It’s no secret that we LOVE tofu! It’s one of our favourite ingredients. To date, we’ve posted over 40 tofu recipes to ilovevegan.com.
Tofu is our go-to ingredient when we’re veganizing a recipe. We love veganizing recipes by substituting tofu for meat, eggs, or dairy in our recipes. Some of our favourite ways to use tofu are:
- Extra-firm tofu instead of eggs in quiches, scrambles, and breakfast sandwiches
- Extra-firm tofu instead of meat in curries, stews, pasta sauces, salads, and sandwiches (like BLTs!)
Most of the time I use extra-firm tofu in my recipes. It’s nice and firm with a dense texture. It’s great for marinating, crumbling or slicing, and baking, frying, or grilling. It’s flavour is delicate and mild, so it’s perfect for soaking up any flavour.
Extra-firm tofu is absolutely perfect for making this dairy-free ricotta. You can use this tofu basil “ricotta” for lasagnas, pizzas, and stuffed pastas like these jumbo shells.
Customization ideas:
- Before adding the marinara sauce to the baking dish, add 1 cup of vegan "ground beef". Top with marinara sauce and stuffed shells. Continue with the recipe as directed.
- Top the stuffed shells with vegan cheese shreds before baking.
Basil Tofu "Ricotta" Stuffed Shells
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 15 stuffed shells 1x
- Category: Lunch and Dinner, Main, Entrée
- Cuisine: Vegan
Description
This dairy-free basil "ricotta" is perfect for making lasagnas, pizzas, and stuffed pastas like these jumbo shells. This simple recipe uses jarred marinara sauce but you can make your own pasta sauce too!
Ingredients
- 15 jumbo pasta shells
- 2 cups marinara sauce (plus extra for topping - optional)
- Optional: ½ cup vegan mozzarella cheese, for topping
Tofu Ricotta
- 1 block (350g) extra-firm tofu
- ⅓ cup /80ml (40g) vegan mozzarella shreds
- ⅓ cup / 80ml (30g) fresh basil
- ¼ cup / 60ml (35g) nutritional yeast
- 2 tbsp / 30ml olive oil
- 1 tbsp / 15ml lemon juice
- 1 tsp / 5ml salt
- ½ tsp / 2.5ml garlic powder
- Black pepper, to taste
Instructions
Tofu Ricotta
- In a food processor, combine extra-firm tofu, mozzarella, nutritional yeast, basil, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, garlic powder, and black pepper. Pulse, pausing to scrape down the sides of the processor as needed, until the mixture is almost smooth and the basil is chopped and evenly distributed. Do not overprocess, the tofu should still have a slightly grainy texture.
- Makes 2 cups (enough to fill 15-18 jumbo pasta shells.)
Stuffed Shells
- Preheat oven to 400°F (205°C).
- Cook jumbo pasta shells according to instructions.
- Pour 2 cups of marinara sauce into the bottom of a 9” x 9” casserole dish. Fill cooked jumbo pasta shells with tofu ricotta. Place stuffed shells on top of marinara sauce.Optional: Spoon shells with extra marinara sauce and vegan cheese shreds.
- Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 10 minutes.
Jackie
Hello I was wondering if I should press the tofu before adding it to the food processor? I plan on making it for dinner tonight. Thank you!
Christina
Thank you SO much for this recipe! My boyfriend and I are newly vegan, and we are having a hard time finding comfort food recipes that are reminiscent of old favorites. Most have been duds that we can hardly finish. I made this for the first time the other night, and my boyfriend had to work very late. He had a rough evening, and had come home after I went to bed. I texted him that I made some vegan stuffed pasta shells because I knew he would be starving. He came home in a bad mood, but told me this morning that he couldn't believe that the dish was actually vegan! He absolutely loved it, and it made his evening much better after a rough shift. Thank you <3.
★★★★★
Madison
Made this yesterday and it was so good!!! Easy to make for multiple meals / lunches for the week!! Definitely recommend!
★★★★★
Jessica W
This has changed my life! Lol kidding... but not really 😉 seriously, so delicious. I’ve already shared it with several friends. Thanks for creating this masterpiece!
★★★★★
Corina
This has become one of my favorite recipes, soooo good. Thank you!
Brittany
Yay! I'm so happy to hear that 🙂 Thanks for commenting!
Kristall
What brand vegan mozzarella cheese do you use? And do you press the tofu first?
kootenayrunner
These look incredible and pretty easy to whip up with your product suggestions. Hurray for pasta, with flavor, and...its vegan.
★★★★★
Brittany
Thank you so much Cheryl! Happy Holidays!
Susana
Love this recipe! Thanks for taking the time to share your healthy food with others ! God bless you both
★★★★★
Nina Javez
iIe been looking for a good ricotta recipe for a while now, but I will probably use this for lasagna tho haha
★★★★★
Brittany
Perfect! I love it in lasagna too!
Jackie
Hello, I was planning on making this for dinner tonight, I already bought all the ingredients. I was just looking over the recipe again and wondering if I should press the tofu first before adding it to the food processor?