Vegan Tofu Ricotta Recipe

Vegan cheeses can be expensive and hard to find. Luckily for us, Miriam Hahn specializes in healthy, fun dishes, and she's here to help. Enter: this easy-to-make, fully vegan replacement. For this faux cheese, Hahn utilizes the unique properties of extra firm tofu. "I use tofu a lot in different recipes," she says, "and 95% of the time, I use extra firm. Even though you are pressing the water out, you want it as dry as possible, and I find that the extra firm has less water in it to start with." Hahn also appreciates the nutrients in tofu, such as calcium, protein, and resistant starch, which "acts as a pre-biotic and improves gut health."

She says this dish can be eaten by itself as a spread or even used to replace ricotta in any recipe of your choosing. "Many of my wellness clients cannot eat dairy," reports Hahn, "and this recipe allows them to enjoy things like lasagna, stuffed shells, baked ziti, and bruschetta. It is actually BETTER than ricotta in my opinion." Holy (no) cow! 

Before you can start to make your vegan ricotta, you will need to gather your ingredients. For this dish, you will need a 12-ounce package of extra firm tofu (packed in water), one tablespoon of olive oil, one tablespoon of nutritional yeast, one teaspoon of dried oregano, one teaspoon of pink Himalayan salt (if you don't have pink, any old salt will do), one teaspoon of garlic granules or garlic powder, and the juice from half a lemon (if your lemon is on the smaller, drier side, you should use the whole thing). For the tofu, Hahn notes you should always buy organic, "since soy is 85% GMO."

Next, you will need to discard the water from the tofu. This includes the water it is packed in and the additional water it has soaked up during its time on the shelf. First, open the package of tofu and pour the packing water down the sink. Next, press the tofu. If you have a tofu press, now is a great time to use it. If not, you can place your tofu block in a shallow bowl or dish. Put a flat plate on top of it, and then put something heavy (like a cast iron skillet or multiple cans of beans) on top of the plate. Once you have let it sit for about 20 minutes, you can remove your weights and pour the drained liquid from the shallow dish.

Next, you'll want to cut your drained tofu into rough chunks. The size and shape doesn't really matter here because once they are cut, you're going to toss them into the blender. Additionally, you'll want to put all the other ingredients (olive oil, nutritional yeast, dried oregano, salt, garlic granules or powder, and lemon juice) into the blender with your tofu. Once everything is inside, blend, blend, blend! After blending, you are looking for a smooth texture. It will look pretty similar to ricotta in consistency, it will just be a little less white.

And just like that, you have a delicious vegan ricotta replacement. As far as serving suggestions, Hahn says, "This is delicious on toasted baguette bread with fresh tomatoes." If you're feeling fancy, add some chopped basil or parsley on top for an herby bite. Additionally, this vegan ricotta can be used to replace its namesake cheese in any recipe. Just replace the stated amount of ricotta with an equal amount of vegan substitute. However, if you are making something sweet, you should take out the seasonings like dried herbs and nutritional yeast.