Dairy Free | Gluten Free | Mains | Vegan
Vegan Stuffed Shells (GF Option)
Vegan stuffed shells are a classic Italian comfort food. The pillowy cashew ricotta filling tastes nearly identical to the real thing so no one will even know it’s dairy free. Gluten free option below.
Looking for more plant based Italian recipes? Try my burst cherry tomato pasta, spaghetti alla nerano, creamy lemon pasta, or margherita pasta.
What You’ll Love About This Recipe
Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make these dairy free stuffed shells:
- Jumbo pasta shells – for a nostalgic meal choose jumbo shells if you can find them. Otherwise, see the substitutions section below for other options.
- 5 minute cashew ricotta – this is the best tasting vegan ricotta cheese in my opinion. It tastes the closes to real ricotta. It has raw cashews, lemon juice, white wine vinegar, nutritional yeast, and kosher salt.
- Fresh spinach – You can also use frozen spinach, just make sure it’s thawed and you’ve wrung most of the excess water out first before adding to the dairy-free ricotta mixture.
- Seasonings – dried basil, dried parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, kosher salt, and black pepper. Using additional Italian spices gives the dish a well-rounded flavor.
- Marinara sauce – the sweet acidic nature of tomato sauce cuts through the richness of the ricotta for a great, balanced flavor.
- Fresh basil – for garnish.
How to Make Vegan Stuffed Shells: Step By Step
Here are some quick visual instructions. The full instructions and ingredient list will be in the printable recipe card below!
- Preheat oven to 375ºF.
- Cook pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add pasta and cook until al dente, according to package instructions (it will continue to cook in the oven).
- Make vegan ricotta. Place cashews, water, lemon juice, white wine vinegar, nutritional yeast, and kosher salt in a high-powered blender with a tamper or a food processor. Blend, scraping down the sides as needed. If using a blender, use the tamper to push the ingredients into the blade. Add to a medium bowl.
- Cook spinach. Cook the spinach in a little olive oil over medium heat until wilted and reduced in size. Add it to the bowl with the vegan ricotta along with dried basil, dried parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, kosher salt, and black pepper. Mix together until well combined.
- Assemble. Add 1 ½ cups of pasta sauce to the bottom of a 9×13 pan. Stuff about 1 tablespoon of the ricotta cheese mixture into each shell and nestle it into the tomato sauce until you’ve used up all your ricotta and shells. Pour the remaining tomato sauce over the top of the shells.
- Bake. Cover the pan with aluminum foil, and bake for 30 minutes.
- Garnish and serve. Carefully remove the foil, top with fresh basil, and serve immediately.
Helpful Tips
- Have dry shells that are stuck together? Avoid trying to pull them apart until they’ve cooked. It’s easier to do this once they’re soft, otherwise, they’ll just break.
- Roughly chop the spinach first before you saute it. This makes it so you don’t end up with long stringy spinach pieces once cooked, which makes it easier to stuff the shells.
Quick Tip: Make extra cooked shells in case any break.
Storage
Store any leftover cooked stuffed shells in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Make It Your Way: Substitutions & Variations
Please remember that recipes are just a starting point.
How can you make this ricotta stuffed shells recipe using what you already have? Here are some ideas…
- No raw cashews? – you can also make my almond ricotta or use Kitehill storebought dairy-free ricotta (which will be a little pricey for the amount you’ll need for the stuffed shells).
- No spinach? – Use baby kale or finely chopped lacinato/dino kale.
- Make it gluten free – use gluten free jumbo shells. If you can’t find jumbo shells, you can alternatively use gluten free lasagna sheets rolled up. I like the Jovial brand.
- Sub for ricotta? – You can also use cashew cream.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I freeze vegan stuffed shells?
I recommend freezing the shells without the sauce.
To do this, prepare the vegan stuffed shells, but skip adding the sauce to the pan. Put the stuffed shells onto a baking tray and arrange them in a single layer to freeze for 1-2 hours (this helps keep them from sticking together later on).
Once frozen, transfer to an airtight container. When ready to cook, add the tomato sauce to a pan with the stuffed shells nestled in and bake according to the recipe adding an additional 10-15 minutes to the baking time.
More Italian Vegan Pasta Recipes
- Burst Cherry Tomato Pasta
- Spaghetti Alla Nerano
- Margherita Pasta
- Dairy Free Lasagna With Butternut Squash Noodles (Vegan Option)
I hope you love these Vegan Stuffed Shells! If you make this recipe, please leave a comment & a star rating below. Thank you!
Vegan Stuffed Shells (GF Option)
Vegan stuffed shells are a classic Italian comfort food. The pillowy cashew ricotta filling tastes nearly identical to the real thing so no one will even know it's dairy free. Gluten free option below.
Ingredients
- 8-10 oz jumbo shells see notes below
- olive oil
- 5 oz roughly chopped fresh or frozen spinach see notes
- 2 teaspoons dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon diamond crystal kosher salt start with ½ teaspoon if using anything else
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 25.5 oz jar pasta sauce about 3 cups
Cashew Ricotta
- 2 cups raw cashews
- ½ cup filtered water
- 1 tablesoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons nutritional yeast
- diamond crystal kosher salt to taste
Serving
- fresh basil for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375ºF.
- Cook pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add pasta and cook until al dente, according to package instructions (it will continue to cook in the oven).
- Make vegan ricotta. Place cashews, water, lemon juice, white wine vinegar, nutritional yeast, and kosher salt in a high-powered blender with a tamper or a food processor. Blend, scraping down the sides as needed. If using a blender, use the tamper to push the ingredients into the blade. Add to a medium bowl.
- Cook spinach. Cook the spinach in a little olive oil over medium heat until wilted and reduced in size. Add it to the bowl with the vegan ricotta along with dried basil, dried parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, kosher salt, and black pepper. Mix together until well combined.
- Assemble. Add 1 ½-2 cups of pasta sauce to the bottom of a 9×13 pan. Stuff about 1 tablespoon of the ricotta cheese mixture into each shell and nestle it into the tomato sauce until you've used up all your ricotta and shells. Pour the remaining tomato sauce over the top of the shells.
- Bake. Cover the pan with aluminum foil, and bake for 30 minutes.
- Garnish and serve. Carefully remove the foil, top with fresh basil, and serve immediately.
Notes
I used organic jumbo shells and for the amount of ricotta, mine made about 18 shells. Yours could make less depending on the size of the shells, but it’s ideal to cook more than you need in case some break.
See blog post for step-by-step photos, helpful tips, storage, and recipe FAQs.
The directions say to set spinach aside but then never mention adding it to the ricotta mixture.. obvious that that’s what you do but just something I noticed.
Thanks for pointing that out, Sarah! I’m fixing it now.
What brand of organic jumbo shells did you use?
Hi Michelle,
I honestly can’t remember what brand I used, but any brand will work!