Vegan Diaries - Vegan Manicotti

I wanted to make something different for dinner.  I haven't made manicotti in a long time and thought tonight's the night.  Only problem?  It has dairy (ricotta cheese).  No problem for three of the family.  But, then there is the one that has dairy problems and the one (me) that has been trying to avoid dairy.

I thought I would search a vegan substitute for ricotta cheese.  My search came back with silken tofu.  I couldn't find silken tofu and decided to try firm tofu.  I placed the tofu inside a paper towel and squeezed out the excess water.  Crumbled up the tofu into a bowl, so it looked like ricotta cheese, and mixed in the rest of the ingredients.   Of course, I don't remember the website that I found the recipe  on (Sorry!).

Here's the recipe:


Vegan Manicotti
(taken from unknown website)

For the tomato sauce:
1/2 red onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped,
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt (optional)
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 small can tomato sauce

"ricotta cheese"
1 container firm tofu, crumbled
2-3 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp oregano
1/2 tsp pepper
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 box manicotti shells

1 bag/box frozen chopped spinach, thawed, water squeezed out

vegan cheese (optional)


Make your sauce (using the above recipe, your own recipe or you can use a jar of spaghetti sauce).

Rinse tofu and place on paper towel and squeeze out excess water.  Crumble tofu into a bowl (so it looks like ricotta cheese).  Add the apple cider vinegar, oregano, pepper and garlic.  Mix in the spinach.  I added some of the tomato sauce so it wasn't so dry.

Start stuffing your manicotti shells and place in a baking dish.  Cover the manicotti with the sauce.  Add some water to the bottom of the dish (so it covers the bottom, plus a little more).  I use a covered baking dish so the shells don't get dried out and the water in the dish can boil a little and cook the manicotti shells.

Bake at 350F for 30 minutes.  Checking to make sure the shells are cooked.  And, serve.


* * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * *


*You can use your own homemade sauce or a jar of sauce.

*You can add as much garlic as you want (I like a lot of garlic).

I didn't tell anyone that these were vegan.  I was a little nervous how they would turn out.  I was lucky.  They were delicious!  And, there were not leftovers!  (and no questions!)  Success!

If you decide to make the Vegan Manicotti, let me know how it turned out!

Enjoy!