Cringey Kitchen

Gluten free, dairy free things in the shape of food

Eggplant Rollatini

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Lasagna rolls have been pretty trendy lately, but I didn’t want a heavy pasta side dish. I decided to go with eggplant as my alternative to pasta. You don’t have to just make rolls, you can make a traditional lasagna this way too.

USE A MANDOLIN unless you want uneven eggplant that might turn into chips. You can see in our pics that these are not all the same size. We went through a lot of eggplant trying to get a good thickness to our eggplant. We ended up with some eggplant chips to snack on while we worked.

I have never made cashew ricotta before. I was a little nervous about how these would turn out, but wow was I impressed with how easy and delicious it was! When you can fool a dairy eater into believing this cashew ricotta was regular cheese, you know that your recipe was a success!

Keep your ricotta in your eggplant, not the floor,
Your favorite alternative chefs, K & T

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Eggplant Rollatini

Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Servings 12 rolls

Ingredients

Cashew Ricotta

  • 1 cup cashews soaked in water for 2 hours
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 2 tsps lemon juice
  • 2 tsps olive oil
  • 1½ tbsp cashew milk
  • ¼ tsp sea salt

2 eggplants

Kosher salt

16 oz frozen spinach

2 cups marinara sauce

½ cup fresh basil, chopped

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. For the cashew ricotta, drain the cashews and toss in food processor with the rest of the ingredients. Blend until you have a smooth texture, similar to ricotta.
  3. Slice eggplant about ¼ inch thick, I recommend using a mandolin if you have one. Salt both sides of the eggplant and let sit in a colander for 15 minutes.
  4. After 15 minutes rinse eggplant to remove extra salt. Pat dry and lay flat on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees.
  5. While eggplant is baking, squeeze excess water out of spinach and mix with the cashew ricotta.
  6. Pour a cup of marinara in baking dish.
  7. Roll about 2-3 tbsp of ricotta filling in eggplant and place seam side down in baking dish on top of marinara Repeat until you use up all your eggplant.
  8. Pour marinara down the center of your eggplant rows, then bake for 15-20 more minutes.
  9. Sprinkle fresh basil on top before serving.