Vegan Family Meals Blog Tour: Lasagna Rolls with Tofu Ricotta and Everyday Tomato Sauce

Pinay In Texas Cooking Corner is proud to be one of the blog tour stops for “Vegan Family Meals: Real Food For Everyone”, a new cookbook from Ann Gentry, Hollywood’s #1 Vegan Chef and owner of chic LA restaurant, Real Food Daily.

After being nominated on Babble.com's Top 100 Mommy Food Bloggers, I was contacted by Much and House Public Relations to be one of the blog tour stops for Vegan Family Meals. I must admit that I was hesitant at first, but after giving it a serious thought, I realized that even though my family is not vegan, this is a good opportunity for us to try something different. So I accepted the offer and chose to do recipe duplication of Ann Gentry's Lasagna Rolls. Lasagna has been one of my favorite pasta dishes since I was in high school but I've never tried any lasagna without meat in it. I find this the perfect time to do it. 

I've always been amazed with how vegans manage not to eat meat. Though I try my best to prepare meatless meals two to three times a week, I honestly can't imagine myself going entirely vegan. But Ann Gentry pointed out in her book introduction that  "It's not necessary to become vegan or vegetarian to enjoy the benefits of eating plant-based meals". Based from her own experiences, Ann understands what a very challenging undertaking going vegan really is, and she even admitted that she eats small amount of fish and dairy occasionally. 

After trying her  Lasagna Rolls with Tofu Ricotta and Everyday Tomato Sauce recipe, I am now less intimidated with vegan cooking. It's basically the same, you are only excluding meat from your cooking which for me won't be too hard to do a couple of times a week. As Ann said, "it's well worth the effort to consume less meat and dairy even if you don't eliminate it entirely".

I personally loved the lasagna! I thought that it would be bland...but I was wrong. I loved how the Tofu Ricotta worked on it! Ryan loved it too. He said the vegetable texture made it seem like there was meat in it. I was surprised that Clarise loved the taste of Tofu Ricotta and ate one whole lasagna roll. Cherlin on the other hand, really don't like tofu so the Tofu Ricotta was a big no for her. But she adored the taste of Ann's Everyday Tomato Sauce! She requested me to cook 3 lasagna noodles for her and she ate them with just the tomato sauce. :)

I'm really glad to have tried doing this Vegan Lasagna Rolls. Though this recipe requires a lot of ingredients, the outcome is so tasty!  It gave me such a good experience with vegan food and now, I want to try more of Anne's recipes. 

If you want to know more about Ann Gentry, visit Real Food Daily,  and if you want to add some new healthy alternatives to your family's dinner table, be sure to get a copy of VEGAN FAMILY MEALS: Real Food For Everyone.

You won't be disappointed! With the very appealing photos and Ann's step-by-step instructions on how to prepare the recipes, you won't be sorry if you purchase this book. Whether you  plan to totally set your foot into the vegan world or you just want a break from the carnivore world, this cookbook will take away your worries about vegan cooking and will give you the assurance that everyone can make and enjoy this kind of food. Most recipes here requires a lot of ingredients, but don't let that intimidate you. I guess that's how vegans do it to make the dish more flavorful and replace the missing flavor of meat. Remember that in cooking, you can always omit and substitute. So if the ingredients list is too overwhelming for you, omit some of them and just use the ingredients you think will suit your taste!

Here's the Lasagna Rolls with Tofu Ricotta and Everyday Tomato Sauce recipe --- one of the more than 100 recipes from this wonderful 257 page cookbook. It's definitely a must try!

Ingredients:

• 2½ Tbsp olive oil
• 2 onions, thinly sliced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and cut into ¼" pcs.
• 1 head broccoli, stems removed and florets finely chopped
• 2 cups Tofu Ricotta Cheese (recipe follows)
• 12 eggless lasagna noodles
• 3 cups Everyday Tomato Sauce (recipe follows)

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.

2. Heat 1 Tbsp of the oil in a large, heavy frying pan over medium high heat. Add the onions, garlic, basil, salt, and pepper. Saute until the onions are tender, about 10 minutes. Add the carrots, zucchini, and broccoli and saute until the carrots are crisp-tender, about 12 minutes. Let cool completely. Mix the vegetable mixture into the tofu ricotta cheese.

3. Cook the noodles in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring often, until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and rinse the noodles, then toss them with 1 Tbsp of the remaining oil to prevent the noodles from sticking together.

4. Coat a 13"x9"x2" baking dish with the remaining 1½ tsp oil. Spread 1 cup of the tomato sauce on the bottom of the dish. Using a spatula, spread about ½ cup of the vegetable mixture over each lasagna sheet, leaving about ½" of each end uncovered. Roll up each sheet tightly and place it seam-side-down in the baking dish. Pour the remaining 2 cups tomato sauce over the lasagna rolls.

5. Cover the dish with aluminum foil. Bake until the sauce bubbles, about 55 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking for 15 minutes.

Tofu Ricotta Cheese

Ingredients:

• 1 (14 oz) container water packed firm tofu, drained and cut into quarters
• 2/3 cup yellow miso
• 2/3 cup water
• ½ cup tahini
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 5 large garlic cloves
• 1½ tsp dried basil
• 1½ tsp dried oregano
• ¾ tsp sea salt

Procedure:

Blend all the ingredients in a food processor until smooth.

*The cheese will keep for 2 days, covered and refrigerated.

Everyday Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 4 shallots, thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ tsp fine sea salt
• 1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup water
• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh oregano

Procedure:

Heat the olive oil in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the shallots, garlic, and salt and saute until fragrant, about 20 sec. Stir in the tomatoes and water. Bring to a gentle simmer, then decrease the heat to low and simmer gently, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes, to allow the flavors to blend. Stir in the basil and oregano. Remove from heat.