tell a difference, i honestly like the cottage cheese, less calories and makes it more moist. 🙂
Do your lasgna noodles come out with the proper texture? When i have cooked spaghetti in my crockpot, the noodles expand properly and taste gummy.
Hi,
The lasagna noodles come out the same texture they would in a regular lasagna. Hope you like it!
Hi Ashley!
Yes, you put uncooked lasagna noodles in. Because of the additional water you add to the sauce it cooks them perfectly! Our mom always used cottage cheese in her lasagna, too! 🙂
Just made this and I can’t wait to try it. I love your site and I thank you for all your suggestions.
http://morselcombat.blogspot.ca
I don’t see what you do with the water in the directions. Do you mix it with the sauce?? I wanted to try this tomorrow.
Hi!
Yes, mix the water in with the sauce. Hope you like it!
What size crock pot is this recipe best suited for?
I made this today and we find it to be too blah plain tasting, but it was my first time to try a crock pot lasagna recipe so now I think I could probably use my regular super yummy recipe and make it a crock pot recipe.
Hi!
I use a 6 quart crock pot, but it would work in almost any size!
I have made this the past two Sunday’s for dinner. It was a hit with my hubby and for with my church members. They are now asking for the recipes! Thanks for sharing.
If you substitute ricotta for cottage cheese, you are using ricotta as a substitute for (instead of) cottage cheese. This recipe calls for ricotta, so people are substituting cottage cheese for the ricotta, rather than the other way around.(Picky distinction, I realize, but it would help to create less confusion.)
I skipped the egg and added a little milk to the mixture and it tasted great. Thank you so much for this recipe and for all of them really. We maintain you guys saved us from eating cereal for dinner while I was pregnant 🙂 Thank you again!
i think its wrong for u to criticize the taste of this recipe being that its a “generic” recipe. it doesn’t specify a particular brand of spaghetti sauce, so of course if u chose a bland spaghetti sauce, this lasagna would turn out bland. so u should blame the sauce, not this recipe.
OH MY GOODNESS!!! This is an awesome recipe that was easy to put together and super delicious!!!! I love using my crock pot, coming home after a long day at work to having dinner ready is the best part of my day, and six sisters is my absolute new favourite website!!!
Would you say this serves 4-6 people? Thank you so much.
Hi Tiffany!
I think it would definitely make enough to serve 4-6. Hope you like it!
Made this tonight- minus the egg and with cottage cheese instead of ricotta and it was great. The kids loved it, including my 3 and 4 yr. old. Thanks so much for sharing.
It says cook 4-6 hours…i am gone for 8 hours. What should i do? I dont have a timed crockpot..
Am making this recipe today and blogging about it. May I please include your blog address in my blog for where I got the recipe from ?
Yes, that would be perfect. That is what we always do if we try a recipe from another blog. Great blogging etiquette! Thanks! -The Six Sisters
This was OK, but my regular lasagna is much much better. It isn’t really more work to put it in a lasagna pan than the crockpot if you use the no-cook pasta. I’ll stick with the regular stuff.
Can you use no-boil lasagna noodles, anybody know? Or just regular?
We just used the regular lasagna noodles that come in a box.
Is this prone to burning if left in the slow cooker too long? I like to use the slow cooker so that dinner is ready when I get home from work in the evening, so I’m definitely out of the house longer than 6 hours and my crock doesn’t have a timer.
Should be fine to cook on low 4 to 6 hours. Maybe try adding an extra 1/4 cup of water to be safe.
I made this for the first time and would definitely make it again! However, I threw in zucchini, tomatoes, mushrooms and bell peppers into the meat sauce and added spinach to the cheese mixture – the veggies added a lot of moisture as it cooked, and it turned out very watery. Next time I would only include half the water if adding vegetables. But it still tasted great and made enough to get two meals out of it for our family of five.
I made this for my girlfriend and she loved it! Thanks for the page. =)
I made this last night and it was DELICIOUS! Everyone loved it and it was very easy 🙂 Thanks for the recipe!
We made this last night and were very disappointed. We followed the recipe exactly and it was really dry. Usually dishes like this are better the next day, not this one. We added a bit more spaghetti sauce and that didn’t help at all. We ended up tossing the rest and going out for dinner.
I have to say… I have personally made and recommended MANY of the Six Sisters recipes and i think this is the first one that we were disappointed in. As a general rule, their recipes are spot on!!!
I made this a few weeks ago and am making it again tonight. I added onion to the hamburger meat and a little seasoning to the sauce (the sauce i bought was a little bland). I also left out the water because I put it in the oven rather than the crockpot… but it was delicious! My husband loved it and it was so yummy the next day =) thanks!
Do you think frozen spinach (thawed and drained) and canned mushrooms(drained) could be added to this? I was thinking of adding the spinach to the cheese mixture and the mushrooms to the meat mixture but I don’t want it to end up too watery. Maybe add less water to the sauce or cook for more time? Thoughts? Thanks!! I’m thinking of cooking this for Christmas Eve dinner since I will be using my kitchen to cook and prep everything else for Christmas Day dinner.
I made this yesterday and we loved it. We used Barilla mushroom sauce and small curd cottage cheese. I did add plenty of the usual spices to the sauce! I think adding mushrooms would be great but it was truly simple to make and very tasty. Thanks ladies, this one will be in my regular rotation. The only challenge for me is that it is 4-6 hours in the slow cooker so I can’t make it on a work day. But hey, weekends are great for crocks too!
Spinach and mushrooms would be so delicious in this slow cooker lasagna!
Could this recipe be cooked on high for half the time or will it not turn out?
Could you please update your instructions.
Brown meat in large skillet; drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce and water
To me that sounds like you add the other ingredients to the meat. So thats what did so fingers crossed to still comes out….
Hi…going to double this recipe and wondering about the cooking time? Do you think 5-7 hours on low? Any advise would be helpful 🙂
Hi! I’m wondering if I could just put the burger in the pot raw with all veggies etc on top? Does the burger need to be cooked first??
You need to cook the hamburger first. Don’t put it in raw.
How would this recipe be to bake instead of in crockpot? Since, I will be freezing it for later.
Can you assemble night before and refrigerate until ready to cook next day?
Hi Jennifer, we have always made it that morning and started our slow cooker. But it should be fine to make ahead. Just put the crock pot in the fridge until morning. The lasagna noodles could soften a little over night, so watch it carefully. May not take quite as long to cook. Let us know how it all turns out! Have a great weekend!
Cyd (mom of the Six Sisters)
I didn’t realize that in step 1, we were actually to create two different sauces…a meat sauce and secondly, a cheese sauce. I combined them all in one pot. 🙁
Fingers crossed it turns out okay and I didn’t just ruin dinner.
I did this as well. They did not update their instructions. Did it turn out?
Hi, I was wondering, can this recipes be doubled for a bigger slow cooker? I have a rectangular slow cooker the measures 9X13.
You should be fine if it’s about double the size of most slow cookers. We made this in a 5 to 6 quart slow cooker.
Can you do this in the oven as well?
For those looking for more flavor, I use sausage instead of hamburger in my sauce. Got that tip from some Italian neighbors.
This recipe is one of my family’s favorites!
I made this but added my seasonings & onion & bell pepper to my meat while browning! So delicious. I also used the skinny lasagna noodles, called Mafaldine, but layered them like regular lasagna noodles. I also used cottage cheese not ricotta as the store was out. I will make it this way again. Mine took 2 1/2 hrs on low. Served with salad & rolls.
I love this recipe! This is one of my favorite recipes to cook when company comes over. I get so many compliments! I use jar sauce and you would never know!
I’ve tried making this on high and the noodles were rubbery. I always cook on low for 4 hours and it is perfect!
This was excellent! I made it just like recipe but used cottage cheese, omitted the sausage and I added some small bell peppers that I needed to use up. It’s been too hot to use the oven and I wanted to try out my new 2.5 quart casserole Crockpot. Thank you!!
How do we make it a freezer meal?