Same idea, different day…. In general I’ve found the transition to a vegan diet pretty easy but sometimes I miss the old favourite comfort foods. Today it’s cannelloni.
I thought lasagne and cannelloni would be off limits, it’s one thing to be able to fake a melty, cheesy sauce but vegan ricotta seemed out of the question. Until I found this recipe! It is so tasty I have to stop myself from eating it all as I’m making it. There is something I find a bit strange about the yeast based vegan cheeses, the flavour, or the smell, it’s just something I can’t have too much of, but this vegan ricotta is delectable!
Start by cooking an onion, red pepper, mushrooms and garlic in *red wine on the stove. Once they’re soft add in a jar of tomato passata; 3 cans of crushed tomatoes will work just as well. Finish it off with some herbs – I used parsley, basil, oregano and sage, and a sprinkle of salt, pepper and sugar, then just let it simmer.
Meanwhile make the “ricotta” in the food processor. Afterwards I dumped it into a big bowl where I added some defrosted spinach and vegan minced beef – about a big handful of each. Fresh spinach is fine too but it makes it a lot harder to stuff the cannelloni, it would work great for the lasagne though.
I’ve tried every different way possible to stuff cannelloni and decided messy fingers is the way forward. So get in there and get your hands dirty. Just shove the mixture in from both ends until it’s full and line them up in an oven dish. Cover them with the sauce and cook them in a pre heated oven at 180 for about 35 minutes. As with most vegan dishes they are not as filling as the fatty cheese filled ones so be sure to make extra!
You can also use this recipe for lasagne! I use the sheets you don’t have to pre cook but without the added oils from the cheese you need to use extra sauce so they get soft. I would make the same amount of ricotta mixture but double the sauce for a pan of lasagne. Put a little sauce on the bottom of the pan to start then layer lasagne sheets, “ricotta” mixture and sauce until you’re out of ingredients. Be sure to cover all the top sheets with sauce and cook it in a pre-heated oven at 180 for about 40 minutes.
Feel free to get crazy with the ingredients! I’m thinking of trying a pumpkin & sage based one with a becehmel sauce!
* Having been advised to keep oil and saturated fat limited for health reasons I’ve been experimenting with cooking using other things. So far my best advice is apple juice for roasting veggies in the oven & wine when cooking on the stove top.