Creamy, cheesy and comforting Vegan Baked Ziti. Ziti pasta is covered in a cheesy vegan tomato-cream sauce and baked in a casserole dish until crispy. Serve with a side salad for a complete meal.
First, I want to send a big love and gratitude filled THANK YOU to all of you. I was experiencing technical difficulties with my site yesterday and had to take it offline for a few hours while it was getting fixed. I was so happy that so many of you reached out to me and I was able to personally send my recipes to you while you were busy cooking and baking for Thanksgiving! Ceara’s Kitchen is back up now and fully optimized. XOXO.
Can you believe it? It’s November and I’m halfway done my Christmas shopping. Are you a “It’s-November-and-I’m-already-done-my-shopping” Christmas shopper or a “Holy-#(^&#-It’s-Xmas-Eve-and-I-still-have-half-my-gifts-to-go”. Most years around this time, I’m just starting my holiday shopping but this year I’ve been shopping online and trying my best to plan my gifts in advance so Christmas eve doesn’t come and I’m scrambling to get my last few gifts.
I come from a pretty big family and this year we decided to do our gift giving a little bit differently. My stepmom set up a Secret Santa online where everyone draws one name. She set it up so nobody will draw their partner and everyone submits a “wish list” as well. It’s super fun since I come from a big family, everyone is trying to figure out who got who. How do you do gifts in your family?
It actually snowed here this week so it finally does feel like the Christmas season. I think I might even put up our tree next weekend to get in the spirit of things! And the cold weather we’re having seriously calls for cozy casserole meals like this Vegan baked Ziti…
The cheesy tomato sauce of this Vegan Baked Ziti could not be easier to throw together with only a few ingredients. I use olives and a bit of olive brine in the sauce with gives it such a rich and deep flavor. I even considered not baking the pasta after I snuck a bite of the ziti mixed in with the cheesy sauce in the pan. SO darn luscious. YUM. ↓↓↓
Top with nutritional yeast and bread crumbs. If you haven’t started putting nutritional yeast on everything yet, now’s the time to start.
If you make this Vegan Baked Ziti at home, share your feedback below or snap a photo and tag #CearasKitchen on Instagram.
Bake until the top of the Vegan Baked Ziti is golden brown. I like to broil my Vegan Baked Ziti for the last couple minutes to make it extra crispy. Can’t get enough of that cheesy-crispy topping on top! Enjoy!
And to all my American friends across the border, wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving and happy start to your holiday season!
- 1 pound ziti or penne pasta (500 grams)
- ½ cup cashews, soaked
- 1 cup olives, pitted (in a jar or can)
- ¼ cup olive brine
- 1 can crushed tomatoes (796 ml or 28 oz)
- 1 cup water
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
- 1 white onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, diced
- Salt and pepper and hot pepper flakes
- ¼ cup bread crumbs
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- In a medium size bowl, soak the cashews in hot water for thirty minutes or overnight in cold water in the fridge.
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente (still slightly hard, the pasta will continue cooking when you bake it in the oven).
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Rinse and add the soaked cashews to the high speed blender with the olives, olive brine, crushed tomatoes, and water. Blend for 2 minutes until creamy.
- Saute the chopped onion and garlic with the Italian seasoning over medium high heat in a large pot until soft (I use the same deep pan I cooked the pasta in).
- Add the pasta sauce to the pan. Stir in the nutritional yeast. Cover the pan and simmer for 10 minutes. Taste test and add salt, pepper, and hot pepper flakes to taste.
- Stir the pasta in with the sauce. Transfer the pasta to a casserole dish. Garnish with nutritional yeast and bread crumbs on top.
- Bake for 25 - 30 minutes until the top of the pasta is golden brown. If you want the topping super crispy, broil for the last 3 minutes. Enjoy!
15 comments
Have you tried freezing this? I was thinking of making one to eat right away and one to save for a busy night! Thanks! Looks amazing!!
Also what kind of pasta do you use
Hi Ceara….. do you think instead of olives I could use jar artichokes and the artichoke brine.? I don’t have olives but I have a jar of artichokes in the pantry and really want to make this!
Just made this! I made a gluten-free version with brown rice pasta, and if you’re doing the same I recommend not cooking the pasta at all before baking, or just cooking for a minute or two max. I boiled the pasta for just half of the time recommended on the bag (5 min instead of 10), anticipating some extra softening while in the oven, but after baking, the pasta still came out overcooked. Aside from that though, it tasted great! If I make this again, I might cut the olives in half and add some basil instead. But that’s mostly personal preference. Thanks for the recipe!! I’ve been looking for a good vegan creamy red sauce, and this was delicious and easy 🙂 Exactly what I was looking for: creamy + flavorful 🙂
Not sure what I did wrong, this turned out very dry and i added an entire jar of bottled sauce so we could eat it. I think it would have been better if not baked as someone suggested. I followed the recipe exactly.
Not sure what I did wrong. I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out so dry and tasteless I had to add some jarred tomato sauce. I think It would have been better if not baked.
Would it be as tasty with no olives or olive juice…or what else can I use instead?
Can you just eat this without baking it? Just leave it creamy?
Just made this and it was ahhhmazing 😍😍😍
So glad you enjoyed it!!! <3
Just tried out this recipe and it was absolutely delicious! I didn’t need to add any salt because the olives and brine provided enough saltiness to the dish! Thank you for sharing! 5/5 for this amazing recipe <3
Yes, I am also wondering what type of olives you used! It seems that kalamata olives would be quite tasty here.
Black or kalamata olives! 🙂
This might be a silly question but do you use green or black olives?
Black olives or kalamata olives! They ones that you buy in the jar in olive brine. Enjoy! 🙂