TOFU STUFFED SHELLS WITH EGGPLANT AND SPINACH

To keep the ball rolling with a somewhat Italian theme, I went with a pasta this time. I found a recipe that took vegetarian a step further to a vegan recipe. (Except I added cheese to mine!) Again, I found this on my favorite site, Pinterest. This was by far more time consuming than the pizza. But let me tell you, it was worth it!

What you’ll need:

1 large eggplant
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (divided)
salt (for eggplant)
21oz extra firm tofu (or 1 and 1/2 blocks)
1/4 cup raw cashews
1/4 cup water
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup onion (chopped)
3/4 cups frozen spinach
1 1/2 -2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
20 jumbo pasta shells

Directions:
Slice the top off your eggplant and cut it in half lengthwise. Score each half as if you’re going to cube it. Then sprinkle some salt and let sit, cut side up, for about 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. After the 3o minutes, you’ll notice some water drops on your eggplant. Squeeze it over the sink and let the salty water run out. Next, put the eggplant in a baking pan lined with paper or a liner. Brush each half with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and face cut side down on the pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes.

While your eggplant is baking, cook your pasta shells. Boil for 13 minutes.

In a medium frying pan, saute 1 clove of minced garlic and onion with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. When your garlic and onion have been cooking for about 1 minute, add your frozen spinach to the mixture, and cook everything until the spinach is just thawed.

In a medium sized bowl, mash your tofu with a fork. Take about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of your crumbled tofu and put it in your blender with 1/4 cup cashews and 1/4 cup water. Blend on high until the mixture is smooth.

Pour blender contents back into medium sized bowl, and add garlic, onion, and spinach mixture as well. Mix it up.

When your eggplant is finished roasting, use a spoon to scrape out the eggplant contents from the skin, and put them  into your tofu mixture. Stir it up!

Stuff your shells with your eggplant tofu mixture, and place in a bed of your favorite marinara in a 9 X 13 in baking dish. Pour a little more marinara on top of your shells. Then sprinkle some mozzarella cheese on top.

Last step. Bake uncovered at 400 degrees for about 8-10 minutes and you’re ready to go.

These shells took a little longer and were a little messier, but definitely worth it! I even took some over to my neighbors because I made so many and didn’t tell them it was tofu. I thought I’d let them decide for themselves based off of the taste. Because if they were anything like my dad, they’d freak out when they heard the word “tofu”. Turns out, both my dad and my neighbors loved them! In fact, they brought the dish back in minutes because they inhaled them, they were that good!

I hope you enjoy them too! Stay tuned to see what’s next…

-Elissa Rae