It’s basil season! And spinach season! And, well, let’s just say it’s lasagna roll season, too.
These make a great appetizer if you’re doing a little summer entertaining, or a filling entree if you prefer. Tofu ricotta is elevated with the addition of some Pumpkin Seed Pesto. The mellow flavor of pumpkin seeds really lets the basil shine. The sautéed spinach is really really garlicky, as is the pesto, so this makes the perfect date night meal.
What I really love, besides how flavorful these are, is the texture. Baking the rolls makes the noodles soft but still toothsome, with little crunchy bits on the edges. Smothered in cashew cream and pesto and finished off with a scattering of additional pumpkin seeds, these lasagna rolls will fulfill even the most wild fantasies: creamy, crunchy, velvety, chewy, and hearty all at once. Yes, there are a few components here, but none are too difficult to pull off and also LASAGNA ROLLS.
Serve with Caesar Salad to round out the meal!
PS This is my first blogpost using only iPhone photos, so take a deep breath with me. Sorry $2000 camera, this is just easier. Since I’m not an aspiring photographer, I’m not ashamed to admit that adjusting lighting and apertures and editing in Photoshop is just too labor intensive for me these days. A few adjustments in VSCO cam, a button to upload to Flickr, and my work is done here. You get the picture. Har har.
Notes
~You don’t need all of the lasagna noodles called for, but go ahead and boil the whole package to account for some breakage. Saute the leftovers and broken ones for dinner the next night.
~The amount of ricotta made is just enough to fill the rolls, so go easy with the taste testing and don’t overfill the rolls, or you might not get ten out of the deal.
~I put the pesto in a little plastic bag with a hole cut out of the corner to pipe it nicely over the rolls. Then just spread it a bit with a spoon and it’s real pretty like.
~I make the white sauce before the pesto to cut down on cleaning a little bit. You can pour the white sauce out and then just rinse the blender without having to do a major cleaning, since who cares if a little bit of cashew cream ends up in your pesto.
Ingredients
12 oz lasagna noodles
For the white sauce:
1 cup cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
For the pesto:
2 cloves garlic
3 cups fresh basil, loosely packed
1/2 cup pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds), plus extra for garnish
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
Several dashes fresh black pepper
For the ricotta:
1 14 oz extra firm tofu, crumbled
1/4 cup pesto
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
For the spinach:
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
10 oz baby spinach
Directions
Make the noodles:
Bring a big pot of salted water to boil and cook the noodles al dente, stirring occasionally to make sure they don’t stick together. If they seem to be, use metal tongs to gently peel them apart. Once cooked, drain them in a colander and run them under plenty of cold water to make sure they stop cooking and don’t stick together.
Make the white sauce:
Drain cashews. In a blender, combine all ingredients and blend until completely smooth. This could take 1 to 5 minutes depending on your blender. Scrape down the sides of the blender with a rubber spatula every minute or so to make sure you get everything. Set aside.
Make the pesto:
Place garlic cloves in a blender and pulse a bit to chop. Add basil, pumpkin seeds, olive oil, nutritional yeast, lemon juice salt and pepper and blend. It should still have some texure and not be completely smooth. Thin with a few tablespoons of water to get it into a spreadable consistency.
Make the ricotta:
In a medium mixing bowl, mash tofu with your hands or an avocado masher, until it resembles ricotta cheese. Mix in pesto, nutritional yeast, olive oil, lemon juice and salt until well combined. Set aside.
Make the spinach:
Preheat a large heavy bottomed skillet (preferably cast iron) over medium low heat. Add the olive oil and garlic and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add spinach and cook, stirring often, until wilted, about 3 minutes. Set aside.
Assemble and bake:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease a 9×13 inch casserole dish with olive oil.
Spread 3 tablespoons of ricotta mixture evenly over each lasagna noodle, leaving a little room around the side edges and 1/2 inch at each end.
Scatter about 3 tablespoons of spinach mixture over the ricotta. Starting at the bottom end, roll noodle up and place, seam side down, in the casserole dish. Continue with all remaining noodles. Pour the white sauce over the rolls in thick ribbons.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until edges are lightly browned and white sauce is thickened. If after 25 minutes the rolls are not browning but the edges are crispy, place under a broiler on low heat for a minute or two, keeping a very close eye so that they don’t burn.
Remove from oven and smother on remaining pesto. Garnish with additional pumpkin seeds and serve!
Good grief and a half, I just made this for dinner and it is absolutely phenomenal. I cannot believe there isn’t cheese in there somewhere! It tastes just like decadent cheese-laden lasagna. Also subbed brown rice noodles with no issue whatsoever. Thank you for such a delicious recipe!
yum, this dish look so good!
What’s up colleagues, pleasant paragraph and nice arguments commnted here, I am actually enjoying by these.
these are excellent! and so pretty!
Hey Isa,
can I prep all the fillings the day before say Sunday, roll em up on Monday to bake?
I love anything with pesto so will definitely have to give this a try. And your photos look fabulous 🙂 (I tend to use my tablet now more than my expensive camera as it also is easier and takes great photos without all the messing around with the settings 🙂
Hi Isa,
By 1 14oz, you mean 14oz and not 1lb 14oz… I hope?
Thanks!
My husband and I recently switched to being vegan in hopes to cure some health problems that I was having. He had a hard time sticking to it because he felt restricted, and I could not find support for our new lifestyle (although the stores were filled with Gluten Free books!). I was nervous about this recipe because I could not imagine tofu as Ricotta, but OH MY WORD!!!! This has totally changed my mind about tofu, and his about being Vegan in general!
The flavors are incredibly rich and the pesto and cashew sauce are to die for. If we could have this every day, we would!
LOOOOOOOVE it!!!
Thank you- truly.
Dana: I am allergic to cashews also and substitute blanched almonds (almonds without the skin; you can use with the skin but it will effect the color of your dish) I soak and blend them just like cashews in all of Isa’s recipes and it turns out amazing!! The only difference is almonds are slightly less fatty butterery taste (silent cry) but the texture is spot on so I don’t miss the cashews. Havnt made these rolls yet but I use almonds to substitute cashews in pie, vegan cheese and cheese sauce, dressings ect and it has worked every time. I have heard that macadamia nuts are a great substitute also but alas they are more costly and I am perpetually broke 🙂
My family loved these. I’m going to make them again next week!
I’ve now made these twice in 4 days. I didn’t have spinach tonight so used the beet greens I got from the farm today. So good. Our family loves you, Isa!
These look so delicious and loving that cashew based sauce!
I love that the pesto uses pumpkin seeds instead of the very high priced pine nuts. The recipe looks great and easy. I love the addition of blended, soaked cashews to recipes. I’ve been looking for a recipe like this.
Mmmm, I absolutely love basil! I love how versatile lasagne recipes can be.
Just served this tonight. Replaced spinach with beet greens (separated from the beets I used in your beet burger recipe;). As a lacto-ovo veggie, I have to say that I much prefer this to conventional veggie lasagna- which doesn’t interest me much to begin with. This is a dish with generous flavours that I will feel confident to serve to omnivore friends and family. Thank-you Isa.
This is a great recipe, and I especially appreciated the advice of using the same blender but making the white sauce first. As said, it is garlicky. And yummy! I never have luck with lasagna noodles, so I used cannelloni, which I slit open then rolled back up. Next time, I might add some cayenne to give it a little more oomph.
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Absolutely phenomenal recipe. Definitely worth that little extra time under the broiler to get the brown+crunch. And, worth using fresh spinach. The whole family loved it – from 2 years old on up to 44 years old. Until now, I’ve always regretted taking 2.5 hours to make a dish…because it never turns out as good as I hoped. Not this one – it was BETTER than I expected. Thanks for making me feel like I can cook great food. Wow!
What a wonderful end result; a brilliant appetizer 🙂 It looks yummy, delicious and colorful. I am definitely going to prepare this for the coming weekend. Thanks for a wonderful suggestion and also for sharing the recipe..Loved it!
The most exciting vegan lasagna recipe I’ve ever seen! Can’t wait to try it.
I made this recipe yesterday for my daughter and boyfriend and they both loved it. While I was making it, of course I snitched bits of it to taste and I have to say that my daughter is very lucky that I gave it to her, it was that delicious. I am making it for my husband and myself today. It was really easy to make, it doesn’t need any additions, the flavors were spot on. I just wanted you to know that I have been cooking for over fifty years, the last ten have been focused on vegan foods.
I have found that if I follow your recipes exactly, the end result will always be amazing. You are very gifted to be able to put together so many recipes and have such success. So with that said, I went out and bought all of your cookbooks since I was so impressed and I have already made quite a few recipes out of your books. I haven’t had to change any of your recipes. I am a very busy woman with a lot of responsibilities and appreciate the fact that you have made my life so much easier knowing that I can turn to you for something different and tasty. My daughter is learning along with me that cooking can actually be fun and relaxing when you know that the end result will be so good. Thank you Isa for all of your hard work.
Yum, friggin yum. I made these and was bowled over! Slight variation in that I added a splash of white wine to the sauce and used Swiss chard in place of spinach. I love this website .
I would like to make an additional comment from my August 1st entry about the delicious green lasagna rolls. I did make the rolls again for myself this time allowing for leftovers. I heated the rolls in the microwave and found that they tasted a bit bland after two days of sitting in the fridge. I drizzled some extra virgin olive oil over the rolls along with a sprinkle of salt and to my surprise all of the flavors were renewed and they tasted like they were fresh from the oven. I love this recipe.
Thank you.
I’m going to make this this weekend and wondered if left overs would freeze well. FYI the pictures look wonderful:)
Total success in Cambridge UK tonight – deeeeelicious! Going to make it again at the weekend for my mother in Wales. Clean tasting green and vibrant – yum yum Thank you
I made this today and they are delicious, the crunchy pepitas are nice for texture. Thank you!
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I tried this using swiss chard from my garden, really deiicious! Keep up the good work, ICM!!
You are fantastic and I’ve been meaning to tell you so for ages! I’ve enjoyed Vegan with a Vengeance for years and made many of your recipes (favs being homemade seitan and peppers, the pumpkin muffins, and my favorite meal- roasted winter vegetables w. garlicky kale). I want to purchase your newest book soon and continue re-creating your delicious meals. This in particular looks fantastic and I really want to make it this weekend. In the long amounts of time I’ve spent on your site, I’ve noticed how thorough and patient you are in responding to folks. You give thoughtful answers and you just seem all around kick ass. Thank you!
Hi Isa,
Absolutely LOVE your postings & your books!!
I wished I knew you lived in Omaha when we were living in Sioux Falls SD. We are so drawn to Omaha such a fun city!
Is it possible to leave or substitute the tofu? We do not have SOY in our diets.
Thank you!!!
you are amazing…thank you for all the goodness you share!
These are beyond delicious! My son and i made them. They’re really pretty easy. The whole family loved them. My non-vegan son was bummed when he looked for the left-overs the next day, only to discover that his brother had beat him to them!
Also made this today, SUPER! thanks a lot! used whole-wheat lasagna and worked out great.
Fabulous recipe! I was feeling ambitious so I made the pasta from scratch too. Best vegan pesto I’ve had!
My husband & I are jumping on the vegan train next week! This is the first recipe on my list, I cannot wait to try these. Your blog is inspiring, especially with the beautiful photography that accompanies it. I am a professional photographer & one of my dreams is to have a blog of beautiful food! You go girl!
This was fantastic!!! I put off making this for a while, just because the number of components was a little intimidating. However, it was surprisingly fast to make. The only thing I did differently was to add a touch of red pepper flakes to the spinach mixture, and I also had to supplement the spinach with peas as I accidentally purchased only 1/2 the amount of spinach. I took it out of the oven about 8 minutes before it was done, topped it with the remaining pesto and some sliced tomatoes, then shoved it under the broiler. My non-vegan boyfriend couldn’t believe it was dairy free. And he said I can make it again anytime! In other words, this was a huge hit!
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When I originally commented I seem to have clicked on the
-Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now whenever a comment is added I get 4 emails with the exact same comment.
Perhaps there is an easy method you are able to remove me from that service?
Appreciate it!
This recipe is a family favorite that I’ve already made several times. I have yet to make into rolls though because lasagna noodles always fall apart on me. instead, I’ve integrated the spinach into the filling and then used large pasta shells. Tonight I’m using manicotti shells. Fabulously delicious.
An outstanding share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a coworker who had been conducting a little research on this.
And he in fact bought me breakfast simply because I stumbled upon it for him…
lol. So let me reword this…. Thank YOU for the meal!!
But yeah, thanx for spending the time to talk about
this topic here on your site.
THIS WAS SO DELICIOUS! Fully recommend. Fun to make on a Sunday evening with the bf, too. Nothing says love like lasagna rolls. Isa, you rock!! The hardest!
These were so delicious. We substituted pinenuts for pumpkin seeds. I wonder if going gluten-free you could substitute eggplant for the roll ups or some other kind of vegetable?
When I initially left a comment I appear to have clicked
the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now whenever a comment is added I recieve four emails with
the exact same comment. There has to be a means you are able to remove me from that
service? Thanks a lot!
This sounds fantastic! But my wife has a blasted tree nut and peanut allergy. What seed could I substitute for the cashews to make the sauce?