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!
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Made these tonight and I could not have been more pleased. Will be making these the next time we have company for dinner. Thanks for another great recipe!
I love pasta shells, and the more garlic the better as far as I am concerned, so well done on a great recipe. Totally love it.
My husband and I made these for dinner tonight. We were not sure what they were going to taste like. They didn’t look like yours. lol. They were amazing!!! Thank you so much for the great recipe!!!!
I just made these with the cashew cheese – amazing flavour
Just finished our shells for dinner – YUM!. I stuck to your recipe and added just a bit of kale that I had steamed and frozen last week. We went with the crumble method and enjoyed the texture. I was originally planning to make the recipe in Terry Walters book, but couldn’t imagine how 2 bunches of collards would fit into this quantity of filling. Seemed excessive, as much as I like to get my greens in. Yet, you mention wanting to add more fresh veggies and herbs – the herbs I get (and fresh basil added awesome flavor), but I still had to serve veg on the side to round out the meal. How do you get your extra veggies in when you serve this?
I served it with a simple side salad :)
Hello Angela,
I love your blog and I follow it routinely and love every recipe I try. really amazing.
thank you very much.
I’ve tried the stuffed grand shells recipe and it was delicious. Me and my wife loved it.
I have a question regarding this recipe – I have pressed the tofu for 25 minutes, I’ve blend it in my vitamix to make it smooth, but when I’ve added it to the skillet and cooked it. you wrote: “cook for about 8-10 minutes or until most of the water cooks off” – I didn’t have no water to cook off… do you have any idea why? (maybe I’ve cooked the onion and the greens to much?)
thanks
No worries, some tofu just has more water than others
Angela, thank you for your reply! since I have no water to cook off, should I add water or may be I don’t need to cook it at all? (when I cooked it, it really get stuck to the skillet, and was very hard to handle…)
thanks again!
I was going to make these because they look like awesome comfort food (especially in the cold spell currently gripping London) but I couldn’t find any jumbo shells ): Checked Wholefoods and Sainsbury but couldn’t find them… Don’t seem to be a very British thing!
Stuffed shells weren’t really on my list of things to cook before, but now I’ll have to try them. And I’m gonna try your “cheese” in my lasagna! Sounds awesome.
I just made these for dinner tonight, for Easter! They were LOVELY.
I love this recipe. I have made this twice in two weeks. I changed it up a little because my husband and I are not big fans of celery. I sautéd 1 zucchini chopped, tofu, spinach, sun dried tomatoes, garlic, nutritional yeast, onion, oregano, salt, pepper, and a pinch of cayenne. It was a hit!
I just made this and it is delicious! The store didn’t have the giant shells, so I used the no-bake lasagna noodles and also threw in some mushrooms. Thanks for the great recipe!
This one looks very yummy too.
I have never used tofu in my repices. Have you written anything about how to choose and cook tofu etc?
Thanks for your help
Isa
Hi Angela,
I recently experimented with jumbo stuffed pasta shells too. I filled mine with a combination of left over cooked quinoa and your lemon basil “cashew cheeze”. They were delicious, even the kids devoured them. I think next time I would add some celery to lighten up the mixture and texture even more.
These are seriously amazing! It’s become my ‘go to’ favorite vegan meal. Thanks so much for sharing. :)
Made this for dinner. It was really delicious! Easy to make too, just dont use the whole box of shells….(or you will have shells with no stuffing). Will make again.
Hi Angela
Tinkyada which is a Canadian brand does different types of
Brown rice pasta. They’re all gluten free and dairy free.
They do jumbo shells as well. I was looking
at them this week. www.tinkyada.com
This stuffed pasta looks delicious, however my husband and I have type 2 diabetis and try to only eat whole wheat pasta. Are there any whole wheat large shells on the market? maybe this feeling would work rolling up in lasagne noodles. I can try that. Thanks for all your wonderful receipes.
Hi Glenda, I personally haven’t spotted any WW shells yet, but I like your idea of using lasagna noodles and rolling those up. goodluck!
Would these freeze OK? Would freezing the stuffed shells change the texture of the tofu ricotta? I’m cooking for two or since I’m married to a meat-eater, sometimes I’m cooking for just one and making him something else. Thanks!
Looks delish. I’m going to make this because I love pasta!! I bet some fresh or frozen spinach would be awesome in these too.
Omgoodness….I just made these. SUPER yummy. I can’t wait to eat them for dinner. I sampled one before I bake them, and WOW…I LOVE them. I am Italian, and I gotta say, these are delicious. I missed Ricotta, and now I don’t have to. YOU ROCK!