Plant-Based Baked Ziti
Get ready for the cheesiest, heartiest meal in your WFPB rotation! This is The Ultimate Plant-Based Baked Ziti, topped with a velvety, blended plant-based cheese sauce that bubbles up perfectly in the oven. Forget the processed shreds, this sauce is made from whole food ingredients and packs all the savory, gooey satisfaction you crave without a single drop of oil. We’re combining al dente pasta with a robust marinara and smothering it in that liquid gold topping for a bake that looks and tastes just like the classic.
Ingredients
- 10 ounces pene pasta
Sauce
- 1 onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 ½ cups cabbage diced
- 6 ounces tomato paste
- 1 ½ cups lentils cooked
- 1 ½ cups spinach frozen, chopped or 2 cups fresh
- 14 ounces tomatoes diced
- 1 tsp basil
- 1 tsp oregano
- ½ tsp thyme
- ½ tsp rosemary
- 2 tsp parsley
- ½ tsp cracked pepper
- 1 tbsp tamari low sodium
- ½ cup vegetable broth low sodium
Cheese
- ½ cup almond flour or cashews
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp arrowroot powder or tapioca starch
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp tamari low sodium
- ½ cup water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Cook the penne pasta just to Al dente.
Sauce
- Sauté the onion for about 4 minutes using just a little bit of water if the onions start to stick.
- Add the garlic and cabbage and cook for 5 minutes.
- Make a bare spot in the center of the pan, pushing the onions, garlic and cabbage to the sides of the pan. Then add the tomato paste and stir it lightly while cooking for 1 minute.
- Add the remaining ingredients and cook on medium for about 10 minutes.
- Stir in the penne pasta.
- Ladle mixture into a 9 x 9 baking dish and smooth the top.
Cheese
- Add all of the ingredients to a blender and blend until silky (about 30 seconds)
- Pour cheese over the pasta.
- Bake for 40 minutes.
Nutrition
Calories: 454kcalCarbohydrates: 78gProtein: 24gFat: 6gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.2gSodium: 475mgPotassium: 1015mgFiber: 20gSugar: 8gVitamin A: 1191IUVitamin C: 19mgCalcium: 101mgIron: 6mg
I don’t know how you do it! You must be reading my mind, I have been craving baked ziti!
In the cheese recipe you have. You half a cup four. Is that supposed to be flour.
Yes, thank you for catching that Deloris. =)
Am I reading the recipe correctly? We are to cook 1.5 cups dried lentils (which becomes over 4 cups cooked lentils) and add them to the mix? It seems like a lot.
Thanks.
No, it is 1.5 cups of cooked lentils. It takes between 1/2 and 3/4 cup uncooked lentils to make 1.5 cooked lentils.
I used tapioca starch, expecting to get the stretchy ooey goey cheese topping. This was not the case. I am wondering if I cook the cheese in a sauce pan while the ziti cooks, and add at the end of perhaps it will be stretchy/ cheesey… But overall a fabulous recipe, and I would make it again!
This recipe is an absolute treasure! Non vegan husband had two servings and declared that he would love to have it in the regular rotation. Big win!
Both me and my cheese loving husband loved this. It was the first time I used almond flour instead of cashews for a cheese sauce and it was delicious.
What a fun blessing you are!!!! And the animals say thank you????. This is GOOD!