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These Zucchini rolls are like lasagna roll ups, filled with delicious herbed sun-dried tomato tofu ricotta , all nestled in a pan with bubbly tomato ragu. They looks so pretty! And No watery mess!
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You Must Make These Zucchini Lasagna Rolls! No need to sweat or squeeze the zucchini needed, just spread the cheese mixture, roll and nestle in the sauce and bake! Great texture, just perfect comfort food! Unlike zucchini lasagna bake that needs a lot of steps, and can still give you limpy or watery result, these rolls bake up perfectly, are versatile and also easy to serve!
This is a really beautiful dish which you can serve at parties or for a fancy dinner. It’s also relatively easy to make. The only time consuming part is rolling up the zucchini slices. But unlike pasta, there’s no pre-cooking to do. Just use a peeler to slice your zucchini into long, skinny pieces.
You can use pre-cooked lasagna sheets in this as well, if you don’t want to use zucchini.
The vegan ricotta-style filling is also easy to make. It has amazing flavor with the herbs and sun dried tomato. Just add everything to a bowl, and mix and mash to make the filling. It comes together super quickly!
Spread that creamy filling into the zucchini, and roll it up. It doesn’t even have to be perfectly spread out. Roll the zucchini up, and place into a baking dish with some pasta sauce, then top it with vegan cheese and bake. I add some veggie grounds(vegan ground meat substitute) to the pasta sauce and it all bakes at the same time to make this meaty ragu. Use lentils or just omit for variation.
These zucchini lasagna rolls come out so pretty, and they’re fun to serve and eat.
Why You’ll Love Zucchini Rolls
- beautiful appetizer or entree for a party or fancy dinner
- tender zucchini around a cheesy vegan ricotta-style filling with beefy tomato sauce and creamy vegan cheese on top
- fun to make and to eat!
- naturally gluten-free with nut-free and soy-free options
More Zucchini Recipes
Zucchini Rolls with herbed sun-dried tomato tofu ricotta
Ingredients
For the Filling
- 10 ounces firm or extra firm tofu
- 3 ounces vegan cream cheese, Or more tofu
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon Italian herb blend
- 1 teaspoon dried basil, or use 1/4 cup fresh basil chopped finely
- 2 tablespoons chopped sun dried tomato, chop them into really small pieces
- 1/2 cup vegan mozzarella
- 1/4 cup vegan parmesan
For the Zucchini
- 2 or 3 zucchini, depending on the number of slices you like and the baking dish you are planning to use
For the Sauce
- 14 ounces pasta sauce, or marinara sauce, of choice
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper flakes
- 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
- 3/4 cup of veggie grounds, or vegan ground beef or cooked lentils
For the Topping
- 1/4 cup vegan mozzarella, or vegan parmesan
- fresh herbs, like basil or parsley
- crushed red pepper flakes
Instructions
Make the filling.
- Crumble up the tofu and add it to a medium bowl, then add the vegan cream cheese and olive oil and press with a fork. Mix and mash until the mixture is somewhat smooth, then mix in all of the spices, herbs, and sun dried tomato.
- Add the vegan cheeses, and press and mix again to make a homogenous mixture.
Prepare the zucchini and sauce.
- Slice the zucchini into thin slices using a vegetable peeler. It’s okay if some of the slices are not even and are shorter or missing some edges. I usually use two slices per roll, because not all slices are equally sized, which is fine. If one of the zucchini slices is fatter than the other, then you want to slice the edges a little bit, so that most of the rollups have a similar width throughout.
- Before you start to fill up the zucchini, add the pasta sauce to an 8 x 11 “ inch baking dish, then add the rest of the sauce ingredients and mix well and even it out.
- Then, make your rolling station. Take one or two zucchini strips at a time and use a spoon to spread some of the filling onto the zucchini. Leave at least an inch on both ends, so that it's easy to roll. While you're rolling, the filling might shift a little bit, which is why you want to keep an inch towards the other end, as well. Roll up the filled zucchini, then place snugly in the pasta sauce.
- Repeat for all the zucchini strips and fill up your baking dish. You want to keep each roll up pretty close to the others, . Leave a few millimeters between each zucchini roll.
- Bake for 25 minutes in a preheated 400° F (205° C) oven.
- Remove the baking dish from the oven, and sprinkle the vegan cheese on top. Cover the baking dish with parchment paper, and put it back to bake for another 10 to 15 minutes.
- Remove the parchment from the top, and bake 5 minutes to brown some of the cheese, you can also broil for 2-3 minutes.
- Remove the baking dish from the oven, let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes, and then garnish with some fresh herbs, like basil, and pepper flakes, if you like, and then serve.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- tofu – This is the base for your filling. If you would like to make this soy-free, use cashews instead, and make the filling in the blender, stirring in the sun dried tomatoes at the end.
- vegan cream cheese – Use nut-free and/or soy-free, if needed.
- extra virgin olive oil – Gives the filling a nice richness.
- Herbs and spices – Salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, nutritional yeast, Italian herbs, and dried basil season the filling. You’ll also add pepper flakes to the sauce.
- sun dried tomato – Adds amazing umami flavor to the filling.
- vegan cheese – We are adding vegan mozzarella and parmesan to the filling, and you can top these zucchini rolls with one or the other. Or both!
- zucchini – Depending on the size of your zucchini, you’ll need 2 or 3. Use a peeler to cut them into long, skinny pieces. If you don’t like zucchini, you can use cooked lasagna noodles instead.
- pasta sauce – We are using premade pasta sauce here to save time, and we are seasoning it with pepper flakes, balsamic vinegar, and veggie grounds to make it taste amazing!
- toppings – You will melt some vegan cheese on top, then after baking sprinkle on fresh herbs and more crushed pepper flakes.
💡 Tips
- Your zucchini slices likely won’t be uniform in size, and that’s fine! Just use a knife to trim them to about the same size.
- Don’t forget to leave about 1″ of zucchini uncovered on either end. On one end, it helps you roll, and the other allows for the inevitable shifting the filling will do as you roll these up.
- You want to arrange these snugly in the pan, but do leave just a teeny bit of space between them, so the zucchini cooks through.
How to Make Zucchini Rolls
Make the filling.
Crumble up the tofu and add it to a medium bowl, then add the vegan cream cheese and olive oil and press with a fork. Mix and mash until the mixture is somewhat smooth, then mix in all of the spices, herbs, and sun dried tomato.
Add the vegan cheeses, and press and mix to make a homogenous mixture.
Prepare the zucchini and sauce.
Slice the zucchini into thin slices using a vegetable peeler. It’s okay if some of the slices are not even and are shorter or missing some edges. I usually use two slices per roll, because not all slices are equally sized, which is fine. If one of the zucchini slices is fatter than the other, then you want to cut the edges a little bit, so that most of the rollups have a similar width throughout.
Before you start to fill up the zucchini, add the pasta sauce to an 8 x 11” or similar size baking dish, then add the rest of the sauce ingredients and mix well and even it out.
Then, make your rolling station. Take one or two zucchini strips at a time and use a spoon to spread some of the filling onto the zucchini.
Leave at least an inch on both ends, so that it’s easy to roll. While you’re rolling, the filling might shift a little bit, which is why you want to keep an inch towards the other end, as well. Roll up the filled zucchini, and place it on top of the filling snugly in the pasta sauce.
Repeat for all the zucchini strips and fill up your baking dish. You want to keep each roll up pretty close to the others, but not too tight fit. Leave a few millimeters between each zucchini roll.
Bake for 25 minutes in a preheated 400° F (205° C) oven.
Remove the baking dish from the oven, and sprinkle the vegan cheese on top. Cover the baking dish with parchment paper, and put it back to bake for another 10 to 15 minutes.
Remove the parchment from the top, and bake 5 minutes to brown some of the cheese, you can also broil for 2-3 minutes.
Remove the baking dish from the oven, let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes, and then garnish with some fresh herbs, like basil, and some more pepper flakes, if you like, and then serve.
Store baked zucchini rolls in the refrigerator for upto 3 days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Zucchini rolls are naturally gluten-free.
To make this soy-free, use soy-free vegan cheese and vegan cream cheese. Omit the tofu and use soaked cashews that you blend up with all of the other filling ingredients, except the sun dried tomatoes. Stir those in at the end, and use that mixture.
To make this nut-free, use vegan cream cheese and vegan cheeses that are nut-free.
Yes! Assemble the baking dish, cover and refrigerate for upto 2 days. Bake when needed
You can but the texture of zucchini will change. Cover the half time baked zucchini rolls with more cheese and a snug cover and freeze. Reheat in the oven.
Very tasty, I made it today for lunch. Thanks for nice recipe.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Amazing recipe. Took me some time to roll up all the zucchini but it was worth the effort. Will definitely do it again.
Yay!! Yes that does take a bit of time. I usually do it when I need some therapeutic cooking time with some nice music 🙂
This was amazing! We aren’t vegans, so I just made it vegetarian. I also didn’t want to bother with rolling up the zucchini so I made it in layers like traditional lasagna. The tofu “ricotta” was soooo yummy!
Yay!
This recipe looks delicious! I would prefer not to use tofu for the ricotta mixture. How many cashews would I use to substitute – also 10oz?
That would be too much. 1.5 cups cashews will be enough. You can also add more vegan cream cheese
This sounds so delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
One problem: I live in a small town and cannot get vegan cream cheese. What can I substitute?
Hi, you can do extra tofu instead.
Made these for Sunday potluck and they vanished before I could even save one! Thankfully I had eaten a few while tasting!! I love the sundried tomato the tofu ricotta filling. It adds a fab dimension of flavor!
Yay! Awesome