Vegan Spinach and “Ricotta” Cannelloni

Cashew cream and spinach for a winner pasta dinner for vegan and gluten-free folks 🙂

Vegan Spinach and 'Ricotta' Cannelloni

Servings: 4
Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: easy
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Vegan and Gluten-Free Spinach and Cashew ricotta cannelloni. A hearty meal that's easy to put together. Can be prepared in advance, frozen and reheated. Note: some gluten free pasta doesn't freeze/reheat that well, but I still do.

Ingredients

1 cup cashews that have been soaked in water at least a few hours*
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk (or soy milk)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic
a pinch of salt
juice of 1/2 lemon (or 1.5 tablespoons)
250 g of frozen spinach
1 jar of tomato sauce (or you can make your own)
3 tablespoons of water
1 paquet of gluten free cannelloni
optional : vegan cheese and fresh basil

Directions

Preheat the oven to 175 Degrees Celsius. Thaw and drain your spinach – remove as much water as you can by pressing it.
Prepare your cashew “ricotta”. In a blender or mixer, place the cashews, the almond milk, the garlic, the salt and the lemon juice. Process until creamy and smooth (see picture below).
Add the spinach and the onion to the blender or mixer (here I transferred the mix to my robot mixer as my blender bowl didn’t work as well.). Pulse until the mixture looks smooth.
In a oven-proof dish that will fit all cannelloni, mix half of the tomato sauce with 3 tablespoons of water, and cover the bottom of the pan. Fill the pasta tubes with the spinach/cream mix (I use a pastry bag) and place on the tomato sauce. Cover with more tomato sauce and a bit of water if need be. Cover with foil, and bake for about 45 minutes (or according to the pasta pack directions).
When the pasta is cooked through (you can test it with a knife), I like to cover the cannelloni with vegan cheese, and let melt in the warm oven.

*if you have a high speed blender you may not need to soak as long. I keep mine in boiling water for 15-20 minutes and it helps soften them enough to be blended.