Ready for the richest, heartiest, most flavor packed meatless and dairy-free pasta dinner ever? You need to try this vegan baked ziti! With a chunky cauliflower walnut sauce and creamy cashew ricotta, this meal is sure to satisfy vegans and non-vegans alike!
Well, I guess it’s about time. I’ve got plenty of vegan lasagna and stuffed shell recipes on this site (Exhibits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6). So why is it that I waited until now to share some vegan baked ziti? Honestly, I couldn’t think of what to do with it to make it special. Baked ziti is pretty basic and relies so heavily on meat and cheese. What could I replace them with?
I’d been rolling the ziti idea around in my head for a while, and then just last week it hit me: my cauliflower walnut spaghetti sauce would be perfect for some vegan ziti!
Have you tried this sauce? I’ve gotten so many (awesome) reviews for it, so I know a bunch of you have. But in case this one is new to you, it’s basically a super rich, intensely flavorful vegan meat sauce that uses crumbles of cauliflower and walnuts for the meat. Sound weird? It works! Trust me!
And then there’s the whole cheese component to baked ziti. I perfected my vegan ricotta long ago. A mix of cashews and tofu serve as the base. I normally throw in some herbs and seasonings, maybe an onion, but I kept this cheese pretty simple since the sauce is so flavorful.
With the sauce and ricotta down, the dish is almost complete. But not quite.
The baked ziti I ate growing up was always topped with a layer of mozzarella cheese. I thought about just ignoring that, but decided a quick vegan bechamel sauce would be a great replacement for the mozzarella.
You can absolutely skip the bechamel or substitute your favorite vegan store-bought cheese if you like, but it’s a great way to round out the dish. Or, you could make some vegan mozzarella. It’s a bit more work, and you’ll have to hunt down some tapioca starch, but it’ll make the dish extra special.
Once you have the pasta, sauce, bechamel and cheese prepped, you’re ready to layer everything. Spoon some pasta sauce into the dish, then pasta, then ricotta.
Next, more sauce, more pasta, more ricotta, a final layer of sauce, and bechamel.
Bake to perfection.
Tips for Making the Most Delicious Vegan Baked Ziti…
- A word of caution: red wine turns things purple. So some of your noodles may look a little purplish after baking. If this bugs you, substitute white wine, or leave the wine out.
- The ziti can easily be assembled a day ahead and then baked on the day of serving.
- Allergic to cashews? Try subbing macadamia nuts, an extra 7 ounces (half a block) of tofu, or cannellini beans.
- Make sure your non-dairy milk is unsweetened, and preferably go with something that has minimal additives (I like WestSoy milk for this). I find that even a smidge of sweetener makes the bechamel sauce taste funky.
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Vegan Baked Ziti
Ready for the richest, heartiest, most flavor packed meatless and dairy-free pasta dinner ever? You need to try this vegan baked ziti! With a chunky cauliflower walnut sauce and creamy cashew ricotta, this meal is sure to satisfy vegans and non-vegans alike!
Ingredients
- 1 batch cauliflower walnut meat sauce
- 1 pound dried ziti pasta
For the Bechamel Sauce
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups unflavored and unsweetened non-dairy milk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
For the Vegan Ricotta
- 1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water 4-8 hours, drained and rinsed
- 1/4 cup unflavored and unsweetened non-dairy milk
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 (14 ounce) package extra firm tofu, drained
Instructions
Prepare the cauliflower walnut sauce according to the recipe.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook it according to the package directions. Drain the pasta into a colander, return it to the pot, and toss with a dash of olive oil.
To make the bechamel sauce, coat the bottom of a small saucepan with olive oil and place it over medium heat.
When the oil is hot, whisk in the flour.
Cook the flour, whisking constantly, until it darkens just a bit and begins to smell nutty, about 2 minutes.
Whisk in the milk and flour and bring the mixture to a simmer.
Lower the heat and allow the mixture to simmer, whisking occasionally, for about 10 minutes, until it thickens up a bit.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and allow the bechamel sauce to cool a bit. It will continue to thicken up as it cools.
While the bechamel sauce cools, make the ricotta. Place the cashews, milk, lemon juice, garlic, and salt into the bowl of a food processor and blend until smooth.
Break the tofu into a few chunks and add it to the food processor. Pulse until the texture is chunky, like that of ricotta.
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Layer one third of the cauliflower walnut sauce into the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.
Layer half of the pasta over the sauce.
Layer half of the ricotta over the pasta.
Layer another third of the cauliflower walnut sauce over the ricotta.
Layer the remaining half of the pasta over the sauce.
Layer the remaining half of the ricotta over the pasta.
Layer the remaining third of the cauliflower walnut sauce over the ricotta, smoothing it out a bit with the back of a spoon.
Drizzle the bechamel sauce over the cauliflower walnut sauce, spreading it out a bit with the back of a spoon.
Place the dish into the oven and bake for 25 minutes, uncovered, until heated throughout.
Optional step: place the dish under the broiler for a few minutes, watching carefully to avoid burning, until the bechamel sauce starts to bubble and brown.
Remove the dish from the oven and allow it to sit for 5 minutes before serving.
Divide onto plates and serve.
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