If you’re a vegan and you’re invited to a dinner, banquet, or other large party involving food, you usually have two choices: either eat before you go and find a lettuce leaf to nibble on or offer to bring some of the food. Last night I attended a dinner at our local Unitarian Universalist church, and one of the great things about this group of people is that there’s almost always someone else bringing a vegan dish. Last night was no exception, but, since most of the food was provided by a local barbecue place, I offered to help out with a couple more vegan options.
For a main dish, I chose to update one of my old favorites, Rigatoni with Zucchini and Eggplant. (The photo above is not a good representation of the dish. Though there is a high proportion of vegetables to pasta, there really is more pasta than the photo shows!)
This is a layered pasta dish, similar to lasagna, that doesn’t really stay layered when you dish it up. Tofu stands in for ricotta cheese, and the nutritional yeast (available in natural food stores) lends a great cheesy taste. The original recipe used jarred spaghetti sauce, but I wanted a fresher taste, so I used Muir Glen Fire Roasted tomatoes. If you haven’t tried these, you must! They have a lovely sweet, smoky taste. You can find them in natural food stores or in the organic/natural section of some supermarkets.
Rigatoni with Zucchini and Eggplant
Ingredients
- 1 large zucchini — sliced in 1/4″ half moons
- 1/2 medium eggplant — cubed
- 1 large onion — chopped
- 1 bell pepper — seeded & chopped
- 3 cloves garlic — minced
- 3 tablespoons water — (more as needed)
- 12-14 ounces tofu — (lowfat) mashed
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- 2 teaspoons dried basil (divided)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (divided)
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes — (optional)
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt — (divided)
- 8 ounces pasta — rigatoni or other small tubular pasta
- 2 14.5 oz. cans diced tomatoes (fire roasted, if available)
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- soy Parmesan (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°.
- Boil pasta according to package directions, cooking until just barely tender (a little undercooked is better than overcooked). When it’s done, reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water before draining the pasta.
- While the pasta’s cooking, sauté the eggplant, zucchini, onions, bell pepper and garlic in 2 tbsp. water in a nonstick pan over medium heat, adding more water if needed to prevent sticking. When the vegetables are tender, add the reserved pasta cooking water, 1 tsp. basil, 1 tsp. oregano, the rosemary, 1 tsp. salt, tomatoes, and tomato sauce; stir, and keep warm.
- Combine the mashed tofu with the pine nuts, parsley, nutritional yeast, and remaining basil, oregano, salt, and red pepper flakes. Stir the cooked rigatoni into the tofu.
- Lightly coat a 4-quart casserole with vegetable oil spray. Spread a thin layer of the vegetable mixture over the bottom (you just want a little sauce there to keep the pasta from sticking). Place a layer of half the pasta mixture, then cover with half the sautéed vegetables; repeat layers.
- Cover the casserole and bake it for 30 minutes. Remove cover and bake another 15 minutes. Before serving, sprinkle with soy Parmesan cheese, if you want.
Preparation time: 15 minute(s) | Cooking time: 50 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 6
Nutrition (per serving): 292 calories, 51 calories from fat, 6g total fat, 0mg cholesterol, 994.7mg sodium, 460.1mg potassium, 46.1g carbohydrates, 5.8g fiber, 8.7g sugar, 14.9g protein, 8.1 points.
This is a great dish to serve to vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike. Unfortunately, if you bring it to the Unitarian church in my town, you won’t have any leftovers to bring home!
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I was wondering if i should use medium-firm or firm tofu? any suggestions / does it make a difference? Thanks
I usually use firm tofu but either one will do. Hope you enjoy it!
Hi Susan,
First recipe I tried on your site and it was everything I hoped it would be!
The taste is outstanding!!
Didn’t use pine nuts because they are so darn expensive and couldn’t find any fire roasted diced tomatoes so I just used regular canned diced tomatoes and it still turned out fantastic!!
Looking forward to trying more of your recipes.
Laura
We had this tonight, and it was delicious! When my kids came in from playing outside with my husband, they asked if I was cooking pizza. They said it smelled good.
I didn’t have canned tomatoes on hand, so subbed tomato/olive spaghetti sauce. I also had bowtie pasta. Thanks again for another winning recipe!
Jill
Hi Susan! I made this last week and three meat-eating men devoured it. One even asked me for the recipe, and he couldn’t believe it when he found out it was vegan and gluten-free (not to mention nearly fat free). I left out the tofu because I avoid soy and I added 1 cup of nutritional yeast, which made it a little dry so I drizzled some marinara on the top to compensate. It came out creamy, bubbly, and wonderful. Thank you, thank you, thankyou!
Hi Everyone,
Delicious Recipe!
Is there a fatfree vegan recipe for “like” italian bread?
Thanks,
Kia
Susan, would you please add a printer-friendly link to this recipe? Thanks!
looks delish! there are a lot of vegans at my unitarian church, too.
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