If you’re looking to eat healthy over the holidays, or in the New Year, bake up a big casserole of this hearty vegan Manicotti with Spinach and Bean Ricotta. This is one delicious pasta bake, but it’s also incredibly good for you. The stuffing is a “ricotta” made with white beans and cashews with green, leafy spinach added in. After filling the cannelloni or manicotti cylinders (you can use either), you smother it all under my delicious and, again, healthy marinara sauce that I shared with you just this week. Sprinkle vegan mozzarella on top for a more classic look and taste, or, if you want to keep this free of anything processed, use an herby breadcrumb topping like the one I use for my Pumpkin Spinach Lasagna. There are seven servings in this manicotti, so you have enough to feed a crowd – or freeze some away for later. This recipe is a crowd pleaser, and it’s guaranteed kid-friendly.
Tips for making the best vegan manicotti
This recipe comes together fast, but you can save more time on the day you plan to serve this dish by making the marinara sauce a couple of days ahead. Also, I started out with dry navy beans and cooked them myself, but you can use canned white beans – any kind is fine. You can use either cannelloni tubes (which are smooth) or manicotti tubes (which are ridged) in this recipe. You will need to parboil your noodles first, as you would lasagna noodles (unless they’re no-boil). Don’t boil your noodles all the way – let them hang out in the water for just six minutes after it comes to a boil. The noodles will continue to cook in the oven. When making the filling for the pasta tubes, blend the cashews first, before adding the cooked or canned beans to the blender or processor, and then continue to process. This will ensure your filling is smooth with no gritty bits of unprocessed cashews. I use the cashews to add more creaminess and some richness to the filling. They also keep the filling more moist. But if you want to make this nut-free, leave the cashews out and just use an additional ½ cup of beans. You can make this recipe gluten-free with gf manicotti noodles. If you can’t find these, you can use gf lasagna noodles. Make lasagna roll-ups with the filling, then place in the baking dish.
Ingredients
Manicotti or cannelloni tubes. This is a large, tubular pasta with a wide cavity that nicely holds the filling. White beans – navy, cannellini, great northern, lima beans are all fine. Raw cashews. You can make this nut-free by adding more beans instead. Vegan mozzarella shreds Spinach Oregano Garlic Garlic powder Onions Onion powder Nutritional yeast Nutmeg Extra virgin olive oil Vegan marinara sauce
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