Author: Meet your new favorite dairy-free cheese! This Quick Vegan Tofu Ricotta is creamy, fluffy, and so easy to make and you only need 10 minutes and a few simple ingredients. It's the perfect nut-free, high-protein alternative to traditional ricotta and tastes unbelievably good.
Made with tofu, this versatile vegan ricotta can be used anywhere you'd use the real thing, layered in lasagna, spread on pizza, dolloped over pasta, or stuffed into shells. If you love tofu-based recipes as much as I do, check out my Easy Tofu Recipes & Tofu 101 Guide for even more delicious ways to cook with tofu.
Back to my Quick Vegan Tofu Ricotta, this is an easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy kind of recipe, just the way I like 'em! Tofu constantly amazes me with how versatile it is. If you think it's going to taste weird, don't worry, when my parents tried it, their eyebrows shot up in shock at how perfectly creamy, garlicky, and ricotta-like it was. I now have a few vegan ricotta recipes on the blog, including a cashew ricotta and a macadamia nut ricotta because honestly, vegan cooking is just more fun, you can customize everything to your taste instead of settling for one store-bought option. Serve this quick tofu ricotta anywhere you'd use traditional ricotta: layered into lasagna, dolloped over pasta, spread on pizza, or scooped up with crackers, the possibilities are endless!
How To Make Vegan Tofu Ricotta:
Sauté your onions and garlic until translucent and have begun to brown.
Break the tofu into four pieces. Add to a food processor or blender. Add in the onions and garlic and all of the remaining seasonings. Blend until smooth and creamy. Only stop to scrape the sides as needed.
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Quick Vegan Tofu Ricotta
Servings: (about ¼ cup per serving)
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Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion,, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic,, minced
- 1 block (350g) extra-firm tofu, drained
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon white miso paste
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a skillet or frying pan over medium-high heat. When hot, add in the onion and garlic and sauté until the onions turn translucent and begin to brown.
- Break the tofu into four pieces and add it to a food processor (recommended) or blender. Add the sauté onions and garlic, along with all of the remaining seasonings. Blend until smooth and creamy stopping to scrape the sides as needed. If your ricotta is too thick, add 1 - 2 tablespoons of water as needed to reach desired consistency.
- Storage: The Quick Vegan Tofu Ricotta can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days in an airtight container.It can also be frozen for up to 3 months. When freezing, store it in a sealed, freezer-safe container. To use, thaw it in the fridge overnight and stir before serving, as the texture may slightly change.
Notes
Nutrition
⭐ Did You Make This Recipe?
I’d love if you left a rating and comment, it helps others find the recipe and makes my day! 💕Bon appetegan!
Sam.
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Mia says
Great recipe!
Bex says
Love this recipe and make it often. Quick and easy, perfect in spinach and ricotta cannelloni.
Dana says
This blew my mind. So much better than regular ricotta! I would eat this as a dip or spread as well.
Sam Turnbull says
Amazing! I do eat it as a spread actually 🙂
Sasha says
Thank you Sam for all the recepie inspiration as unfortunately I am surrounded by family that don't share my views.
I wanted to ask what can I use as a sub for nutritional yeast. It doesn't agree with me and it seems to be in many vegan recepies?
Jen says
Amazing! I made it and put it in a lasagna. My husband said that it was my best lasagna yet. This would taste great in ravioli!
Susan Parran says
Added two tsps of rice cane syrup because ricotta has sweet undertones. Turned out great!
Ri says
This is so good. I made a white pizza with it along with garlic and sundried tomatoes. Do you know how long leftovers will last in the fridge? Also, can you freeze this? Thanks for a great recipe.
Lindsay says
I have been looking for a good nut-free vegan ricotta recipe because my husband is allergic to tree nuts. I made this last night for a vegan lasagna and it turned out great! I didn't have any miso paste, so I subbed in some veggie broth and extra salt (I think next time I would use soy sauce if I needed a miso sub to really get that salty flavour), and I am really looking forward to trying it again with the miso paste. The texture was absolutely perfect and it mingled so well with the tomato sauce. Will definitely be making this again soon!
Tilly says
This was my first ever tofu ricotta and it was SO creamy and delicious in stuffed shells! I had a head of broccoli that needed to be used up so I blanched it, cut off only the florets, and tossed them into the food processor with everything else. I decided to add a little bit extra miso, nooch, and salt to compensate for adding the broccoli (I ended up using 1 1/2 Tbsp miso, 3 Tbsp nooch, and 3/4 tsp salt) and it was absolutely perfect - thank you for a wonderful recipe!
Sam Turnbull says
You're most welcome, Tilly!
Casey says
Can I make this the day before I plan on using it? Does it keep in the fridge for a day?
Sam Turnbull says
Absolutely! It will keep fresh for up to 3 days in the fridge 🙂
Maureen says
Haven’t made it yet but I am self isolating and don’t have miso paste. Do you think a teaspoon of soy sauce and two teaspoons of tahini will have a similar result? I read that both soy sauce and tahini are “next best” when subbing miso paste so if I combined the two? Thank you so much!
Sam Turnbull says
I haven't tried it myself, but it sounds like it would add nice flavour 🙂
Joolz says
Thank you for sharing this great recipe - addition of miso is clever and made such a difference to my ‘usual’ vegan ricotta. My sweet miso might be worth a try with a date or two for a sweet ricotta. Thanks for the inspiration. Great recipe.
Sam Turnbull says
So happy you love it, Joolz 🙂
Stacy says
I like it and think it will do fine in my baked ziti, but I think my miso was so old it has developed a much stronger flavor of like, gorganzola, so that is the main flavor in my finished product. I guess a lighter, sweeter ricotta for canolli probably needs to be made with cashews.
Joni says
Really disappointed with this, nothing like ricotta at all. Hoping for the ziti turns out edible
Sam Turnbull says
Sorry you didn't enjoy it!
Leslie Elkan says
Sam, I made that tofu ricotta and used it in a lasagne with brown rice noodles, chopped spinach, walnuts and marinara and we loved it!!! Everyone wants that tofu ricotta recipe. Maybe the previous poster ate it plain and it’s better in a dish?
Sam Turnbull says
Aww thrilled you enjoyed it, Leslie 🙂
Gayla Gongwer says
Just used this in vegan zucchini lasagna. I roasted the garlic and added fresh basil.
It. Was. Amazing.
Sam Turnbull says
So happy you enjoyed!
Theresa Helligar says
Hi, I was just wondering if any leftover ricotta can be frozen for future use? I had some left and didn't know how long it would last in frdge but wasn't sure if freezing was an option. Thanks.
Sam Turnbull says
Hi Theresa, tofu changes in texture once frozen, but since this tofu is already all blended up I think freezing it would likely work fine. Hope that helps!
Garrett says
I never leave reviews on recipes, normally just out of laziness, but this was mind-blowing. I wanted to replace the ricotta in my lasagna with tofu just to get a bit more lean protein in there, but this turned out to not only be healthier, but actually taste better too! The tofu ricotta on its own is quite flavorful, unlike dairy ricotta, which seems to exist more for the purpose of texture. Great job; thanks!
Sam Turnbull says
That's so awesome, Garrett!! Thrilled you loved it so much, and thank you very much for the review 🙂
Inês says
Hello Sam! Thank you for sharing this recipe! Is it possible to make this tofu ricotta without the miso and nutritional yeast? Will it work as filling for spinach-ricotta cannellonis?
Thank you 🙂
Sam Turnbull says
Hi Inês, yes you can omit the miso, but keep in mind that the miso is what adds and aged umami taste so the ricotta flavour will be a little lacking. This will work perfectly for cannelloni 🙂
Kimberly says
You've done it again Sam! This ricotta tastes better than the real thing. So far I've made a vegan ricotta, on toast with sliced tomato and now I'm making stuffed spaghetti squash to serve to my husband who is definitely not vegan but is on a low carb diet. I know he'll love it. It's so flavorful! The sauteed onions add so much more flavor than plain tofu ricotta recipes. The BEST!
Kimberly says
Oh lasagna, Forgot to put that in!
Sam Turnbull says
Haha! Yay!!! So thrilled you loved it so much Kimberly 🙂
Jessica Dunkley says
I bought firm tofu instead of extra firm will this still work?
Sam Turnbull says
Yes it should work fine it might just be a little softer.