Spinach & Mushroom Manicotti

This turned out fairly well. I added some tofu sour cream to the filling for richness and it is really good. I know homemade is healthier, but I was lazy and used Follow Your Heart brand vegan cream cheese. With good intentions, I did find a recipe for homemade tofu cream cheese, just didn't get around to it this time.

Basic manicotti components:
-- 1 box manicotti, prepared per package instructions
-- homemade pasta sauce
-- mushroom and spinach filling (recipe follows)

Mushroom-Spinach Filling:
- 14 oz (drained) firm tofu
- 1 cup tofu cream cheese
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 lbs mushrooms, chopped into bite-size pieces...save some to slice and put on top.
(The idea is to keep them big enough to be toothsome, but small enough to pipe them into the manicotti.)
- 3 cups fresh spinach, rinsed, dried off very well, and julienne sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, coarsely minced
- 2 cups leek, very thinly sliced
- pinch of red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon oregano (or other herb of choice)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (or oil of choice)
- 1/4 cup white wine or dry sherry
- salt and pepper to taste

Combine the tofu, "cream cheese", nutritional yeast, pine nuts, and lemon juice in a food processor until well combined. Add salt and pepper to taste. Don't worry if it's quite thick; the moisture from the spinach and mushrooms will even that out. Transfer the mixture into a large bowl and set aside.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium and add the garlic, leek, chili flakes, and oregano. Saute this mixture for ~4-5 minutes. Toss in the mushroom pieces and let cook until the mushrooms begin to tender ~ 2-3 minutes. (If the mushrooms start to release lots of liquid, either turn the heat up to cook it off, or drain the liquid off.) Add the white wine and let cook gently for another 1-2 minutes.

Add the mushroom mixture to the tofu mixture, then fold in the fresh spinach. If there is a lot of liquid in the mushroom mixture, you may want to use a slotted spoon when adding mushrooms to tofu mixture.

When combined, the mixture should be thick enough to hold a shape, but loose enough to pipe through a bag. You may want to taste at this point and adjust salt & pepper as needed.

If you have time, refridgerate the mushroom, spinach, tofu mixture for 20 -30 minutes before filling the manicotti; I think it's easier to work with when its chilled.

mushroom and spinach filling

To fill the manicotti, use a plastic quart bag with the tip cut off one of the corners as a makeshift pastry bag. If anyone knows a neat trick for filling manicotti, please let me know, because it's kind of a pain in the hiney.

Put some pasta sauce on the bottom of a baking dish, place filled manicotti on top and cover with more sauce, more spinach and mushrooms. Bake in 350 C oven until bubbly.