High-Protein Beef Lasagna
A proper beef lasagna rebuilt to land big protein — about 54 grams of protein and 690 honest calories a slice. The comfort-food classic, layered with a rich meat sauce and a protein-packed cheese layer. Sunday dinner that actually feeds the work you put in.
Plate 01 / Finished
Lasagna was always the dinner I made when people came over — big, generous, the kind of thing you carry to the table whole and let everyone fall on. The trouble was, the classic version is heavy on pasta and béchamel and light on protein, and once I was training seriously it didn’t fit. So I spent a good few rainy Sundays rebuilding it: more meat in the sauce, a lighter cottage-cheese-and-ricotta layer doing the job of the béchamel, and the protein lifted from “a bit” to a serious 54 grams a slice. It still feeds a table, and now it feeds the work too.
This is comfort food in the truest sense — slow to build, worth every minute, and the kind of thing that makes a house smell like Sunday. The meat sauce is where the love goes: browned hard, simmered low, left to deepen. The cheese layer is creamy and rich but carries real protein instead of just fat. About 690 honest calories a slice, and it gets better every day it sits in the fridge. For a bulk, a tray of this is several meals of genuine pleasure already handled.
I won’t pretend it’s a quick midweek throw-together — it’s not, and that’s fine. Some food is meant to be made slowly on a quiet afternoon, and this is one of them. Put some music on, take your time with the sauce, and you’ll end up with a tray that feeds you for days and tastes like someone cared. Make it once and it’ll become your Sunday tradition too. I’ve got you on this one.
01Who it’s for & when to eat it
This is a hearty, high-protein bake that flexes to your goal. The meat sauce stays rich; you move the pasta layers, the cheese, and the cut of beef. Here’s how I steer it.
The default slice
Full pasta layers, a generous cheese top, and the rich meat sauce. Calorie-dense and deeply comforting — the Sunday bake that feeds the whole week’s training when you’re building.
Lighten the layers
Swap some pasta sheets for thin courgette slices, use 5% beef, and lean on cottage cheese over mozzarella. You keep the comfort and protein for far fewer calories. See the variations below.
Steady fuel
A moderate slice with plenty of salad on the side. Balanced protein, carbs and fats that keep you full and recovering without overshooting the day. A satisfying, sturdy main meal.
Timing: a hearty evening or post-training meal — protein and carbs in one comforting slice. It’s at its best as a make-ahead Sunday bake that you portion out for the days that follow.
02Ingredients
Makes 4 slices from one tray. Doubling for a bigger crowd? Use a larger dish and add 10 minutes to the bake.
Servings 4 · adjust on the live recipe card- Lean beef mince 5% fat600 g · 21 oz
- Lasagna sheets9 sheets · ~180 g
- Passata / chopped tomatoes700 g · 24.7 oz
- Cottage cheese300 g · 10.6 oz
- Ricotta150 g · 5.3 oz
- Grated mozzarella120 g · 4.2 oz
- Onion + garlic1 onion, 3 cloves
- Egg binds the cheese layer1 large
- Olive oil1 tbsp · 15 ml
- Italian herbs, salt & pepperto taste
Swaps I actually use: for a cut, replace a layer of pasta sheets with thin courgette ribbons and lean harder on the cottage cheese — drops the carbs and calories noticeably. No ricotta? Use all cottage cheese, blended smooth, for an even leaner, higher-protein layer. Turkey mince swaps straight in for beef. Make your own passata-based sauce to keep the sodium in check.
03Step by step
Sear it hard for deep flavour
Heat the oil in a large pan over high. Add the beef, press it flat, and let it brown properly before breaking it up. Real colour on the meat is where the depth of the sauce comes from — don’t rush this bit.
Magnus says: a grey, steamed mince makes a flat sauce. Get a proper sear on it first.
Onion, garlic, tomato, then simmer
Add the diced onion and soften, then the garlic for thirty seconds. Pour in the passata, season with herbs, salt and pepper, and simmer gently for 20 to 25 minutes until rich and thick. A low, slow simmer is what makes it taste like more than the sum of its parts.
Cottage cheese, ricotta, egg
In a bowl, stir the cottage cheese, ricotta, egg and a little salt and pepper together. The egg sets the layer as it bakes so it slices cleanly instead of sliding out. This is your high-protein stand-in for the heavy béchamel.
Magnus says: blend the cottage cheese smooth first if you want a silkier layer — texture’s a personal thing.
Sauce, pasta, cheese, repeat
Heat the oven to 190°C (375°F). Spread a little sauce in the dish, then layer pasta sheets, meat sauce and cheese mix, repeating until you finish with sauce on top. Don’t overfill each layer — even, thin layers cook through evenly.
Mozzarella on, into the oven
Scatter the mozzarella over the top and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the pasta is tender and the top is golden and bubbling. Cover with foil for the first 20 minutes if it’s browning too fast, then uncover to finish.
Let it settle before cutting
This is the hard part — let it rest 10 minutes out of the oven before you cut it. Slicing too soon and it slumps into a heap. A proper rest lets it set so you get clean, sturdy slices. Then portion into four and serve.
Magnus says: I know it smells incredible. Wait the ten minutes — your slices will thank you for it.
04The spec sheet
Real numbers, calculated — not guessed. The recipe makes 4 slices, around 1700g of baked lasagna total. Here’s what one slice (about 425g) and a flat 100g actually give you.
| Nutrient | Per serving | Per 100g |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 690 kcal | 162 kcal |
| Protein | 54.0 g | 12.7 g |
| Carbohydrate | 52.0 g | 12.2 g |
| — of which sugars | 10.0 g | 2.4 g |
| Fat | 26.0 g | 6.1 g |
| — of which saturates | 11.0 g | 2.6 g |
| Fibre | 5.0 g | 1.2 g |
| Sodium | ~0.8 g | ~0.19 g |
Moderate-high, carried by the beef and cheese. On a build that’s the point — a generous, comforting slice that delivers real calories without an enormous portion.
A lifter’s metric. Genuinely high for a lasagna — the lean beef and the cottage-cheese layer together turn a comfort classic into a serious protein meal.
- Vitamin B12~4.5 µg · 188% DV
- Calcium~400 mg · 31% DV
- Zinc~10 mg · 91% DV
- Iron~5 mg · 28% DV
- Selenium~35 µg · 64% DV
- Phosphorus~500 mg · 71% DV
Macros are calculated from standard food-composition data and will shift a little with your exact ingredients and brands. Micronutrient figures are estimates against general adult Daily Values. Numbers are for guidance, not medical advice — see our Nutrition Disclaimer.
05Bulk / Cut / TRT variations
One bake, three jobs. The meat sauce holds steady; you move the pasta, the cheese, and the beef. Macros below are for a full serving (one slice as built).
Build it up
Full pasta layers, a generous mozzarella top, a drizzle of olive oil over the sauce, and a slice of garlic bread on the side. Rich, calorie-dense comfort food to fuel a serious build.
The lean version
Swap a pasta layer for thin courgette ribbons, use all blended cottage cheese instead of ricotta, and cut the mozzarella top in half. Keeps the comfort and the high protein, drops the calories.
Steady & balanced
A standard slice with a big side salad dressed in olive oil and lemon. Balanced protein, carbs and good fats that keep you full and recovering without overshooting the day.
06Meal prep & storage
Lasagna might be the best meal-prep dish there is — it improves overnight and reheats like a dream. One tray on a Sunday is four genuinely good meals through the week, no extra cooking.
Portion into slices once cooled and box them up. The flavour deepens as it sits, so day two and three are arguably better than the day you baked it.
Freezes beautifully, whole or in slices. Cool fully, wrap well, and thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating. Brilliant to have a slice in reserve.
Oven at 180°C, covered, for 12–15 minutes keeps it moist and re-crisps the top. The microwave works for a single slice in a hurry — cover it and add a splash of water.
My move: bake the tray on a quiet afternoon, let it cool, then slice and box it. Four meals of proper comfort food done in one go — exactly the kind of make-ahead that makes eating for a build feel easy instead of relentless.
Want a whole week built around food like this?
Drop your email and I’ll send you my free 7-day plan — meals, macros already counted, grocery list written. No spam, no lectures.
No spam. Unsubscribe whenever. See what’s in the plan →
07Common questions
Do I need to pre-cook the lasagna sheets? +
Not if you use a generous, slightly loose sauce — the sheets cook in the moisture as it bakes, which is how most no-boil sheets are designed to work. If your sauce is very thick or you’re using traditional dry sheets, a quick par-boil or an extra splash of liquid in the layers keeps them from staying hard.
Why does cottage cheese instead of béchamel? +
Béchamel is mostly butter, flour and milk — lots of calories, very little protein. Cottage cheese (with a little ricotta and an egg to bind) gives you that same creamy layer with a big protein boost and far less fat. It’s the single change that turns a lasagna into a high-protein meal.
How do I make it lower-carb? +
Replace one or more pasta layers with thin ribbons of courgette or aubergine — salt them and pat dry first so they don’t water down the bake. You’ll drop the carbs noticeably while keeping all that comforting, layered structure. See the Cut variation above.
Can I use turkey or chicken mince? +
Absolutely. Turkey or chicken mince both work and come out leaner. Brown them well and lean a little harder on the herbs and garlic, since they bring less of their own richness than beef. The protein stays high; the fat and calories drop a touch.
Why did my lasagna fall apart when I cut it? +
It didn’t rest long enough. Straight from the oven it’s molten and won’t hold a slice. Give it a full 10 minutes to settle and the egg-set cheese layer firms up, so it cuts into clean, sturdy pieces. Patience is the only trick here.
This bake lives inside a full week of meals.
This lasagna is one dinner in my 7-day bulking plan — seven days of high-protein, calorie-dense meals with the macros counted and the grocery list written. You pick the goal; I do the maths.
See the bulking meal plan →
08Pairs well with
Magnus Olafsson
I’m Magnus — twenty years under the iron, from a cold gym in Stockholm to the classic-physique stage, and now mostly in my kitchen in a pink apron. I’ve cut for shows, bulked through winters, and I’ve been on TRT since I was thirty-five. I know what it takes to eat for the body you’re chasing, and I know it shouldn’t come with a side of shame.
Everything here is food I actually cook and macros I actually count. I don’t diagnose, I don’t promise, and I never make a number up. I just feed you well and tell you the truth.
Slim Diet Era shares recipes and general nutrition information. It is not medical or dietetic advice, and we do not provide guidance on obtaining or using any controlled substance. See our Medical Disclaimer and Nutrition Disclaimer.