Vegan Dinner Recipe: Spinach cannelloni like Nonna never made

I promise to get better at taking photos.

It rained all day basically, which meant there was really no reason to leave the house. Himself had a hangover and I pottered around, and since I wasn't doing much I decided to get experimental and make spinach and vegan ricotta cannelloni for dinner.



Cannelloni is a commitment, vegan or not. The whole process is going to take about two hours, although the last hour is waiting for the oven to bake your cannelloni. I based the recipe on one from out of a vegetarian cookbook, which meant all I had to do was substitute the ricotta and the cheese on top.

Cashew Ricotta:

300g not-too-soft Tofu (preferably non-gm and organic)
Half a cup of cashews
A quarter cup of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
1.5 teaspoons of dry basil
1.5 teaspoons of salt

Put the cashews, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic in a food processor. Blend to a smooth-ish paste. Add the tofu and mix well, and once all that's in add the salt and basil.

Hey look, it's like ricotta!!

I can't believe it's not ricotta. No, I can.

Now the ricotta needs to go in a bowl, with:

The equivalent of two eggs (I use a powdered egg substitute)
A pinch of nutmeg

Now to prepare the spinach.

I use frozen spinach. Because I'm lazy. So I thawed out 500g of frozen spinach, and while I was doing that I fried up an onion and two cloves of garlic. And I've started frying in grapeseed oil instead of olive, because it has a higher burning point. Sorry, let me write that properly like an ingredients list:

A dash of grapeseed oil
One onion
Two cloves of garlic

Onion and garlic

Heat the oil, add the chopped onion, cook for a bit, add the garlic, try not to burn it. Let's say that takes five minutes.

Add the spinach and onion mix to the ricotta and stir.

Spinach and ricotta ready to go

Now for the fun bit.

No, wait. First the sauce, less fun.

A dash of grapeseed oil
One onion
Two cloves of garlic

Do what you did above. You can even use the same pan to save on washing! Make sure it can fit

Two cans of tomato
Half a cup of red wine
A pinch of salt
A teaspoon of brown sugar
A handful of torn up basil leaves.

And once your onion and garlic are a bit cooked, add all those things, raise to a boil, and simmer while you do the fun bit.

Preheat your oven to about 180 degrees.

The fun bit involves the second last ingredient:

Dry cannelloni (200g)

I had a couple of rolls left over, but the amounts were pretty spot on.

Now, get ready to get your hands dirty.

Stuff the cannelloni shells with the spinach ricotta mix. Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty (if you are afraid, this recipe isn't for you).

I stuffed em good.

Once you've used up all the mix, your tomato mix on the stove should be a bit thicker and bubbling happily. Take it off the heat and bring it in close to your preparation area.

Spoon a layer (a quarter to a third of the tomato mix) over the bottom of your baking dish (like a lasagne tray or something).

Now layer rows of cannelloni shells on top, and once they're all sitting in the dish like well behaved children pour the rest of the tomato sauce on top of them.

Now, I make my own vegan cheese (recipe will come soon) but you can buy it from shops. It's not at Coles or Woolworths, but healthfood shops and my local IGA seem to be good for it.

Grate some

Vegan cheese

Over the top. As much as you like.

Put it in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour, making sure the pasta is cooked all the way through before removing it.

Eat.

Note: I ate it and loved it. Remember, there is no such thing as TOO MUCH good quality vegan cheese on top, provided you can, you know, afford it.