Free form lasagna is how I think of this tasty baked pasta casserole! It’s traditionally; ziti noodles, tomato sauce, a few different types of cheese, and sometimes add-ins like ground beef, sausage, or veggies. Super tasty sounding right? But also… kind of pricey sounding… 3 different types of cheese? This is where our Wallet Friendly Vegan Baked Ziti comes in!
Our Vegan Baked Ziti is:
Downright Tasty
Adds No Extra Time To The Original
And Saves You $5-$10 or More!
Thrifty Tips For Baked Ziti
The most savings come from swapping the various types of cheese with an ooey gooey, “creamy”, “cheesy”, Bechamel sauce!
Considered a “mother sauce”; Bechamel is always there for you when you think you don’t have any pasta sauce lying around! Take a look at our Quick And Easy Extra Creamy Bechamel recipe for more details on this classic french sauce.
The butter, flour, and milk that make up the bechamel cover the “creamy” factor in our ziti. And nutritional yeast is the wonder ingredient that adds all the “cheesiness” you desire!
The second boost of savings comes from swapping the ground beef or sausage with a:
Savoury
Wonderfully Spiced
“Meaty” Tasting
Crispy
Mushroom Ground Round!
- The mushrooms are chopped
- Spiced
- Spread on a baking sheet
- And baked to crispy goodness while you work on the rest of your ziti.
The mushrooms are diced small, either by hand, or in your food processor. They’re mixed with onion, garlic and tamari for the “savoury”, “meatiness”. And sprinkled with cumin and smoked paprika for more smoky, “meaty” flavour. Alternatively, your favourite Italian seasonings would work nicely.
Recipe Cost
Our vegan baked ziti costs us approximately: CAD $11.61 ($1.94/serving). That price is using ingredients purchased from our local grocery store. If you have access to a wholesale store and buy your mushrooms there for instance, that brings the cost down by another 10 cents per serving.
Most traditional baked ziti recipes call for 1 pound ground beef or sausage and 3 types of cheese.
If we made this ziti swapping the 300g mushrooms with 300g ground beef, and the bechamel with; 1 cup ricotta, 1 cup parmesan, and 2 cups shredded mozzarella… our cost would be roughly CAD $17.56 – $21.69. If you typically shop wholesale your meat and cheese will be a bit less than the average grocery store price. But still…
At least, CAD $5.95 additional cost. And up to CAD $10.08 more if you don’t have access to a wholesale store!
Just think how much more ziti you can make if you’re saving $5-$10 every time you make it!
So what do you think? Ready to give it a try?
Baked ziti typically takes an hour to an hour and a half to prepare. Our version adds no extra time and is ready in 1 hour. It is a more intensive recipe than many of ours, but like a lasagna, baked ziti is a go-to big batch comfort meal that freezes well!
So give our wallet friendly vegan baked ziti a try and let us know what you think in the comments below!
Fun fact: We didn’t know what baked ziti was until we started watching the television show “The Sopranos”! They kept talking about “ziti”, “ziti”, “ziti”. Finally, Bryan couldn’t take the not knowing anymore. He looked it up and we instantly understood the love! There’s no wonder there’s always ziti in their fridge!
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The Best Wallet Friendly Vegan Baked Ziti!
- Total Time: 60 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Want the classic baked ziti without the price tag? This vegan baked ziti is so tasty, adds no extra time, and saves you money!
Ingredients
- 454g ziti or penne noodles
- 650ml marinara Sauce (or up to 32oz for extra saucy)
For The Mushrooms
- 3 cups mushrooms (300g)*
- ½ medium onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 ½ tbsp tamari or soy sauce
- optional: 1 ½ teaspoon cumin
- optional: 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
For The Bechamel
- 3 tbsp vegan butter
- ½ shallot or ¼ small onion
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tbsp all purpose white flour
- 2 cups soy milk
- 2–3 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- ¼ tsp salt
- optional: pinch nutmeg
*Fresh ingredients you need that are not part of our pantry and freezer tips.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.
- Finely chop by hand or pulse your mushrooms in smaller batches in your food processor. Processing the mushrooms in smaller batches ensures a more even size.
- Transfer chopped mushrooms to a bowl. Combine with chopped onion, garlic, tamari, cumin, and smoked paprika. Alternatively, use Italian seasonings. Stir to combine and spread in a single layer on your baking sheet.
- Bake for 30 minutes, stirring after the 20 minute mark to encourage even browning. *If after 30 minutes you are still working on the other elements, I like to keep the mushrooms in for 40 minutes to dry out even more.
- While your mushrooms are in the oven, boil the water for your pasta, cook according to the package, and make the bechamel (10-15 minutes).
- For the bechamel, melt the vegan butter on low heat in a small saucepan.
- When the butter is melted, add the chopped onion and garlic and stir for 1-2 minutes until softened and fragrant.
- Whisk the flour into the butter mixture 1 tablespoon at a time, making sure to fully combine. Allow the flour to cook for 1 minute.
- Add the milk, ¼ cup at a time, whisking vigorously so the milk and flour don’t get clumpy. After the first cup of milk is added your sauce should be quite smooth, other than the onion and garlic pieces.
- Whisk in the nutritional yeast, salt, and nutmeg if using. Allow to thicken, stirring, for 5-10 minutes. You can raise the heat to medium low to encourage this process to speed up a bit. Remove from heat when noticeably thick.
- With all your elements done: pour your marinara sauce over your cooked noodles, stir in half the baked mushrooms. Pour half your saucy noodles with the ½ mushrooms into a large casserole dish. Spoon half your bechamel over this layer. Top with the remaining noodles, then bechamel, then sprinkle with remaining mushrooms.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes until the sauce is bubbly and the top is golden. Garnish with breadcrumbs and fresh parsley. Dig in!
- Leftovers keep well in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. To freeze, skip the final bake. Compile all the elements, then freeze, and bake to serve.
Notes
*Approximate Cost: CAD $11.61 (1.94/serving) vs. at least CAD $17.56 using 300g ground beef, 1 cup ricotta, 1 cup shredded parmesan, 2 cups shredded mozzarella. At the very least, that’s a savings of CAD $5.95!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Category: Main
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Italian
Maria
This dish is spectacular! I added all of the optional spices & I’m so glad I did. It is bursting with flavour! Honestly, there is only one problem with it…..you can’t have just one helping lol
Kathryn Alexandre
Haha that is a great problem to have! So glad to hear you loved it!
Ron
The recipe makes at least six servings so we had leftovers two days later , microwaved and it was every bit as good. Heck enough for another lunch as well….
Kathryn Alexandre
That’s great to hear! We love leftover friendly recipes!
Ron
My first word when tasting this was, wow! Seriously. One of my favourite dishes is penne with sausage, This is could make me give up sausage and so cheessy. My wife made it fir first time, but it won’t be the last.
Kathryn Alexandre
Oh, wow! What a testimonial! I’m SO glad you liked it! Let me know if it is just as good the second time 😉
Ron
would have given 6 stars if I could….
Kathryn Alexandre
haha thank you!
Andrew
Made this last night and my wife and kids LOVED it (I did too). And there was plenty leftover for school lunches today. Definitely will be adding this to the rotation. Adding some crushed red pepper flakes to my marinara was the only tweak I made. Otherwise, I followed the recipe to a T and it was fantastic.
Kathryn Alexandre
That’s so wonderful to hear! Thank you so much for trying it and I’m glad it will become a regular for your family!
Andrew
Made it again tonight. And it was just as good as the first time. Such a great recipe.
Kathryn Alexandre
That’s so great to hear! I’m so happy you love it! Thank you for letting us know. This means a lot!
Jack Edwards
This is a really nice recipe and fun to make! My wife and I made it together for dinner tonight. We served it with broccoli and garlic bread. It was all so good! Loved the vegan bechamel sauce. It actually tasted quite cheesy!
Kathryn Alexandre
Thank you so much for letting me know and for the lovely star rating! I’m glad it was fun for the two of you to make and that you loved the finished dish. The vegan bechamel is such a great way to add a “cheesy”/creamy sauce to so many recipes. I use it for my Eggplant “Parmesan” and Eggplant “Parm” Sandwich as well. It’s very similar to my Vegan Queso too which I use as a cheese sauce!