Green Cashew-Fu Ricotta is vegan cashew-tofu ricotta. It is an herbed Ricotta made with cashew cream and tofu. It’s tasty, nutritious and delicious. It’s green because it’s packed with kale and basil, but you won’t notice the kale. This fluffy, flavorful goodness is kid-friendly, that’s how much you won’t notice the kale!
This is one of those Goldilocks recipes. I’d made vegan ricotta out of tofu and out of cashews, but neither way was just right, for me. I combined the tofu base with cashew cream and Voilà! Just right.
We eat this Green Cashew-Fu Ricotta in/on:
- No-Boil Baked Stuffed Shells with Mom’s Spaghetti Sauce
- Lasagna topped with Garlic Shake Hempseed Parm
- Roasted Beet Salad with Stove Top Maple Pecans and Tahini dressing (yes, these things coming soon)
- Toasted Rosemary Sourdough Bread from Whole Foods (They will slice it for you, it’s vegan and you can buy a half loaf if you want)
- Oven Sundried Tomato Flaxseed Crackers (I promise, it’s also coming soon)
Ingredient Notes
Tofu
To make life easier, I recommend getting a tofu press, mine is light and vise-style. I went for a long time without one and have often wondered why.
With this recipe, however, if you can find the Vac-u-packed, All-American “Super Firm High Protein Tofu” you don’t even have to press it.
You might want to let your tofu sit out of the fridge a bit, it can be very cold. I usually tear it into 4 – 6 pieces. If it’s really cold you could just cut it into 4 – 6 big chunks, which had not occurred to me, until just now.
If you can’t get your mitts on this vac-u packed tofu, well-pressed, extra-firm tofu works too.
Cashews
Raw Cashews aren’t actually raw. Referred to as raw cashews when they are unroasted and unsalted, actual raw cashews are not suitable for human consumption. Cashews are steamed to remove an outer toxin, here’s a more elegant explanation. Grocers with a bulk section of grains and nuts sell unroasted, unsalted Cashews. For this recipe, we use cashew cream.
To Make Cashew Cream:
1. Measure 2 cups “raw” unroasted, unsalted cashews and then soak them overnight in the fridge or just bring them to a boil and let them sit in the hot water for a few minutes.
2. Drain the cashews and set liquid aside. Put 3/4 cup of the cashew soaking liquid into a high-speed blender with the 2 cups cashews, blend until super creamy, use more water if needed to get it creamy. You can freeze this to use in other recipes, I press plastic wrap over the top to eliminate air and freezer burn and store in a freezer-safe, airtight container.
Kale
The kale I use in this recipe is Lacinato kale also referred to as “Dino” or Dinosaur kale. Calling it Dino kale is much more fun. It’s dark green and it has flatter leaves than its curly friends.
Let’s make Green Cashew-Fu Ricotta
First, cut or tear the tofu into 4 – 6 big chunks and place it in the food processor.
Then, crumb the tofu in the food processor, just pulse it lightly to keep it a nice curd-like texture.
Next, transfer the crumbed tofu to a mixing bowl and set aside.
After removing tofu, add everything except the tofu and cashew cream to the food processor, no need to rinse the food processor. Process into a dark green pesto looking mixture.
Now add the cashew cream and process into a lighter green mixture.
Then transfer the light green mixture to the bowl with the crumbed tofu and stir it together with a spatula or big spoon.
Once it looks uniformly green, it’s ready to chill, eat, or bake.
Green Cashew-fu Ricotta
Ingredients
- ¾ cup cashew cream see notes
- ½ cup unfortified nutritional yeast
- ¼ cup lemon juice approximately the juice of one lemon
- 14 oz package extra firm or super firm tofu pressed unless you've got the super firm vac-u packed kind
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes less if you are spice sensitive, more to bring heat
- ½ cup chopped, packed fresh basil
- 2 cups packed Lacinato kale cut into ribbons, no need to de-stem
- 1½ teaspoon salt
- 1½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Tear Tofu into large chunks and place in food processor, then pulse the tofu into a crumbed ricotta like texture, be careful not to over process. Transfer the crumbed tofu to a large mixing bowl and set aside.
- In the emptied food processor, combine unfortified nutritional yeast, basil, kale, lemon juice, red pepper flakes, oregano, salt, and pepper. Process until it looks like dark green pesto. Then, add the cashew cream and process more until it looks like a lighter green colored, creamy pesto.
- Transfer the green mixture from the food processor into the bowl of crumbed tofu. Stir the green mixture and crumbed tofu together with a spatula until it is uniformly green.
- Enjoy, bake in lasagna or stuffed shells, put crumbles in salads or enjoy on bread or crackers.
Notes
Nutrition
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If you are making lasagna or shells, I recommend making 5-minute garlic shake as a garlicky parm-like topper.
Did you make this Green Cashew-Fu Ricotta (a.k.a vegan cashew tofu ricotta)?
What did you eat it with or in? Tell me about it in the comments below.
This is delicious! So flavorful and light. I stuffed it in shells & wowed my non-vegan family with how tasty it is! This is definitely going in my weekly rotation.
That is fantastic news, Melissa! Thank you for your comment, you just made my day and it feels great to know this recipe went over so well 🙂