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Making The Pioneer Woman’s Lasagna Dip Kinda Healthy

In one of my favorite YouTube series, chef Chris Morocco recreates popular dishes blindfolded, using all his senses except sight. In his latest challenge, he was tasked with making The Pioneer Woman’s Lasagna Dip with Pasta Chips. It’s a fun watch but before you head that direction, let’s talk about making a slightly healthy lasagna dip.

My spin on Ree Drummond’s lasagna dip beefs up the original dip with more meat, a lower fat cheese sauce, and options for higher protein pasta chips. In the end, it ends up being a higher protein, lower fat, and lower calorie dip option.

The Meat Sauce for Lasagna Dip

The original Pioneer Woman lasagna dip calls for ground beef and hot breakfast sausage. I considered using lean ground pork with Italian seasoning but found a ground Italian sausage from H-E-B that didn’t have that much fat. You could use any ground meat combo for your dip, though.

My Kinda Healthy spin also uses double the meat. Because who wants to use half a pound of ground beef or sausage?

ground beef, ground Italian sausage, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and minced garlic

Other than the meat, you’ll need a can of diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and freshly minced garlic. If you’re not using double or triple concentrated tomato paste, it’s time to upgrade! The flavor is much more intense than the plain cans of tomato paste.

Side note: For a spicy kick, you could add some Calabrian chiles like in my 30 minute turkey lasagna and garlic parmesan chicken tenders.

cooked ground beef and Italian sausage with tomato paste, diced tomatoes, and minced garlic

Be sure you give your meat sauce time to simmer with the tomatoes. You can get an idea of the thick meat sauce you’re looking for in the assembly photo below.

It’s also worth mentioning that this is a simplified meat sauce. If you have another go-to bolognese or Sunday sauce, you could use it for this lasagna dip.

Check out my ground turkey bolognese or Instant Pot bolognese recipes if you’d like a couple healthy options.

The Cheese for Lasagna Dip

The Pioneer Woman’s version uses a unique combination of ricotta and cottage cheese, which lucky for us are both cheeses with readily available low fat counterparts.

low fat cottage cheese and ricotta, grated parmesan, parsley, and basil

You’ll mix the two together with grated parmesan, basil, and Italian parsley.

Assembling and Baking

The assembly of lasagna dip is not all that different from making traditional lasagna. Meat sauce goes in a baking dish first, followed by the ricotta mixture and mozzarella cheese, and then that’s repeated once more.

meat sauce in a skillet, mozzarella in a bowl, and cheese sauce in a bowl next to a baking dish

The ricotta and cottage cheese mixture is on the thicker side. So don’t worry about spreading it into an even layer. Just place dollops of it around the dip.

lasagna dip in a baking dish before and after baking

Top the baked lasagna dip with fresh parsley and/or basil and serve warm with baked pasta chips (more on that below), crostini, or your choice of dipping apparatus. If you’ve tried my whipped feta and roasted tomatoes dip, the grilled ciabatta would be a great option here.

The Baked Pasta Chips

If you’re unfamiliar with pasta chips, you’ll want to cook pasta al dente in boiling salted water. Then briefly cool, cut into chips, toss with olive oil and grated parmesan, and bake in an even layer for about 20 minutes at 375ºF. It’s important to make sure all the chips are evenly golden brown to avoid chewy chips.

making pasta chips with cooked lasagna

Other Options

This lasagna dip is great regardless of what it’s dipped with. While pasta chips are trendy and fit this dish perfectly, they’re a bit tedious to make. For a quicker option, the crostini I mentioned above is definitely worth a look.

You could also use other pasta shapes like farfalle to avoid cutting the lasagna sheets into chips. And using the air fryer for smaller batches (great for leftovers, too) or reheating chips works great. Check out my air fryer pasta fries for an example.

This also opens the door for using higher protein, lower carb pasta options. It’s tricky to find macro friendly lasagna sheets, but there are plenty of chickpea farfalle options.

lasagna dip on a past chips

More Healthy Copycat Recipes

And that about covers it. I always appreciate recipe reviews and if you have a question about this lasagna dip I didn’t cover, drop it in the comments below. Enjoy!

Kinda Healthy Lasagna Dip

Kinda Healthy Lasagna Dip

Yield: 12 Servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour

Beef and sausage in a rich tomato sauce with three types of cheese and herbs. Served with baked lasagna chips.

Ingredients

For the Pasta Chips*

  • 10 Lasagna Sheets, cooked
  • 2 Tablespoons (32g) Olive Oil
  • 1/4 cup (30g) Grated Parmesan
  • 1 teaspoon Dried Oregano

For the Lasagna Dip

  • 1 pound Ground Beef (96/4)
  • 1 pound Ground Italian Sausage
  • 15 oz can Diced Tomatoes
  • 1/4 cup (68g) Tomato Paste
  • 4 cloves Garlic, minced
  • 1 cup (225g) Fat Free Cottage Cheese
  • 1 cup (240g) Low Fat Ricotta
  • 2/3 cup (80g) Grated Parmesan
  • 2 handfuls (20g) Basil, chopped
  • 1 handful (10g) Parsley, chopped
  • 6 oz Shredded Mozzarella

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375ºF and bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt to the boiling water and cook the lasagna for 10-12 minutes. Drain the water and transfer to a cutting board to cut the sheets into triangles. Toss with the olive oil before seasoning with parmesan and oregano. Add to two sheet pans and bake for 18-22 minutes until golden brown.
  2. For the dip, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the ground beef and sausage before breaking apart and fully cooking. Add the garlic, tomato paste, and diced tomatoes and reduce to a simmer. Let the meat sauce simmer for about 15 minutes while the chips cook and you prepare the cheese mixture.
  3. Add the chopped basil and parsley to a bowl with the ricotta, cottage cheese, and parmesan.
  4. To assemble, add meat sauce to the bottom of a 13x9 baking dish. Top with half the ricotta mixture, followed by half the mozzarella. Repeat and top with optional black and red pepper flakes. Bake for 15 minutes at 425ºF until the cheese is melted and browning around the edges.

Notes

*Notes about healthy pasta chips alternatives in the post above.

Nutrition facts are for the lasagna dip only.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 2/3 cup (140g)
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 265Total Fat: 12gCarbohydrates: 6gProtein: 24g

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