Vegan Vegetable Involtini: An Italian Casserole

Involtini means “small bites” in Italian. An Involtini consists of a savory filling wrapped with meat or vegetables into bite-sized morsels that are baked in a red sauce. It’s easy to make, bakes in the oven while you clean up or make your side-dishes, and is crazy delicious! It’s creamy, crunchy, tangy, and filled with fresh summer garden goodness. Left-overs earned two thumbs up as well.

We used zucchini to wrap our filling and you could also use eggplant or even carrots! The vegetables are sliced very thin so they are easy to roll. We used a hand mandoline to slice our zucchini to 0.75 mm, but if you don’t have one it’s no problem. A sharp knife will work just fine.

As you make and taste test the red sauce you might find it a bit bland. Do not fear! When you bake it all together it becomes a perfectly flavored background to the Involtini.

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Vegan Vegetable Involtini Recipe

Prep

• 30 minutes prep and 30 minutes baking
• Serves 6
• Suggested equipment: saucepan, mixing bowl, casserole dish, blender

Ingredients

Sauce

• 1 1/2 lbs chopped fresh tomatoes or 36 oz (one large and one small can) of crushed tomatoes/diced tomatoes
• 1/2 chopped yellow onion
• 6 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1/4 cup of fresh basil leaves (20 large leaves) or 1 Tbsp of dried basil
• 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
• 1/4 tsp black pepper, or to taste

Filling

• 3/4 cup pine nuts
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• 5 oz firm tofu
• 1/4 cup of fresh basil leaves (20 large leaves) or 1 Tbsp of dried basil
• zest of 1 lemon
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup unsweetened soy milk (or other plant milk), and up to 1/4 cup more
• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 tsp white miso

Other Ingredients

• 1 medium/large green zucchini (approximately 15cm long and 5 cm diameter)
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• vegan mozzarella shreds (optional topping)

Garnish Options

• 1 tsp basil
• 1 Tbsp vegan parmesan cheese (optional)

Instructions

Heat your oven to 400F (200C). 

Red Sauce

1. Over medium heat sauté the chopped onions for 3-5 minutes.
2. Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer on medium-low while you prepare the filling and zucchini, approximately 15 minutes.

Prepare the Zucchini

1. Thinly slice the zucchini to make long pliable strips. Lay the strips flat and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.
2. Let them sit for 10 minutes while you prepare the filling. This will soften the zucchini so it rolls more easily.

Filling

1. Place the nuts, basil, and lemon zest in a blender and mix until course, or finely chop with a knife. They are meant to provide a nice texture to filling.
2. Thoroughly mix this and all other ingredients in a bowl.

Putting It All Together

1. Fill your casserole dish with 1 cm of red sauce.
2. Place 1-2 tsp of filling at the wide end of a zucchini strip.
3. Roll it up and place it in the casserole pan with the free end down so it won’t unroll. Repeat until you’ve used up your ingredients.
4. Cover with remaining red sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella shreds if you’re using them, the bread crumbs, pine nuts and fresh basil.
5. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until pine nuts look lightly toasted.

Chef's Notes 

The zucchini slices so nicely and consistently with a hand mandoline. If you don’t have one, they’re quite handy! We use ours for slicing fruits and vegetables when the consistency of thickness counts.

If you like a little heat in your meals, you can add red pepper to the red sauce! If you like more herbs in your filling, you can add oregano, thyme, sage… to taste. If you want a nut-free version, double the amount of tofu and skip the nuts. Add extra nutritional yeast to taste to deepen the flavor. We enjoyed this Vegan Involtini with salad, bread, and wine.

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Written by Your Vegan Family 

Stacy and Markus live an adventurous vegan lifestyle and write articles about their experiences cooking global vegan cuisine, creating businesses, raising vegan kids, and traveling through more than 65 countries. They earned degrees in molecular biology and acupuncture, consulted over decades for healthcare companies and individuals, created businesses in Asian medicine, eco-tourism, cultural immersion, and taught yoga in myriad venues.

We’ve learned a lot from eating a plant-based diet for 25 years and are eager to share more with you. Learn more on our About Us page.

Vegan Vegetable Involtini Recipe Grocery List: 

• fresh tomatoes or canned tomatoes
• yellow onion
• garlic cloves
• fresh basil leaves or dried basil
• lemon
• tomato paste
• red wine
• salt
• pepper
• pine nuts
• walnuts
• firm tofu
• unsweetened soy milk
• white miso
• nutritional yeast
• cloves
• bread crumbs
• vegan mozzarella shreds (optional)
• vegan parmesan cheese (optional)

Vegan Vegetable Involtini Recipe Nutritional Analysis

The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutritional calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. When exact ingredients are not available in this database, the closest substitution is made. We err on the conservative side of nutritional content. 

Percentages are based on a 2,000 calorie daily diet for an adult. 

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