Lasagna Soup

The other morning, I got some hamburger out of the freezer to thaw for dinner and then realized I had no idea what to make! What a conundrum. I didn't want to try anything I hadn't tried before; I didn't feel like my tummy could take that. So, I went to my "Tried & True - FOOD" board on Pinterest. And, lo & behold, there was a recipe on there that I haven't made in quite a while: lasagna soup!

Photo from Pinterest

Obviously, since it was on my Tried & True board, I have made it before, but I've never blogged about it and here we are! What a great opportunity to make something that I enjoyed and continue to attempt to reach my blogging goal at the same time!

If you are a fan of lasagna but not a fan of the amount of time it takes to make, this recipe is superb! It's easy, quick (well...quicker than making real lasagna), tastes delicious and the leftovers are also wonderful!

I altered the recipe ever-so slightly to accommodate what I already had in my cupboard (i.e., I did not use the noodles afarmgirldabbles recommended, but rather used an assortment of what I had on hand). I also changed the recipe when it came to the ricotta cheese. I was not confident about using ricotta cheese as I've always made my lasagna with cottage cheese - so that's what I did instead - I altered the recipe and in place of the ricotta cheese, I used cottage cheese. Most people may favor the ricotta cheese, as that seems to be something more common in lasagna, but I've never been a huge fan, so my cheese choice pleased me. :)

 It all came together rather quickly, and while the soup part of the meal was simmering, I made the pasta and prepared the cheese combos. In afarmgirldabbles' blog, she offers the options of making the pasta separate (especially if you aren't going to be eating it all in my setting) or cooking it in the soup. As you may remember from a previous post, back when I had my homemade Olive Garden dinner night and made Pasta e Fagioli, I had not cooked my noodles separately and it didn't turn out quite as nicely as I would've liked. I didn't make the same mistake this time! The noodles were perfect after being prepared and then sitting for a minute or two without water and then being put into the soup. The consistency of the noodles never did change once they were combined! I'd call that a success!

After everything was put together, we had a wonderful dinner. I put the cheese combination in the bottom of my bowl and the soup/pasta combo on top and then mixed it all up. It was delicious! *Also, it can be quite spicy if you use the fire-roasted diced tomatoes as she recommends. That, combined with the red pepper flakes and it can be a bit hot. I just used normal diced tomatoes to keep it a little more tame. It worked wonderfully.

I'm obviously not as skilled at picture-taking as the blogger with the Pinterest photo, but the food was still so very tasty!

This is a dish I would highly recommend, especially if you enjoy lasagna - it really is quite similar in taste. At least mine seems to be. I'm not normally a soup eater, but this is hearty enough, it doesn't seem real soup-y. So, whether you are a soup-eater or not, hopefully you'll be able to enjoy this dish as much as my family and I have.