A delightful whole food plant based version of a ricotta cheese that will knock your socks off! It is creamy, scrumptious and mimicks it’s dairy counterpart and will even fool the non plant based eaters in your life. It only takes a few minutes to make this recipe – easy peasy. I like easy. It is perfect for layering in lasagna, on top of your pizza, or on top of a baked potato.
In this version I added almonds and spinach so I can use it as a filling for lasgana. No one would know this was made with tofu.
You have the option of making it with nuts or not – it is good both ways. Of course with nuts it is extra rich and creamy but also higher in fat. Our oldest granddaughter used to eat a version made with nuts all the time – it was one of her favorite things to eat with a spoon!
For lasagna I like to add the spinach to it – it boosts the nutrition and the flavor and adds so much color to it!
Lasagna recipe coming soon!
It adds a wonderful creamy layer of deliciousness to a hearty oil free lasagna. You can put it on your vegan pizza, spread it on Mary’s Gone Crackers, put it on a baked potato or air fry some slices of potato and spread the tofu ricotta over the top.
Basil Tofu Ricotta
Equipment
- Food Processor
Ingredients
- ½ cup raw blanched almonds or cashews – optional soaked with boiling water to cover for 30 minutes, then drained
- 14 ounces Firm Organic Tofu pressed 1 hour and drained
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried basil or ¼ cup fresh basil
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons Nutritional Yeast – optional but good
- 10 ounces frozen chopped spinach – optional thawed and squeezed dry. – optional
Instructions
- If using the optional nuts – put the blanched almonds in a small bowl and cover with boiling water for 30 minutes, then drain.
- In the work bowl of a food processor fitted with an “S” blade add the optional soaked, drained almonds – if using them, the pressed tofu, lemon juice, garlic cloves, dried basil, black pepper and nutritional yeast. Process until creamy smooth, scraping down the sides when needed.
- If using the ricotta for a lasagna filling add the optional spinach and process until well incorporated.
When you purchase items through my affiliate links you help support the work here on Nutmeg Notebook without any additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!
Be sure to check out our Amazon Affiliate Page where we share many of our favorite small kitchen appliances, kitchen tools, food products, books and fun things for the grandchildren! Thank you for your support!
We are pleased to announce that if you live in Canda we now have an Amazon.CA Shop Page. We have matched up as many items as we can from our US shop page. Ocassionally there are differences in brands and or packaging size.
The full address is Amazon.ca/shop/nutmegnotebook
We are also Holland Bowl Mill Affiliates. The 15 inch Holland Bowl Mill Cherry fruit bowl has a permanent home on our kitchen island. It’s beautiful and useful. The heart shaped bowl makes me happy – I love everything heart shaped! We use our 15 inch Beechwood bowl to chop our salads everyday. Eating a salad for one meal every day helped me lose weight and become a size 4. I still eat a salad for one meal a day but now it’s a Big Beautiful Chopped salad and it helps me stay a size 4! See the Chopped Salad Blog Post to find out how you can incorporate a chopped salad into your daily food plan and how you can get a free mezzaluna knife with your Holland Bowl order when you use our affiliate link as well as free engraving and free shipping.
Hi Tami,
Nice to see your version of a long time favorite!
I love basil tofu ricotta and have been making a nut free version for years. Using fresh basil really makes this ricotta pop IMHO. It’s delicious even without nuts!
Thanks again!
Elena
Hi Elena,
I agree fresh basil is the way to go – if you have fresh. I don’t always have fresh basil right now with the pandemic going on but we are starting to grow our own basil so soon that won’t be a problem!
Have a beautiful day!
Tami
Hi T & T. I have enjoyed watching your videos. I have been plant-based since 10/2019, I am finding whole wheat is causing me trouble. Do you have recipes for pizza crust without wheat flour?
~Pamela
Hi Pamela
I don’t have a recipe for pizza crust yet without whole wheat flour. I am working on one but it’s not ready to publish yet.
Very nice recipe. I have made tofu spinach ricotta, adding some white beans to recipe, to give it a little more body, without the fat of nuts.
Thank you for such beautiful recipes.
I prepared the tofu ricotta recipe yesterday afternoon. Indeed, it reminds me of ricotta rather than tofu. The spinach tofu ricotta is very filling with blanched almonds added to it! I plan to refrigerate small containers of it for later use. I promised myself to cook my next vegetarian lasagna with such filling. The way you spread the filling directly on you dry lasagna noodles is a great tip for some of us. Thank you for your nice and carefully planned cooking classes on YouTube, They are a breath of fresh air during a difficult time! Take good care of yourself and family. 😉
Hi Lise
I am so delighted that you like the tofu ricotta! Thank you for your kind and supportive comments.
Enjoy your lasagna.
Happy Cooking,
Tami
Thank you so much Lise!
Happy Cooking,
Tami
Hi Tami,
I don’t use tofu. Would white beans work as a substitute? Thanks so much for all your recipes….we really enjoy them!
A couple other people have asked the same thing – I would give it a try and see how it works. I haven’t tried it myself.
Happy Cooking!
Hi Patti,
I have seen some recipes that use white beans in place of tofu so I would give it a try! You might also be able to use mashed cooked sweet potato.
Happy Cooking,
Tami
I have some of the shelf stable mori-nu silken extra firm tofu. Would that work?
The silken tofu is too soft – you need the regular tofu for this recipe.
Excellent! First time I made your ricotta recipe . I didn’t use the nuts but added the zest from the lemon. Perfect balance of all the ingredients. This will be my forever ricotta. Thank you for another keeper!
Thank you Gail _ I am so glad you like it!
Hi Tami
Is frozen spinach the best for this recipe rather than fresh?
If you were to use fresh, how many ounces?
Thank you!
Love this recipe! I have tried it 4 times. Made stuffed ricotta scalloped squash and had friends over, the lasagna roll-ups were amazing, and hubby ate all the leftovers. (I will make this again very soon) Stuffed manicotti with spinach ricotta version and mushrooms, and used the ricotta as pizza cheese on Ezekiel bread pizzas. So easy, almonds and cashew versions. The only suggestion when using nuts, chop them up small before adding them to the processor even when soaked the s-blade does not get them small enough, at least mine does not.
oh, I forgot I also made a Tomato Basil pie with it. I just about ate the whole pie by myself. Not in one setting that goodness, but it was eaten that day
Just made your lasagna recipe and it was really good! In the process I made your basil tofu ricotta. I have a lot left over. This morning I had it for breakfast on a bagel. It was delish. Question– how long does it keep in the refrigerator? Can you freeze it?
Thank you for your review! I’m delighted that you like the recipe. I always use all of the tofu ricotta in the lasagna so I’m sorry Idon’t know how long it will last in the fridge.