I made this dish the other night and posted the pic on social media and received a bunch of questions about the filling. So, I thought I’d let you in on the secret to my vegan ricotta cheese replacement. In this recipe I grill the eggplant to make it a little lighter, but if you want to bread and fry the eggplant instead, it’s phenomenal. This is also an easy recipe to make ahead of time. You can refrigerate overnight and pop in the oven before your guests get there.  And if eggplant isn’t your thing, this is great if you use Swiss chard leaves to roll this up!

Hope you enjoy!

Eggplant Rollatini

serves 6

2 large eggplant (you want to find ones that are longer), thinly sliced lengthwise

1 lb. firm tofu, drained

10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

1/4 cup + plain almond or soy milk

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1/2 cup roughly chopped raw cashews

1/2 cup halved golden raisins

1 tbsp. garlic powder

1 tbsp. onion powder

1 tsp. sea salt

1 tsp. black pepper

tomato sauce (your recipe or mine)

Slice the eggplant lengthwise, set in a colander and sprinkle with some salt. Let sit for about 30 minutes. In that time, make the filling.

Using a potato masher, smash the tofu till it’s mud like. Add in all the rest of the ingredients and stir well. If the mixture is a little dry, add in more “milk” product.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Wipe the eggplant slices dry and grill either on an outdoor grill or inside on a grill pan and set aside.

In a 9×12 baking dish, ladle a couple spoons of tomato sauce into the bottom of the dish.  On a clean workspace, lay a piece of eggplant down and place a dollop of tofu mix on it. Roll up and place, seam side down, in the baking dish.  Repeat until you use all the eggplant.  Cover the rolls with a few spoonfuls of tomato sauce and bake for 30 minutes.  Serve with some pasta on the side and some additional tomato sauce.

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