Description
These Vegan Stuffed Shells are stuffed with a delicious herby tofu ‘ricotta’ mixture and smothered with a creamy roasted garlic and tomato sauce. Easy to make and perfect for entertaining.
Ingredients
Roasted Tomato and Garlic Sauce
- 1 bulb of garlic
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 10 leaves of sage, diced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
- 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup reserved pasta water
- 1 cup unsweetened plant based milk (I used soy milk to keep it nut-free)
- 1/4 tsp salt or to taste
Stuffed Shells
- 26–30 jumbo pasta shells
- 1 block firm tofu, drained
- 1 tsp miso paste
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 clove fresh garlic, crushed
- Juice and zest of 1 small lemon
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup parsley, stems removed
- 1/8 cup chives, roughly chopped
- 1 cup spinach, tightly packed
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400F. Cut a 1/4 inch off the top of a bulb of garlic to expose the garlic cloves. Add your tomatoes, garlic and sage to a 9 in x 13 in oven safe baking dish and drizzle with oil. Wrap your garlic in some foil and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until the tomatoes start to blister. Once cooked, reset the heat for the oven to 350F.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it well. Parboil your jumbo shells according to the package instructions. If you need a rough estimate, I cooked mine for 9 minutes. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water, then drain and rinse your pasta under cold water and set to the side.
- Now blend your sauce. Press your garlic out of it’s peel into a blender along with the roasted tomatoes and sage. Add the sunflower seeds, Italian seasoning, balsamic vinegar, salt, pasta water, and plant based milk, then blend on high until nice and smooth.
- To a food processor, add your tofu, miso paste, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, crushed garlic, lemon, and salt and pulse a few times to fully combine. Scrape down the sides as needed. Now add in the herbs and spinach and pulse to chop the greens well into the tofu mixture.
- Pour a few spoons worth of sauce into the bottom of the baking dish you used for roasting your tomatoes. Take a spoonful of your tofu ricotta and stuff each individual shell and place on top of the sauce covered baking dish.
- Once all the shells are stuffed, pour some sauce overtop of the stuffed shells and then place them in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Top with some extra chopped chives for garnish and serve warm.
Notes
Adjust flavors to your taste preference for both the tofu ricotta and sauce. I usually start with these ingredients and add more as I go. If I want the flavors to be a little sharper, I will add more acid in the form of lemon juice or balsamic vinegar. If I want more freshness, I will blitz up more fresh herbs to blend into the tofu. You control the flavor in this recipe.
To make prep time faster, you can skip making your own sauce and use a jar of your favorite vegan marinara sauce.
Don’t over process the tofu. We don’t need it to be super smooth. You want it to still have some texture, so pulsing your ingredients in your food processor is what I recommend.
Cook your pasta slightly under al dente. Your pasta shells should come with instructions for how to parboil them. Avoid overcooking your shells as they will break apart if you try to stuff them.
