Vegan Stuffed Shells with Spinach (2024)

Published: May 24, 2018 · Modified: Nov 13, 2018 by Sina · This post may contain affiliate links · 19 Comments

These vegan stuffed shells with spinach make such a delicious dinner! They’re filled with spinach and vegan ricotta made of cauliflower and tofu. Nobody will believe that these stuffed shells are vegan! The perfect Italian comfort food!

I’ve always loved Italian food! I mean who can say no to pasta, right?! Definitely not me! These stuffed shells are just soooo delicious!

What You Need For These Vegan Stuffed Shells

The ingredient list for the vegan stuffed shells is pretty short. No fancy or hard to find ingredients!

You need:

• cooked cauliflower
• unsweetened almond milk
• nutritional yeast
• white wine vinegar
• lemon juice
• tofu
• garlic powder
• onion powder
• spinach
• jumbo shells
• store-bought or homemade marinara

You could also make the vegan ricotta with cashews instead of cauliflower. It will get more creamy and rich this way, but it also contains more calories.

Check out my vegan basil ricotta pinwheels for the vegan ricotta with cashews. Just leave out the basil if you want to substitute the cauliflower ricotta with the cashew ricotta for these stuffed shells.

How to Make Stuffed Shells

It’s super easy to make these vegan stuffed shells!

1. Cook the pasta jumbo shells according to the instruction on the package. Set aside.
2. Combine all ingredients for the vegan cauliflower ricotta in a blender.
3. Sauté the spinach and then stir in the vegan ricotta.
4. Put some tomato sauce in a baking dish, so the bottom of the dish is covered. Place the cooked shells in the baking dish and carefully spoon the ricotta spinach mixture into the cooked pasta shells.
5. Add some tomato sauce on top and around the sides.
6. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes and sprinkle with fresh basil leaves.

As always, you can find the full recipe and the detailed recipe instructions in a separate, printable recipe box at the end of this post.

The recipe takes some time as you first have to cook the pasta shells on the stove top. But I can promise you it’s really worth it! If you’re short on time, you can also prepare the pasta shells and the filling the night before.

Just store it in an airtight container in the fridge overnight. Or you could even fill the pasta shells the night before and then all you have to do is putting them in the oven the next day. This way the stuffed shells are a great make-ahead recipe!

Can You Freeze Stuffed Shells?

Yes, freezing stuffed pasta shells works pretty well. I like doing this when I want to have an easy dinner.

Just prepare everything in advance and first cover it with plastic wrap and then with another round of tin foil. If you want, you can even add a label on top with the date of freezing.

After getting the pasta shells out of the freezer, just spoon some marinara sauce on top and around the sides. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 °F and sprinkle with fresh basil.

How to Reheat Stuffed Shells

I usually find that reheating already baked shells in the oven dries them out too much. So I prefer to reheat them in the microwave. Spooning some extra tomato sauce on top helps to keep them fresh as well.

How Many Stuffed Shells Per Person

If you serve the stuffed shells with a salad and maybe even with roasted garlic bread, I’d say you need four to five jumbo shells per person. But of course this depends on your personal appetite and how you serve the stuffed shells.

I hope you like these vegan stuffed shells with spinach as much as we do!

If you give the recipe a try, please leave me a comment and a rating. Or share your photo with me on Instagram or Facebook. As always, I love hearing from you guys!

Have an awesome week!

Sina – xx