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Lazy Cat Kitchen

A food blog with plant-based recipes from all over the world

Vegan zucchini involtini bake

July 4, 2020 by Ania - 26

comfort food, easy, gluten-free, healthy, Italiango to recipe

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vegan zucchini involtini pan

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but I am breaking with tradition today – it’s the first weekend in weeks where I am not publishing a dessert recipe. For a dessert-aholic like me that’s a big step! In all seriousness, this whole lock down business has been terrible for my waistline and I am keen to do something about it before things really get out of hand!

I have returned to running post-Covid, but then I chickened out again when, out of the blue, the temperature suddenly reached over 30° C (that’s 86° F) last week. Being a Northern continental person, I am not made for running in a heatwave. Duncan obviously did go every single day but he is a running monster and no one else I know compares with his grit and endurance. I admire him greatly from a shaded distance… 😉 This week, the weather has gone back to our normal – it’s cloudy and drizzly – and while it feels like summer is over, it is great for running, so I’m back and trying my hardest to stick with it this time!

From other news, we are still furnishing our living room slowly and getting ready to move to the next project – an under stairs cupboard. We’ve just received a massive mantelpiece mirror but turns out that it weighs a lot (almost 20 kg!!) so we are now trying to work out how to hang it safely without it taking a chunk out of our newly restored floor (or one of us…) It’s a little nerve racking. But it’s all good, the room is finally taking shape and we think it will be super cosy by the time winter comes along. After a few winters in very little comfort, we are really looking forward to it this year.

Today’s recipe is an easy yet impressive dish that is great for entertaining if you, like us, plan on having guests this weekend. It looks complicated but the hardest thing about it is cutting the zucchini into thin enough slices to be able to roll them up without snapping. If you have a snazzy kitchen gadget that does that, now will be the time to use it. I am old school so I used a knife and my hand eye coordination, which wasn’t always pretty, but I got it done. The sauce is made entirely in a blender and does not require any precooking and my basil ‘ricotta’ filling is dead easy too – it comes together in minutes – so really zucchini slicing and rolling up is the biggest job. It is one of those dishes that looks impressive though and its flavours of basil, tomatoes, zucchini and garlic are an ideal way to showcase the best of summer produce. x

PS: If you make my vegan zucchini involtini bake, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram as @lazycatkitchen and use the #lazycatkitchen hashtag. I love seeing your takes on my recipes!

vegan zucchini involtini zucchini slices

vegan zucchini involtini side

vegan zucchini involtini

vegan zucchini involtini close up

5.00 from 7 votes
Print
  • serves: 6-8
  • prep: 30 min
  • cooking: 30 min

Ingredients

TOMATO SAUCE

  • 600 g / 21 oz (1½ tin) of quality plum tomatoes or 750 g / 1.5 lb ripe tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp / 20 ml olive oil (optional)
  • ¼ small onion
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • ½ tsp fine salt, more to taste
  • ¼ tsp pepper, to taste
  • 1 tbsp quality tomato paste
  • a pinch of chilli flakes (optional)
  • 15 large basil leaves

BASIL RICOTTA FILLING

  • 135 g / 1 cup raw cashews or flaked almonds (or sunflower seeds for a nut-free version), soaked in boiling water for 30 min
  • 100 g / 3.5 oz firm cotton tofu*, no need to press!!!
  • 10 large basil leaves
  • 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • ¼ tsp black pepper
  • ½ tsp fine sea salt
  • 2 tsp white / shiro miso paste (if unavailable add more salt and nutritional yeast)
  • generous amount of freshly grated (recommended) nutmeg, adjust to taste
  • zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
  • 45 ml / 3 tbsp lemon juice, more to taste
  • 120 ml / ½ cup almond (or other unsweetened plant) milk

REMAINING INGREDIENTS

  • 6 courgettes / zucchinis
  • 2 tbsp coarse breadcrumbs (I make mine from leftover Turkish pide) (optional)
  • 2 tbsp pine nuts
  • fresh basil, to garnish

Method

TOMATO SAUCE

  1. Place all the sauce ingredients and 240 ml / 1 cup (add only 120 ml / ½ cup of water if using fresh tomatoes as they tend to be more watery) in a blender and blend until smooth.
  2. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your taste. Pour at the bottom of a baking dish that you’ll be arranging your zucchini roll-ups in.

BASIL RICOTTA FILLING

  1. Drain the nuts (or seeds) and place them in the blender along with all the remaining ingredients.
  2. Blend, you can get it completely smooth or leave the mixture a little bit ‘gritty’ if you prefer a bit of ricotta-like texture. To retain some texture, make sure to add the nuts last after you’ve blended the rest of the ingredients first. This mixture is designed to be fairly loose so that it does not dry out too much once the dish has finished cooking in the oven.

ROLL-UPS / INVOLTINI

  1. Cut your zucchini lengthwise into thin slices, not paper thin but thin enough to be able to roll them up easily. You can use a vegetable mandolin for this, but I found that harder than cutting them by hand. It takes a bit of practice so it’s worth having a few spares in case you’ll end up with some casualties.
  2. Heat up the oven to 200° C / 390° F.
  3. Sprinkle courgette / zucchini slices with a little salt and pepper. Allow them to sit there for 10 minutes to soften them and make them more pliable.
  4. Place about a teaspoon of the ricotta mixture on the wider end of each slice and roll the slice up gently.
  5. Place the roll in the sauce, rolled-up side facing up. Proceed until you fill up the entire dish.
  6. Sprinkle the roll-ups with coarse breadcrumbs (if using) and raw pine nuts and bake for about 40 minutes – until the sauce has thickened and ‘ricotta’ filling has firmed up and browned on top.

Notes

*You can also make this ricotta entirely out of nuts / seeds or entirely out of tofu. I did half / half for nutritional balance and because I liked the taste more. Make sure you keep it fairly loose as it will dry out a fair bit whilst in the oven.

If you want more info on some of the ingredients that we use in our recipes, check out our glossary.
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This recipe has been written by Ania. She is the cook, stylist and photographer behind Lazy Cat Kitchen. You can read about her journey into food blogging here. You can also check her out on Pinterest and Instagram.

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    Comments

    Leave a comment

  1. Enid Formosa says

    July 4, 2020 at 10:07 pm

    What do you eat this with? A green salad and some crusty bread to molnit up with?

    Reply
    • Ania says

      July 6, 2020 at 1:10 pm

      Hi,

      Yes, a salad and crusty bread are perfect or as a part of mezze or BBQ feast. Ania

      Reply
  2. Sue says

    July 5, 2020 at 2:41 am

    This looks wonderful! My waist (and other parts) definitely need some lighter food. 🙂 Thanks for the recipe Ania!! And glad your house projects are coming along

    Reply
    • Ania says

      July 6, 2020 at 1:11 pm

      Thanks Sue, I hope you’ll enjoy it if you decide to give this recipe a go! x Ania

      Reply
  3. Yvette McPhail says

    July 5, 2020 at 8:12 am

    Hi Ania. I will definitely try this as it looks filling and delicious! I have a question before I jump in: Do you need to skewer the rolls or do they stay rolled when cooking? I’m guessing when pressed together they don’t un-roll but wanted you opinion.
    Best – Yvette

    Reply
    • Ania says

      July 6, 2020 at 1:16 pm

      Hi Yvette,

      I am glad to hear that you are planning on making this dish. I did not use any skewers and I found that the rolls stayed put once placed in the thick sauce. A few where I sliced the ends a bit too thick started unravelling here and there but that was remedied easily by placing further rolls against them. You can of course insert skewers, but I am always worried that I will forget or leave one behind and my guests will end up with holes in the roofs of their mouths 🙂 Ania

      Reply
  4. Andrea Surkis says

    July 6, 2020 at 1:40 pm

    When I was in Italy, I tried something like that, but I never cooked at home. Now I will definitely cook. This is very tasty, thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • Ania says

      July 6, 2020 at 2:18 pm

      My pleasure, Andrea! I hope you’ll enjoy this dish if you decide to make it. x Ania

      Reply
  5. Jacqueline says

    July 9, 2020 at 9:04 am

    Thanks for this wonderful recipe. I made it for dinner and had leftovers for the freezer. It tastes wonderful.

    Reply
    • Ania says

      July 9, 2020 at 3:06 pm

      Thanks so much, Jacqueline! I’m delighted to hear that! Ania

      Reply
  6. Anna Kubica says

    July 11, 2020 at 4:09 am

    Hi Ania – making this as we speak. I had problems slicing zucchini and therefore had to use skewers. Any idea what to use the vegan ricotta for? It is delish!

    Reply
    • Ania says

      July 11, 2020 at 2:14 pm

      Hi Anna,

      You can just dot it straight into the sauce, it will sort of poach in it. Hope that helps! Ania

      Reply
  7. marko says

    July 12, 2020 at 6:21 pm

    This amazing dish impressed me and my guests: it looks great and the taste is wonderful. The recipe is so precise and real fun to cook. Thank you Ania.

    Reply
    • Ania says

      July 12, 2020 at 7:35 pm

      Thanks so much for your kind words, Marko! I am delighted to hear that you and your guests enjoyed this dish so much and thanks for letting me know that. Ania

      Reply
  8. Elle says

    July 14, 2020 at 11:33 pm

    I made it and it was lovely! My friend said he couldn’t taste that it wasn’t actual ricotta. I have to say it was quite some work, but I loved making it. I used a cheese slicer for the zucchini, and then stacked a few slices to roll it. That made it easier and a bit faster too, probably. I’ll definitely make this again!

    Reply
    • Ania says

      July 15, 2020 at 8:37 pm

      Oh wow, that’s fantastic to hear, Elle! That’s some compliment. Yes, it’s a little time consuming to slice all this zucchini, but glad it was worth the effort! Ania

      Reply
  9. Grahame says

    July 17, 2020 at 10:30 pm

    Hi Ania,
    I was sold on the picture of this, and it turned out as tasty as it looks! We’ve been eating a lot of ratatouille during lockdown and I was getting a bit fed up of courgettes to be honest, but this was the perfect dish to get us to try something more adventurous.
    We completely forgot about the nutmeg, and I think we definitely went a bit overboard on the garlic, but it was absolutely delicious. As you say, slicing the courgettes is the trickiest part of the job (that was my department), and I definitely had a few rejects, but practice makes perfect! I might try the mandolin slicer next time, although that thing always scares me.
    Will save it for when we have guests next time, but thanks for a very tasty and unusual dish.

    Reply
    • Ania says

      July 18, 2020 at 12:49 pm

      I’m delighted to hear that it went down so well with you and your family, Grahame! Sounds like you nailed it – in my humble opinion, there is no such thing as too much garlic 😉 and nutmeg is optional, I do like it in this context but I am sure the filling is delicious without it too. Thanks for letting me know that it was a hit with you, much appreciated! Ania

      Reply
  10. Raini says

    July 18, 2020 at 11:44 pm

    Do you have the nutritional facts for any of your recipes ? I’d like to see how many calories are in each serving so I don’t go above my daily intake

    Reply
    • Ania says

      July 19, 2020 at 8:50 pm

      Hi Raini,

      Unfortunately, I have no means of providing nutritional info on my blog at the moment. Ania

      Reply
  11. Kimberley says

    July 30, 2020 at 1:39 pm

    Hi I made this and it was absolutely delicious!! I have way too much ricotta filling though- do you think it’s okay to freeze this?

    Thanks so much!

    Reply
    • Ania says

      July 31, 2020 at 7:21 pm

      Hi Kimberley,

      I’m glad you enjoyed this dish and yes, you can certainly freeze the filling. Ania

      Reply
  12. Danielle says

    September 16, 2020 at 3:41 am

    Really great flavors and surprisingly easy to make!

    Reply
    • Ania says

      September 16, 2020 at 11:04 am

      Thanks so much, Danielle. I’m so happy you enjoyed it and thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review – much appreciated. Ania

      Reply
  13. Dayna says

    November 16, 2020 at 8:41 pm

    Thank you for such a lovely dish. My family and I loved this beautiful meal. I made extra sauce with both canned and fresh tomatoes. I reserved some of the sauce to simmer in a pot on the stove while it was baking. I also added a slash of red wine and towards the end a little sweetener to balance it. The additional sauce came in handy as the oven dried out the sauce a bit and it was especially helpful when reheating leftovers. I served this with crusty bread and a fresh green salad of arugula, baby kale cucumber and toasted pumpkin seeds with a homemade Dijon garlic dressing. I was successful with a mandolin and it saved me so much time, and good news is all my fingers are in tact! Thank you again Ania 💚

    Reply
    • Ania says

      November 17, 2020 at 5:10 pm

      Thank you so much for your lovely feedback, Dayna. I’m delighted to hear that the dish went down so well with everyone and great thinking on your feet – extra sauce comes in handy when you have leftovers, absolutely. Ania

      Reply

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Ania Marcinowska
Hi, I'm Ania. I love good food but I love animals more! Adopting a plant-based diet has been the best decision I've made and that's how this blog was born. It's a space where I want to show you that creating delicious plant-based food isn't actually hard at all.
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