Vegan Cannelloni

This simple vegan cannelloni with macadamia ricotta is a crowd-pleaser. It only takes 60 minutes to make. It features a dreamy creamy vegan ricotta filling and an irresistibly rich marinara sauce! Plus, it can easily be made gluten free.

Course Dinner

Cuisine Italian

Diet Vegan

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 30

Total Time 1

Servings

Calories 596kcal

Author Jess & Dan

Ingredients

For the spinach & ricotta filling:

1 onion - chopped
1 clove garlic
140 g spinach
1.5 cups macadamia nuts
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon white miso
½ cup water
1 Pinch salt

For the cannelloni:

125 g cannelloni 12 tubes
700 ml tomato passata
4 cloves garlic - finely chopped
1 onion - finely chopped
4 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoon fresh basil - roughly chopped
2 tablespoon olive oil
Salt & pepper

For garnish (optional):

Fresh basil
Vegan parmesan or nutritional yeast

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

For the filling:

First, make the spinach and ricotta filling. Add a splash of olive oil to a saucepan and bring up to a medium heat.
2 tablespoon olive oil
Once the oil is hot enough, add the onion and garlic clove. Cook until the onion softens and starts to turn slightly translucent. Remember to keep it moving so that it doesn’t burn.
1 clove garlic, 1 onion
When the onion is cooked, add the spinach to the pan. Cook it until it is completely wilted.
140 g spinach
Take your spinach, onion and garlic mixture and add it to your blender along with all of the macadamia ricotta ingredients. Blitz it until the mixture is smooth. It should turn a lovely pale green colour, then set aside.
1.5 cups macadamia nuts, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast, 1 tablespoon white miso, ½ cup water, 1 Pinch salt

For the cannelloni:

Now for the marinara sauce. Grab the same saucepan you were using before, and heat up another splash of olive oil.
Add onion and four garlic cloves to the pan and cook until the onion has turned slightly translucent.
4 cloves garlic, 1 onion
Add in the oregano and cook for a minute.
4 teaspoon dried oregano
Pour in the passata, give everything a good stir, and bring to the boil. Immediately bring back down to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper.
700 ml tomato passata, Salt & pepper
Once the passata has had a couple of minutes to simmer, stir in the basil and cook for another couple of minutes.
2 tablespoon fresh basil
Get a small oven dish, and spread a layer of the marinara sauce over the bottom of it.
Grab the cannelloni tubes, a piping bag and a chopping board or plate. Fill the piping bag with the spinach and ricotta mix. Then carefully fill the cannelloni tubes with the ricotta and spinach mix as evenly as possible. The best way of doing this is to stand each tube on one end, fill it up to the top, then lay it out on the baking tray.
125 g cannelloni
Repeat until all of the cannelloni tubes are full and laid out on top of the sauce in the tray.
Pour the rest of the sauce over the cannelloni. Make sure that it’s all covered, otherwise some of the pasta tubes won’t cook properly. It needs to all be covered in the tomato sauce.
Put the dish into the pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes (or whatever the cannelloni tube packet says, if different). Once done, top the vegan cannelloni with fresh basil and vegan parmesan or nutritional yeast. Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Use gluten-free cannelloni tubes for a gluten-free version.
Use fresh spinach for best results, rather than frozen spinach.
Store in the fridge for up to 3 days in an airtight container. We don’t recommend freezing.

Nutrition