As the snow begins to melt and our bodies slowly come out of winter hibernation mode, this month’s easy pasta bake is a cozy and oh some comforting dinner to get us fuelled as we prepare ourselves for spring! This caprese pasta bake is definitely a filling meal, but won’t leave you feeling sluggish as all the ingredients are plant based and have a ton of vitamins to nourish your body. We recommend making this one on a weekend, maybe as a treat with some vino after a long week. Could be a fun date night dinner or a meal to share with your family or friends! It’s super easy to prepare and in our experience, is definitely a crowd pleaser.
Bon Appetite!
“This easy pasta bake is definitely a filling meal, but won’t leave you feeling sluggish as all the ingredients are plant based and have a ton of vitamins to nourish your body.”
Vegan Caprese Pasta Bake
Ingredients
- 2x 750 ml containers of tomato marinara sauce
- 8 oz of noodles
- 1 block of extra firm tofu
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp tahini
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- juice of 1 lemon
- dried basil
- salt + pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Begin to cook pasta to al dente according to package, any noodle you prefer will work.
- Break up the tofu into chunks with your hands and put it into blender or food processor.
- Add tahini, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper and lemon juice to blender/processor.
- Process/blend until the mixture is a paste like texture.
- Layer the bottom of an oven safe pan/dish with a thin layer of marinara sauce.
- Next, layer half of the cooked pasta on top of the sauce in the pan.
- Form patties with the tofu mixture and place them on top of the first layer of noodles.
- Cover with another layer of marinara sauce.
- Spread the rest of the pasta on top.
- Add one more layer of sauce.
- Form patties with the rest of the tofu mixture and place on top of the sauce. Top with a sprinkle of dried basil.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes.
- Remove from oven and serve!
Notes
We’d love to hear what you think of this month’s easy pasta bake! It’s so yummy that we want everyone to give it a try for themselves. Pair it with a simple salad or enjoy on its own, up to you! We put a green salad on the side and paired it with a glass of wine. Talk about a great Sunday night dinner.
If you’d like some salad inspiration to go on the side of this dish, try our sweet potato arugula salad.
Happy cooking!
xo
Meg & Cornelia
