These vegan lasagna rolls are a perfect way to enjoy all of the comfort food goodness of lasagna in an adorable, easier-to-serve package. The pasta dish’s spinach and homemade vegan ricotta filling is easy to prepare, and the marinara sauce can be scratch made or store bought—you choose! A great vegan meal prep dinner, these lasagna rolls freeze wonderfully too.
Anyone who reads my blog knows that I’m always in the mood for a vegan pasta dinner. If it gives me an excuse to make a recipe with vegan ricotta cheese, so much the better.
These vegan spinach lasagna rolls fit the bill on both counts. They’re one of my favorite make-ahead, freezer-friendly, cozy meals.
The lasagna rolls have all of the goodness of regular lasagna. This includes red sauce, a vegan “ricotta” filling, and tender lasagna sheets.
The advantage of rolls, rather than a traditional casserole, is that they’re easier to portion and serve than regular lasagna is. And they cook in less time.
I can’t think of a better, stress-free approach to comfort food. In addition to being one of my favorite easy vegan dinners, these rolls are also a favorite option for entertaining friends.
For years, I struggled with homemade pasta.
Pasta is one of my favorite foods, and has been my go-to order in restaurants for a long time.
When I tried to make it at home, however, I ran into trouble. There seemed to be such an art to getting pasta cooked perfectly al dente and timing the pasta with other ingredients.
They say that practice makes perfect, and I had no problem whatsoever honing my skills in the pasta department.
Nowadays, I’ve amassed a small collection of vegan pasta recipes that I truly love.
This includes my vegan mushroom pasta, chickpea pesto pasta, and my cabbage and onion pasta.
And it certainly includes these rolls.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a traditional lasagna. So, why lasagna rolls?
In addition to being pretty to look at (and pretty when you slice them), vegan lasagna rolls have a few advantages over a regular, layered lasagna.
For one thing, they’re a lot easier to portion and serve! I never manage to slice lasagna evenly, and I always make a huge mess of things when I’m trying to get that first slice out of the pan.
With the lasagna rolls, you simply scoop two or three out of a dish and onto a plate. No slicing required, and no splatters or mess as half of a piece of lasagna topples off your spatula.
The vegan spinach lasagna rolls also cook more quickly than regular lasagna. I usually leave lasagna in the oven for 45-60 minutes. These are ready in 30-35.
In addition, there’s no resting time for the lasagna rolls. When I make regular lasagna, I always give it about half an hour to sit after it comes out of the oven, so that it’s not too sloppy when I slice into it.
No such wait time here: you can plate and enjoy the rolls right away.
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Another advantage of lasagna rolls is that they’re a great make-ahead or meal prep option.
Meal prep is always most efficient when your recipe in question can be easily divided, portioned, and packed away. That’s definitely true of lasagna rolls.
The rolls will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days, once prepared. They can be frozen for up to eight weeks and defrosted in the fridge whenever you need a cozy meal.
For more on storage containers, freezing, defrosting, and reheating, you can read some of my tips for vegan meal prep.
What about preparing the lasagna rolls in stages?
Here are some options for staggering the cooking process:
Speaking of, let’s go through the steps in preparing these rolls.
Many of the same tips that apply to making regular lasagna apply to the lasagna rolls. (I like all of the noodle-cooking tips here, as well as the recommendation to have extra sauce handy.)
And, like regular lasagna, making the rolls is a bit of a process. But it’s a fun process. Here are the major steps:
I’ve been making tofu “ricotta” for a long time. It shows up in the shells in Power Plates and in this summery lasagna.
Ever since making this eggplant baked rigatoni, though, I’ve gotten in the habit of putting cashews in my ricotta, along with the tofu. I love the richness and creaminess that the cashews contribute. I think they give the “ricotta” a much more authentic texture.
This 10 minute vegan ricotta cheese has consequently become my go-to ricotta recipe. It’s so easy to prepare, and you can do so quickly as you assemble the lasagna rolls.
Once the ricotta is ready, you’ll cook, drain, wring out (to remove excess moisture) and add some frozen spinach.
Use lasagna noodles that are about 10-inches long for this recipe. I’m usually a fan of the De Cecco no. 1 lasagna noodles for regular lasagna, but the wide, short shape doesn’t work for rolling.
In this recipe, I used Barilla’s wavy lasagna noodles. They’re just the right size.
Be sure to boil your lasagna noodles in salted water, without adding any oil to the pot. And it’s helpful to give them a cold rinse as soon as they finish cooking.
Once the lasagna noodles are cooked, you’ll cover them with ricotta and marinara on a work surface. I like using a baking sheet or a big, rectangular sheet of either parchment paper or aluminum foil for this part.
Spread each noodle with 1/4 cup of the spinach and ricotta mixture, followed by a heaping tablespoon of marinara. A small, offset spatula is useful for spreading the toppings around.
Once the lasagna noodles have been covered with the ricotta and sauce, you’ll roll them up. Have the noodles arranged so that the short edge is facing you, and roll from the bottom up.
Right before you start assembling and rolling, you’ll place some marinara sauce into the bottom of your 9 x 13″ rectangle pan. Once you’ve got some rolls assembled, you can arrange them in the rectangular baker. You should have about 12-16 rolls in total.
The vegan spinach lasagna rolls don’t need too much oven time. Thirty or thirty-five minutes in total is just fine.
I recommend baking them with a foil covered for the first fifteen minutes, then removing the foil so that the sauce on top can thicken up a bit as they finish cooking.
I love using a homemade vegan “ricotta” in this recipe. It’s a little less expensive than purchasing two or three containers of store-bought vegan ricotta (which is the amount you’d need). And I think the flavor is even better.
Marinara, on the other hand? These days, I leave it to the pros. Rao’s and Michael’s of Brooklyn are my two favorites.
It’s not that I don’t love making a good, old-fashioned, long-simmered marinara at home. I do. But no matter how much labor and love I pour into my batches, professionally made marinara is usually better than mine.
In this recipe, and others, using a store-bought sauce is the single shortcut that makes the entire dish feel faster, and more doable. That counts for a lot these days.
Yes you can, and very easily. Simply use your favorite, gluten-free noodle in place of regular lasagna noodles. I like the brown rice lasagna noodles from the Tinkyada brand.
I’ve always loved cozy pasta dishes, but I’ve come to appreciate them more than ever this year. If you love this kind of comfort food as much as I do, a few other options:
This year at Thanksgiving, I focused on recipes that were simple to make and designed to serve one or two people.
Theoretically, this isn’t a two-person meal. In fact, it’s a perfect dish for company. But I think it’s still a nice option for this year, because it’s so easy to store/freeze leftovers of the vegan spinach lasagna rolls.
Which means that you can enjoy some on Christmas (or any special occasion), then savor them all over again the next time you want an easy, from-the-freezer dinner.
Enjoy them, friends. Another holiday treat later this week!
xo
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Wow another amazing recipe, thank you so much! It was very delicious especially with your homemade ricotta:)
Hooray! So glad you enjoyed it, Clare.
This lasagna roll recipe was to die for! My family is not crazy about all the whole food plant based recipes I try, but they absolutely loved these and want them again! Thank you!!!!
If frozen, do you let thaw in the refrigerator, prior to baking or do you bake from a frozen state?
I have a tray frozen ready to bake up this weekend!
Thank you Donalda
I cook fully before freezing. When it’s time to reheat, I defrost in the fridge overnight, then transfer to the oven ๐
Look so forward to trying this recipe. What is the best method to reheat after baked and frozen?
I use microwave, but you could also reheat in the oven (350F) for 15 minutes or till warmed through. Hope you enjoy!
You are the Best thankYou for teaching me about how to cook this amazing recipes .
My Family loved
I’m so glad! ๐
I made this tonight and it was delicious! Great comfort food. I love the ricotta paired with the marinara. So good. I will definitely make this again. Thank you!!!
So glad you enjoyed it, Catherine!
I made this tonight. It was absolutely delicious and comforting. I will make this again for sure! I donโt have a good store bought marinara sauce I can rely on so I also made that from scratch. Because of that, it took me 2 hours from start to finish. Totally worth it. Thanks!
I made this dish today and it came together easily and so delicious. I used Michael’s of Brooklyn Homestyle Gravy which is my favorite jarred sauce. I’ll be making these again and again!
This looks great! And fun!I look forward to trying it out! Happy Solstice Gena! xoxo