My Vegan Mushroom Cannelloni is rich and decadent. Smothered in vegan cheese sauce and topped with crispy mushrooms it's the perfect comfort meal. Get the recipe below.
Cannelloni is a baked pasta dish that is made up of large, tube-shaped pasta that is then stuffed with a filling of your choice.
Pasta, cheese and mushrooms are a winning combination. So what could be better than cannelloni stuffed with a mushroom and tofu "ricotta" filling and topped with velvety vegan cheese sauce? There are even more crispy mushrooms on top too! It's a real celebration of cheese and fungi.
Although there's a few pots and pans required for this dish, once it's in the oven you can just sit and wait for the pasta to soften and the sauce to bubble up and become golden brown on top. I promise you its well worth the wait.
If you like stuffed pasta dishes I can recommend my Vegan Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Pasta Shells. If mushroom and cheese is what you love, then why not try my Spinach and Mushroom Stuffed Buckwheat Pancakes with vegan cheese sauce.
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Ingredients
You'll need 15 ingredients for this dish. Get your shopping list ready:
- Cannelloni tubes
- Extra firm tofu
- Mushrooms, I use a mix of chestnut mushrooms and wild mushrooms
- Garlic
- Lemon juice
- Dried oregano
- Nutritional yeast
- Vegan butter
- Plain flour
- Non-dairy milk, e.g. soy milk or oat milk
- Vegan cheddar cheese
- Mustard
- Onion powder
- Garlic powder
- Fresh parsley
Step-by-step Instructions
There are a fair few steps to this recipe but it is all very straightforward. Here's how to make it:
- Step 1: make the sauce by melting butter in a pan and forming a roux with the plain flour
- Step 2: add the milk in very slowly whisking constantly to ensure you have a smooth sauce. Add the cheese in off the heat to melt gently
- Step 3: add in the remaining ingredients and cook until thick and velvety
- Step 4: fry the mushrooms and garlic in a pan until all moisture has evaporated
- Step 5: add the cooked mushrooms to a food processor with the other filling ingredients and blitz until it comes together
- Step 6: fill the cannelloni tubes with the mushroom and tofu filling
- Step 7: place ⅓rd of the cheese sauce in the bottom of an oven dish
- Step 8: lay the cannelloni tubes in the oven dish on top of the cheese sauce
- Step 9: top with the remaining cheese sauce
- Step 10: fry the woodland mushrooms until all moisture has evaporated
- Step 11: sprinkle them over the top of the dish then bake in the oven for 45 minutes until the mushrooms are crisp and the sauce is bubbling and golden brown
- Step 12: serve with a sprinkling of fresh parsley
Substitutions
There are a couple of different substitutions you could make for this dish if you really need to:
- Pasta: can't find cannelloni tubes? You could turn this into stuffed pasta shells if you needed to.
- Herbs: I used dried oregano but you could use fresh. Conversely you could swap dried parsley for fresh parsley if you had to. You could also replace the oregano with dried mixed herbs.
- Aromatics: to ensure a smooth cheese sauce I use onion powder and garlic powder but you could cook down diced onion and minced garlic and use that to flavour the sauce instead. You'd need to blend the sauce though so it was velvety smooth.
Variations
Try some of these tweaks to make this recipe your own:
- Spicy: add a little chilli to the filling for a spicy kick!
- Extra cheesy: as if it wasn't cheesy enough! Why not grate over more vegan cheddar cheese or top it with vegan mozzarella to make it extra cheesy.
- Leafy greens: for extra nutrition you could add wilted spinach to the filling. Or alternatively just serve it on the side!
Equipment
I won't lie, making Vegan Mushroom Cannelloni does require quite a few pots and pans. You'll need the following:
- Chopping board
- Knife
- Saucepan (for the cheese sauce
- Whisk
- Frying pan (for the mushrooms)
- Food processor
- Mixing bowl
- Piping bag (optional)
- Spatula
- Oven dish
Storage
You can store cooked Vegan Mushroom Cannelloni in the fridge for 4 - 5 days so long as it's covered.
You can't freeze this dish unfortunately.
Top tip
To make filling the cannelloni easier, put the filling in a piping bag and pipe it into the tubes.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, you can make the filling a day ahead. Store it in the fridge in an airtight container and let it come to room temperature before stuffing the cannelloni.
Not usually. Most dried cannelloni tubes cook through in the oven if covered with enough sauce.
Make sure the pasta is fully covered with sauce and tightly cover the baking dish with foil for the first part of baking. Uncover at the end for browning.
The recipe
Vegan Mushroom Cannelloni
Equipment
- 1 knife
- 1 chopping board
- 1 saucepan
- 1 Whisk
- 1 Frying pan
- 1 Spatula
- 1 food processor
- 1 Mixing bowl
- 1 piping bag optional
- 1 oven dish
Ingredients
For the mushroom filling
- 250 g chestnut mushrooms
- 2 cloves garlic
- 250 g extra firm tofu
- 1 lemon juice only
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- salt and pepper to taste
For the cheese sauce
- 50 g non-dairy butter e.g. Flora or Naturli
- 25 g plain flour
- 500 ml non-dairy milk
- 150 g vegan cheddar cheese grated
- 4 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon English mustard
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 0.5 teaspoon paprika
For the crispy mushrooms
- 100 g woodland mushrooms
- fresh parsley
Instructions
- To make the cheese sauce, place the non-dairy butter in a saucepan and warm gently until melted.
- Add in the cornflour to create a roux and cook on a medium heat for 1 minute, stirring well to make sure it forms a smooth paste.
- Remove the pan from the heat and add just a few drops of the soy milk at a time, beating to incorporate it well each time. Make sure you only add the smallest amount of milk at a time otherwise lumps will form.
- As the roux goes from a thick paste to a thick sauce you can add the milk in larger quantities. Once half of the milk has been added you should be able to pour in the rest without lumps forming. Place the pan back on a medium to high heat and stir the sauce as it comes to a boil. Once it has reached boiling point reduce the heat and let it simmer for 5 minutes to allow it to thicken.
- When the sauce has thickened take the pan off the heat again and add in the grated vegan cheese. Keep stirring until the cheese has melted completely (return it to the heat as needed to make sure the cheese melts completely).
- Finally, add in the remaining ingredients and stir until they are distributed throughout the sauce.
- Make the filling by heating the oil in a saucepan and adding the mushrooms and garlic. Cook until all the moisture has evaporated from the mushrooms.
- Next, add the cooked mushrooms and remaining filling ingredients into a food processor and blitz until it comes together.
- Fill the cannelloni tubes with the mushroom and tofu mix.
- Pre-heat the oven to 180C / 356F / gas mark 4.
- Pour ⅓rd of the cheese sauce into the bottom of an oven dish.
- Lay the cannelloni on top of the cheese sauce.
- Pour over the rest of the cheese sauce.
- Fry the woodland mushrooms in the same saucepan you cooked the chestnut mushrooms again until any water evaporates.
- Sprinkle them over the dish then place them into the oven to bake for 45 minutes or until the sauce is golden brown and the mushrooms are crispy.
- Serve with a sprinkle of fresh parsley
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