What a sad thing: I have gone SO MANY YEARS without trying to make a tofu ricotta. Why has it never crossed my mind? Well, besides the fact that I hardly ever ate ricotta and didn’t know what it was or what it was used for...

Anyway, I finally got around to doing it, and I'm so glad I tried something new!

A few weeks ago I wanted to try my hand at a new vegan lasagna. I’ve been making them for years, but wanted to try something different. I decided to put the tofu into the food processor to make it more ricotta-like instead of just crumbling it finely like I usually do. The result? Well, let’s just say that my cheese-loving husband told me that he never wanted the real stuff ever again. That’s pretty strong. Of course, all the other elements of the lasagna were playing a part, but this ricotta was one of the VIPs.

Turns out this is great for a lot of things - spreading on crackers or bread, and stuffing manicotti noodles with. I’m going to be trying it in some meatballs, so stay tuned for that experiment as well.

Easy Tofu Ricotta

What you need:

• 16 ounces super firm tofu

• 2 TBSP nutritional yeast flakes

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 TBSP lemon juice

• 1 TBSP basil (dried)

• 2 small cloves garlic (or one large)

What to do:

1) Drain the tofu, getting as much moisture out as possible
2) Add all ingredients to food processor and process until smooth, scraping down the sides as you go.

What do you use ricotta for?