Slow Cooker Lasagna Soup (Ground Beef)

Ricotta and basil leaves on top of slow cooker lasagna soup in a slow cooker.

Slow Cooker Lasagna Soup (Ground Beef)

Easy slow cooker lasagna soup with ground beef, jarred marinara, ricotta, and parmesan. Cozy, cheesy comfort food for an easy weeknight dinner.

Course dinner, Soup

Cuisine Italian

Keyword cheesy, comfort food, easy, ground beef, hearty, Slow Cooker, slow cooker lasagna soup, soup

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 3 30

Total Time 3 40

Servings servings

Calories 437

Author Robyn Conley Downs

Equipment

Slow Cooker

Ingredients

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 pound lean ground beef
1 ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon granulated garlic powder
1 teaspoon no-salt added Italian seasoning
1 quart low sodium beef broth
24-oz good quality marinara sauce (about 3 cups)
1 tablespoon tomato paste

To Add at the End

8-oz dry lasagna noodles (about 9) see notes
16-oz reduced fat ricotta cheese (about 2 cups)
½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 cups baby spinach

Instructions

Make the Soup

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the olive oil and beef, breaking the meat apart into small pieces. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. Cook until the meat is browned and cooked through, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain any excess grease, if desired.
Carefully transfer the cooked meat to a 6-quart slow cooker. Add the 1 teaspoon salt, beef broth, marinara, and tomato paste, stirring to combine.
Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours, or low for 4-5 hours, or until the soup reaches a strong simmer.

The soup may be cooked for longer if you like, but at minimum it needs to be simmering strongly (lots of bubbles around the edges) or else the noodles won’t cook properly.

While the soup is cooking, mix together the ricotta and parmesan cheese. Cover and refrigerate if not using immediately.

To Add at the End

Once the soup reaches a strong simmer, turn to high (if it’s not already), break the lasagna noodles into 4-5 pieces each, and add to the slow cooker, stirring to combine.
Cover and cook on high for an additional 15-30 minutes.

All slow cookers are different, but mine cooked in about 20 minutes. I recommend checking at the 15 minute mark, and adding time in 5-minute increments until the noodles are cooked to your liking.

Once the pasta is cooked, add half the ricotta mixture along with the spinach, stirring to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings if desired.
Ladle the soup into bowls and dollop each with the remaining ricotta mixture.

Notes

Since there are so few ingredients in this soup, I recommend using good quality parmesan cheese and good quality homemade or jarred marinara sauce. If you don’t like the taste of the marinara sauce off a spoon, you probably won’t like the taste of this soup.
I use lean ground beef, but you can use a different type and just drain off the grease.
I like mixing half the ricotta into the soup for richness, then dolloping the other half on top, but you can also save it all for dolloping on top.
Lasagna noodles usually come in a one pound box here in the U.S. so you'll use about half a box, or 9 to 10 noodles. I broke my noodles into 4 to 5 pieces which were the perfect size, but you can break them into even smaller pieces.

Nutrition