Name: Vegan Ricotta Stuffed Shells
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h 20 min
Yield: 5
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 1 TB olive oil; 2/3 cup onion, chopped; 2/3 cup celery, chopped; 1/2 cup carrots, chopped; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 1/2 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp pepper; 2 14 oz cans crushed tomatoes; 1 14 oz can tomato sauce; 1 1/4 tsp basil, dried; 1 1/4 tsp oregano, dried; 1 tsp brown sugar; 2 cups slivered raw almonds; 1 TB nutritional yeast; 2 TB lemon juice; 1/2 tsp salt; 1/4 tsp garlic powder; 3/4 cup water; 1 tsp oregano, dried; 1 tsp basil, dried; 1 cup vegan mozzarella; 1/2 cup vegan cashew parmesan *recipe below*; 20 shells Jumbo pasta shells; sprinkle salt for water

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Friends… these vegan ricotta stuffed shells are sooo tasty. I may have even pulled leftovers from the fridge cold and enjoyed them. They are making my mouth water thinking of them. I am going to be real honest and say this is not the quickest meal to make.

If you choose to not make your own sauce then it’s a quick and easy dinner. I will leave that up to you.

Not that the homemade sauce is hard to make it’s just time-consuming waiting for it to do its magic on the stove. What I like about this sauce is you can sneak even more vegetables into your kid’s diets. That is if your kids aren’t uber picky like one of mine.

My picky child would hardly give this meal a side glance. I made him try it and instantly upon touching his lips he didn’t like, insert huge eye roll. He ended up making himself a peanut butter and jelly for dinner because some arguments are just not worth it.

However, my 9-year-old thought this was the best meal ever. I then had to share it with my friends and their kids to get the final verdict if it’s blog-worthy and I got a big thumbs up. So in conclusion, if you have a picky kid I am sorry and I feel your pain. But the overall verdict was this is a regular dinner rotation.

These meals that require a little more time I like to save for special occasions. This one is perfect for Valentine’s day or when guests come over.

This would be delicious with a side of garlic bread, yum and a salad or roasted vegetables.

How do you make these vegan ricotta stuffed shells?

oil
onion
carrots
celery
salt +pepper
canned crushed tomatoes + canned tomato sauce
dried oregano and basil
brown sugar
garlic
slivered almonds
nutritional yeast
lemon juice
garlic powder
cashews
vegan mozzarella
Jumbo pasta shells

How do you make this?

You’re going to start by making your sauce. Or if you want to shorten the recipe time you can just use your favorite pasta sauce. You will need about 5 cups of your favorite marinara sauce if you choose not to make your own.

Now get a medium, pot add your oil, chopped onion, chopped carrots, chopped celery, and garlic on medium to high heat. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes stirring occasionally until the vegetable softens up a bit.

Add the remaining sauce ingredients to the pot, and stir until combined.

Put a lid on the pot and bring it a low simmer, cook for 20 minutes, until the vegetables are cooked. Once cooked take an emersion blender or carefully a regular blender and blend the vegetables so the sauce doesn’t have large chunks in it, set aside.

While the sauce is cooking boil the water for the shells. Cook the shells according to the package instructions, mine took about 10 minutes. Once cooked strain and set aside.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Take a 9×13 pan and lightly grease it.

While the noodles and sauce are cooking you can make the Ricotta. Take your high-speed blender or food processor and mix all the ricotta ingredients, except the cashew parmesan and vegan mozzarella. Blend until it still has some chunkiness to it but not big chunks. Look at the picture.

Once blended stir in your vegan cheeses until mixed and set aside.

Take your shells and fill them with the ricotta mixture. The amount will depend on the size of your noodles.

Take your 9×13 pan and pour about half of the tomato sauce and spread evenly to make a layer of sauce. Then take the filled shells and place them evenly in the pan/sauce, then cover evenly with the remaining tomato sauce.

Sprinkle with vegan cheese if desired. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

I have a really tasty vegan cashew parmesan cheese I use in this recipe, I always have this made up in my fridge ready to go. You can make this one or buy a vegan parm, whatever works for you. This recipe is in the recipe below.