Cauliflower seems to have surged in popularity over the past few years — especially in the world of frozen food. And we can see why. This low-calorie superfood is packed with fiber and vitamins, and it can be used as a substitute for everything from rice to chicken. You can even make pizza crust out of it!
So inevitably, you’re starting to see it in everything. We’re not complaining; this just means we get to eat more of it. Case in point, the Trader Joe’s Spinach & Cauliflower Lasagna, which we’re reviewing today.
Now, first off, the cooking time is really long here for a single-serve meal. If you go with the microwave, you’re looking at eight to nine minutes. The reason for this, of course, is that you’ll be cooking it on medium power instead of high. Even so, that’s a long time to wait on a microwavable single-serve meal. If you go with the conventional oven, you’re up to 35 to 45 minutes. We just used the microwave for the sake of this review because we were already feeling a little impatient. (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the box, navigate down to the bottom of this review and check out the package scans.)
This comes out of the microwave looking pretty soupy. The sauce here is really watery, turning this into a lasagna soup more than a lasagna. On top of this, the cheese has a runny, almost slimy quality to it.
That’s certainly not ideal, but once you dig in deeper, there is some tasty treasure to be found here. The center of the lasagna is absolutely loaded with spinach. It has a fresh, earthy flavor that contrasts well with the acidic sweetness of the sauce. The cauliflower tends to be chopped up pretty small, but it adds a lot of texture to the filling, which counters some of the goo-factor of the cheese.
While we do have some complaints about that cheese (which we mentioned earlier), we do like how persistent it is. It gets into every nook and cranny, creating an aggressively stretchy quality to the whole affair. It’s hard to pull out a forkful without leaving long strings of cheese dangling from your fork. We honestly wish we could say this about more of the lasagnas we try.
While we don’t usually expect lasagna to fall into the diet-friendly category, this batch actually manages it. With just 310 calories and 660 mg of sodium, this is a guilt-free meal for dieters. While we’re not the healthiest eaters here at Freezer Meal Frenzy, we do appreciate diet-friendly frozen foods when we come across them.
The Trader Joe’s Spinach & Cauliflower Lasagna might not be perfect, but it’s a nutritious, low-calorie version of lasagna that offers a whole lot in the flavor department. We dislike the soupiness, but that’s certainly not a dealbreaker. This is still a tasty batch of lasagna that will have you scraping the tray to get every last morsel — though you might want to use a spoon for that part.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen lasagna, check out our package scans below.