Vegan Baked Ziti with Cashew Cheese. Simple ingredients come together to create a comfort food classic that is sure to please all of your friends and family. Noodles, marinara sauce and a luxurious creamy cashew cheese sauce are baked to perfection.
Traditional Baked Ziti usually consists of white pasta with a tomato sauce, sometimes meat, and a TON of cheese. This Vegan Baked Ziti with Cashew Cheese gets a healthy makeover without sacrificing flavor. Seriously, this dish is deliciously rich, creamy and comforting. You won’t miss the meat or cheese.
I have been making this recipe for years for my family and it never disappoints. I usually throw a cooked vegetable or salad on the side as well, such as Instant Pot cooked kale, roasted brussels sprouts, steamed broccoli or roasted cauliflower.
This Vegan Baked Ziti with Cashew Cheese is:
A comfort food classic
SUPER kid-friendly
Creamy and rich
Bursting with tomato goodness
Topped with Vegan Parmesan
Quick and Easy
How do you make Vegan Baked Ziti?
-First, prepare your pasta. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.
-Next, pour your pasta sauce on top.
-Stir your pasta sauce in with the noodles.
-Now spoon your cashew cheese on top of the noodles and sauce.
-Stir cashew cheese sauce into the noodles, but not too much, leaving some pockets of cheese unmixed. Sprinkle Vegan Parmesan on top and bake for 25 minutes.
This is a great meal to impress non-vegans and show them the magic of cashews as a stand in for cheese!
See this recipe for Vegan Parmesan. This stuff is good anywhere you would use parmesan cheese, such as sprinkled over pasta or pizza. It keeps for weeks in the fridge in a glass container. I always have some on hand!
If you make this recipe, let me know how it goes! Rate it, leave a comment and tag a photo @noracooksvegan on Instagram. Enjoy!
Vegan Baked Ziti with Cashew Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 lb whole grain or gluten free ziti noodles or similiar shape
- 1 1/2 cups raw cashews soaked in hot water for 5-10 minutes
- 3/4 cup water
- juice from 1 large lemon
- 4 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 25 oz jar marinara sauce
- 1/2 cup Vegan Parmesan
Instructions
- Prepare pasta according to package instructions.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Make the Cashew Cheese sauce: Add the soaked and drained cashews to a high powered blender along with the water, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, garlic, onion powder and salt. Blend until smooth, scraping the sides down as needed.
- Add the cooked noodles to casserole dish.
- Pour the marinara sauce on top of noodles and stir to combine.
- Spoon the cashew cheese on top of noodle/sauce mixture and stir gently, leaving pockets of cheese intact.
- Sprinkle vegan parmesan on the top. (optional)
- Bake, uncovered, for 25 minutes.
- Serve with steamed kale, broccoli, roasted brussels sprouts or a good salad. Enjoy!
Juan Morin
Fabulous! By association, I am a part-time vegan/vegetarian, my daughters are full-time. I don’t usually comment, but when worth mentioning, this recipe was amazing. This recipe surpassed the flavor, texture, creaminess, and richness of its non-plant based counter part. I have my own tomato sauce recipe, which is insanely delicious and added Beyond Meat Italian sausage, which added another dimension to the flavor profile. Thank you so much for making a meat eater appreciate plant based eating. I fully recommend this to all types of eaters.
P.S. The vegan cheese sauce and parmesan are worth the effort to make, they are almost identical to the real thing.
Nora
I’m so happy you enjoyed this recipe so much! Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Christy
This is a delicious pasta recipe. We’ve already made it multiple times since discovering this recipe including serving it to my non vegan (one could say fairly anti vegan) relatives when they came to visit and they all agreed it was delicious!
Gabrielle Jung
Nora, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I read a few of the comments above and I couldn’t agree more. Veganism was the best choice I have ever made, the only thing I miss is cheese. I am Italian so a lot of my culture is cheese and cream-heavy dishes. This is an AMAZING substitute, it is actually wayyyyy better than the ziti my grandma makes (although I will never tell her!!!!). USER BEWARE this is addictive and has caused me and my fiance (a vegetarian who eats dairy) to almost eat an entire pound of pasta on several occasions!!
I would also like to add, I sometimes don’t bake this. I also sometimes don’t add red sauce. I have made this as a cream dish with peas, spinach and a vegan “bacon” I make from tofu to act like a pancetta.
Vegans, vegetarians and non-vegs love love this dish. beyond grateful for this and the rest of your fab recipes, can’t wait to try more.
Nora
You are so welcome! I’m so happy you are enjoying the vegan ziti. Thank you!
Toni Amos
Thank you for this delish dish, it is a wow for everyone who has sat down to dinner with us!
Nora
I’m so glad you have enjoyed the ziti, thank you! It’s one of my family’s favorites.
Lisa
So good! Made it tonight and the family loved it. Just went back to veganism and this recipe will be a regular for me!