Vegan Baked Ziti is an Italian-American baked pasta dish that is easy to make, cheesy, and is great for meal prep. Try this easy vegan dinner today!
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We grew up with baked ziti. It was like the upgrade to spaghetti that we had weekly and typically on if ricotta was on sale or there was a coupon. Obviously not vegan with all the cheese, but today we’ve made a vegan baked ziti that can rival the original.
Baked ziti is an Italian-American casserole dish made with ziti noodles. Ziti is a tubular pasta similar to penne except that it is cut straight instead of on a diagonal. Pasta is cooked until al dente (almost done but not quite) and then the other ingredients are layered in a similar style of lasagna.
VEGAN BAKED ZITI INGREDIENTS:
Below are notes about the ingredients before we get into the full recipe located lower in this post on how to make these vegan baked ziti:
- ziti noodles – you can’t make baked ziti without ziti noodles. These are tubular shaped pasta noodles that are available at every major grocery chain
- vegan cheese – ziti uses a blend of mozzarella, ricotta, and parmesan for the ultimate combination of cheeses that are perfect for this dish
- spaghetti sauce – we highly recommend our vegan homemade spaghetti sauce that is absolutely phenomenal.
Substitutions/Variations
- ziti noodles – any tubular pasta like penne will be a good sub for ziti noodles
- vegan cheese – ricotta is the base of the dish with the noodles, but you could swap the mozzarella for cheddar if needed or do a mix
- spaghetti sauce – use your favorite homemade sauce or store bought brand
How to make the best vegan baked ziti?
We highly recommend the following things:
- Only cook your noodles to al dente. This is a few minutes short of fully cooked. Because this gets baked and the noodles continued to get cooked, you don’t want to over cook them during the boiling phase because they they will be mushy once baked
- Take time to make the homemade spaghetti sauce – While there are some really great store brand sauces, nothing beats homemade. If you have the time, we highly recommend it.
- Use the best vegan cheeses – there are some really gross vegan cheese brands out there. We recommend using brands that you love! We personally used for this dish – Kite Hill ricotta, Violife parmesan block, and Daiya cutting board blend vegan mozzarella. See our vegan mozzarella taste test for inspiration!
How to make vegan baked ziti faster?
- Using a store bought spaghetti sauce will make the recipe time go faster.
- While this is a baked dish, you could reduce the time it gets baked until just heated through
- It also freezes well or can be prepped 3-5 days ahead of time and reheat it
Frequently Asked Questions for Vegan Baked Ziti:
Yes! Other ingredients that are traditionally added could be vegan ground meat or sausage, mushrooms, peppers and onions. We recommend cooking all of these prior to adding to the dish. Mix in with the spaghetti sauce first. Try making with our homemade walnut meat – swap the taco seasoning for an Italian seasoning.
Use a gluten free pasta and vegan cheese brands that are safe for your allergens. Ricotta can be make from nuts or tofu so you can use a store brand that is safe or make your own DIY version. Aldi brand vegan mozzarella is free from allergens and you can use our homemade vegan parmesan with sunflower seeds .
We recommend eating this dish within 3-5 days. When reheating you may want to add more sauce.
Yes! Let cool completely and freeze in an freezer sauce container with a lid. You can do this either after it’s cooked or before it goes into the oven. Let thaw completely when ready to make.
Yes! Any noodles will work here but tubular shapes are best like penne or macaroni noodles!
What other vegan pasta dishes could I make?
- Vegan Creamy Mushroom and Asparagus Pasta
- The Best Vegan Mac and Cheese
- Vegan Pumpkin Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes and Spinach
- The Best Vegan Lasagna
- Vegan Alfredo
- Vegan Cheesy Hamburger Helper Skillet
- Spinach and Walnut Pesto Pasta
- Vegan Carbonara
- Vegan Creamy Broccoli and Chickpea Pasta
And if you are looking for some cold pasta ideas, try out:
Pin this vegan baked ziti for later!
🥳 Get the Full Recipe
Vegan Baked Ziti
Ingredients
- 1 lb ziti noodles, uncooked
- 3 cups vegan mozzarella shreds
- 15 oz vegan ricotta
- ½ cup vegan parm, grated
- 4 cups spaghetti sauce (Click here for an Homemade Vegan Spaghetti Sauce – need half the recipe)
Serve with
Instructions
- If making our homemade vegan spaghetti sauce, follow the directions to make that first.
- Preheat oven to 350℉.
- In a large pot, bring water to a boil and cook pasta to al dente (approximately 8-10 minutes- check package for recommendation). Drain well.
- To the cooked pasta, add 1 cup of tomato sauce and stir to combine.
- In a medium bowl, mix together 1 cup vegan mozzarella, all the ricotta and parmesan.
- In a 9×13 baking dish, add a thin layer of tomato sauce.Then, half the pasta, ½ of the cheese mixture, half the remaining sauce. Repeat – pasta, cheese mixture, sauce. Top with the remaining 2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese. Cover with foil.
- Bake 25 – 30 minutes. Uncover and broil for 1-3 minute. Remove and serve with garlic bread.
This is the 3rd time I’ve made this entree and it’s one of my MIDF all-time favorites! I only go rogue with the sauce–instead of making my own, I use a great store-bought marinara. And because the best vegan ricotta, Kite Hill, is so expensive ($11 for an 8 oz. container where I am) I just use one container and then add about 5 oz of vegan sour cream to the ricotta & mozzarella mix. (I like Wayfare or Forager vegan sour cream with this dish.) Tonight I “browned” TVP (one cup dry) in olive oil, and then added garlic, onion, and bell peppers. I add this faux meat to the pasta mixed with one cup sauce. I’ve made it without the TVP and peppers, but the cheese mixture didn’t spread as easily. Because I use 16 oz. of pasta and the finished layers reach to the top of my 9 x 13 lasagna pan, it’s a substantial bake. It needed about 50 minutes of baking at 350 to be ready. But that’s not a problem! MIDF makes it so easy to cut out cheeses and creams–they’re my vegan saviors!
Awww, thank you so much! We truly appreciate the time and energy you poured into this review. We’re positive others will benefit from the details you shared. We are so grateful that you have found our recipes helpful on your vegan journey and can’t wait to hear about what you make next!
I was craving baked ziti the other day and found this recipe. So easy to make and delicious. I’m thinking of doing it again but with home made ricotta.
So happy to hear that you loved the recipe
So easy and so delicious!
So glad you enjoyed it
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I made it recently, including the homeade sauce and it turned out pretty well for the most part. I think I cooked/reduced the sauce too much because it was too thick and I ended up using the full recipe in the ziti. Even still it could have used more sauce. So, I’ll be sure to simmer at a lower temp next time – definitely user error.
My only real complaint is that the ricotta is SOOOO expensive. I don’t mind paying for specialty ingredients at all, but the ricotta alone was over $20 at Whole Foods. 🙁 This makes a lot, so it can easily be halved for a small family…or to save on the cost of the ricotta. 😉 If you have any tofu (or other) ricotta recipes that you swear by, that may help to bring the ingredient cost down.
Even with the pricey ricotta, this is a nice and simple dish. Took a while to make with the sauce, but I can see it coming together very quickly if you don’t make the sauce yourself.
Thanks again!
Hi Maya, This is my favorite vegan ziti recipe, period, so now I keep my eyes peeled for sales of Kite Hill products to catch the vegan ricotta on sale, like yesterday! Got 2 containers half-priced, yay, and making this tonight, yum!
Maybe Larisha & Andrew have a ricotta recipe (never looked) you can use. But if Make It Dairy Free doesn’t & they don’t mind me sharing, ‘Nora Cooks’ (my other favorite vegan site) has a baked ziti with homemade vegan ricotta recipe. I’m allergic to many nuts & don’t have that kind of time, so I haven’t made it. But hope this helps 🙂