Keto Skillet Lasagna

Why I use hearts of palm noodles

I’ve tried just about every noodle substitute out there for recipes like this. Shirataki noodles have a rubbery texture and that odd smell I could never get past. Zucchini slices work in a layered lasagna but break down in a skillet with sauce. Hearts of palm noodles are the closest thing I’ve found to a real noodle. They’re neutral in flavor, hold their shape during cooking, and absorb whatever sauce they’re sitting in.

For this recipe, I use the lasagna-cut hearts of palm so they lay flat in the skillet and mimic those wide noodle sheets. One 9 oz package is the right amount for a 12-inch pan with all the other ingredients.

The brand I use is Natural Heaven. I started using them a few years ago and haven’t switched. They’re fully cooked, shelf stable, and made from one ingredient: hearts of palm. No draining, no rinsing off a weird smell like you get with shirataki. Open the package, add them to the skillet, and they’re ready to go.

If you like cooking with hearts of palm, my keto chicken noodle skillet is another one-pan recipe where they work well.

Are tomatoes low carb?

I get this question a lot. One medium tomato has about 4g net carbs, which sounds like a lot until you break down how much actually goes into each serving. In this recipe, I use 14 oz of crushed tomatoes and 1/2 cup of tomato sauce. That’s 20 grams net carbs from the crushed tomatoes and 8 grams from the sauce.

Across 6 servings, the tomatoes add about 4.5 grams of net carbs per serving. To me, that trade-off is worth it for real tomato flavor. A lasagna without tomatoes doesn’t taste like lasagna.

I avoid store-bought pasta sauces because they often contain added sugars. Plain crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce keep it simple and let me control exactly what goes in.

Picking your protein

I use a pound of ground sausage and a pound of ground beef because that combination gives this dish the most depth. The sausage adds Italian seasoning flavor throughout the meat, not just on top. But I’ve made this with all ground beef when that’s what I had in the fridge, and it still turned out great.

Ground turkey and ground chicken both work if you want a leaner version. If you’re vegetarian, skip the meat entirely and add more spinach, sliced mushrooms, and diced zucchini. I’d bump the vegetables to about 3 cups total so the skillet still feels full. Another one-pan option for meat lovers is my stuffed Italian sausage, which uses the same sausage in a completely different way.

Why one-skillet recipes win on weeknights

I rely on one-pan dinners more than anything else in my rotation. After work, I usually have about an hour before someone needs to be somewhere, and that hour includes cooking, eating, and cleanup. This recipe checks all three boxes because everything happens in the same skillet.

You brown the meat, build the sauce, simmer the noodles, and melt the cheese without switching pans. When dinner’s over, you wash one skillet. That’s it. If you like this approach, my crustless pizza is another one-pan recipe my family asks for regularly.