I made this recipe several months ago and completely forgot about sharing it with you. Not because it was unmemorable – quite the opposite – but recipes and photos occasionally get lost in the bunch if I’m not careful. The photos on my computer are a bit out of control (or so says my husband). I’m trying to work up the courage to tell Eric that I’ve filled up yet another hard drive, but that is another story.
This stuffed shell pasta is inspired by Terry Walters, author of Clean Food and Clean Start cookbooks. There’s a recipe for basic stuffed shells in her Clean Food cookbook, so I played around with it by adding more veggies and fresh herbs. The outcome is a tasty tofu “ricotta-like” cheese that can be added to stuffed shells, spread on lasagna, or even turned into eggplant rollatini if you are so inclined. Of course, it doesn’t taste exactly like ricotta cheese (not that I even remember what it tastes like!), but it sure is a tasty dairy-free alternative.
Speaking of eggplant rollatini, here’s a photo when I made it last summer – served on a bed of julienned carrot and zucchini “pasta” with a sprinkle of almond parmesan cheese. A lovely summer meal. Edit: I’ve added the directions for prepping the eggplant in the comments section.
I haven’t been able to find any gluten-free dairy-free jumbo shells yet, but I’m sure they exist. If you know of any brands, please give them a shout-out in the comments! For those of you looking for a soy alternative, maybe give nut-cheese a try instead. I have a cheese recipe in my lasagna recipe that could probably be used for stuffed shells also.
As for the tofu, you can crumble it by hand or you can use a food processor. I’ve made it both ways and I can’t decide which I prefer. Crumbling by hand is a bit messy, but it saves cleaning the processor while using the processor is a bit quicker and results in a creamier texture. It’s really up to you how you make it.
Jumbo Stuffed Shells
Yield
6 servings
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Adapted from: Clean Food by Terry Walters
Ingredients
For the pasta
- 3.5 cups pasta sauce
- 340 grams jumbo pasta shells (I used 30 shells or 2/3 of the box – but make extra as some break)
For the Tofu Ricotta
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 medium sweet onion, diced
- 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 1/2 cup packed fresh basil leaves, minced
- 1/2 cup packed fresh parsley, minced
- 1 (14oz) package extra-firm or firm tofu, pressed
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 3/4-1 tsp fine grain sea salt, or to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes (optional)
Directions
- Rinse block of tofu and wrap with paper towels followed by 2-3 tea towels. Place it on a cutting board or plate and add several heavy cookbooks on top. Press tofu for about 20-25 minutes to drain out the water. Alternatively, you can use a tofu press.
- Grease a very large casserole dish. I used about 30 shells, but you’ll need to cook more than that as some shells will break during the cooking process. Cook shells in a pot of boiling water until al dente, about 8-11 minutes. Be careful not to overcook. Drain shells and set aside to cool.
- Preheat oven to 400°F. For the tofu ricotta: In a large skillet, sauté the garlic and onion in the oil for about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add in the chopped celery, basil, and parsley and sauté for another 5 minutes or so. Feel free to throw in some spinach for extra greens.
- For the tofu, you can either crumble it into the skillet with your hands or you can give it a whirl in the food processor and then stir it into the skillet. If you use the processor, the texture will be very creamy like ricotta cheese and if you crumble it with your hands it will be more chunky/crumbly. It’s up to you how you want to make it. I usually opt to crumble it by hand so I don’t dirty the processor. Stir in the nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, lemon, and cayenne all to taste. Over medium heat, cook for about 8-10 minutes or until most of the water cooks off.
- Spoon about 1 cup of marinara sauce into the casserole dish and spread around. Add about 2 tbsp of tofu ricotta into each stuffed shell and place shells on top of marinara sauce. Cover shells with the remaining 2-2.5 cups marinara sauce and any leftover tofu ricotta. You can add vegan cheese on top, but I don’t bother. Cover dish with tin foil and poke several air holes. Bake at 400°F for about 20 minutes or until heated throughout. Serve with a basic green salad and garlic bread, if desired.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)Vida Vegan Con Giveaway Winner!
I’m excited to announce that the winner of the VVC giveaway is Traci! Congrats! Traci wrote,”I am from Portland and will be home visiting during that time! OH WHAT A TREAT that would be!”
Traci I will shoot you an email today to get things rolling. Thanks again to Grace for her generous ticket donation and to everyone for participating. I really appreciate all of your lovely comments by the way.
If you are still thinking about attending the conference (and I think you should!!), there are still tickets for sale.
Tinkyada makes gluten free and dairy free big (“grand”) brown rice shells! :) I have some in my pantry and they are fantastic! My favorite gluten free pasta brand by far.
Thanks Ali, I will keep an eye out for them.
For people in Toronto, you’ll find the Tinkyada Brown Rice Grand Shell, if it’s in stock,at Fiesta Farms. Watch the cooking time…I found they cook faster than the suggested time. And they are a bit fiddly to stuff compared to the gluten options, which are larger. That said, when they are the only option for a dried, stuffable, gf pasta, they are worth the fiddly work.
These look amazing! I love making stuffed shells. I’m always hoping to run across whole wheat jumbo shells but never seem to have any luck. BOO!
I’ve never been a stuffed shell fan because I don’t like that much cheese at once and I don’t like ricotta…but a vegan version!? Sounds delicious! Especially since I love tofu!
I bet your basil cheese sauce from your lasagna would taste good stuffed in the shells!
Vegan cooking is such a challenge and you continue to master it! These look great, I love stuffed shells! I really wish the VVC was a different weekend, I would love to go but I bought tickets to FL that weekend. :( maybe next time.
I made a vegan eggplant rollatini 2 years ago after returning from Italy – I can’t believe I never used the filling to stuff shells! I bet this could make a killer ravioli too.
Hi Angela!
I work in a health food store and was just reading this blog post on my lunch…
The brand Tinkyada makes jumbo shells. The only ingredients are stone-ground brown rice, rice bran and water.
I’m sure they are available in most health food stores!
The recipe looks amazing by the way=)
Oh wow, I haven’t even tried this yet but I think it may be my new favourite food. O_O
Those stuffed shells look delicious! I’m definitely adding this to my “to try” list.
I am glad this can be made without a food processor, as I don’t have a Vitamix or anything like it just yet.
Congrats to Traci!
These picture are beautiful and the paste also looks delicious!
Hi Angela, I use the Tinkayda Brown Rice Pasta Grand shells, which are gluten and dairy free- they work great! You can find them on luckyvitamin.com.
These look fantastic! I love stuffed shells, and I love the use of tofu as a dairy-free option. I’ve been able to find Tinkyada GF shells — the only catch is that they’re not as jumbo as regular jumbo shells, so they require a bit more work. Uber-jumbo or not, though, this is a great recipe. :)
Here’s a link for the GF quasi-jumbo shells — I hope this helps! http://www.amazon.com/Tinkyada-Grand-Shell-Brown-Pasta/dp/B001H82980
This looks amazing! Would there be a way to substitute something else for the tofu? I try to avoid soy as much as possible.
Hi Dani, See my link in the post to the lasagna recipe. there’s a fantastic basil cashew cheese that should work in these shells.
Making these immediately. Thank you!
These photos are GORGEOUS. I’m glad you found them! My photo library is also a complete mess of RAW photos, exported photos, and edited vs. unedited photos. It’s actually kind of stressful :)
hah yea I hear you on the stressful part. I try not to think of it and avoid looking…I know great coping mechanism! ;)
The Eggplant Rollatini looks fantastic! What did you use to make the zucchini and carrot noodles? And, did you cook them? Thanks!!
Sometimes I lightly steam them, other times I don’t bother. Both are fantastic! I used my julienne peeler (see the link in the post) Zyliss brand. Hope this helps!
They’re the prettiest stuffed shells ever! And that you kept them vegan! Angela, your photography the past 6 mos or so has just been growing and looking even more fabulous. If this is any indication of the work that’s going into your cookbook, it’ll be a best-seller for sure :)
These both look amazing, I just made stuffed shells the other night, but they did not look like this!
All of your food always looks SO delicious. This is a must-make. Soon!
These look great! We did stuffed shells using spinach, white beans, and cashews (among other ingredients) – instead of tofu. I haven’t found gluten-free shells either – but you could always use this stuffing for gluten-free lasagna and use rice noodles!