Butternut squash stuffed shells are the ultimate fall comfort food! Filled with creamy spinach "ricotta," this recipe is an all-time fan favorite.
Creamy, tangy, and with a caramelized sweetness from roasted butternut squash, this stuffed shells recipe is one you’re sure to love. In lieu of any ricotta, Parmesan, or mozzarella cheese, I stuff them with a light, dairy-free “ricotta.” Made from cashew cream, crumbled tofu, herbs, and lemon zest, it’s rich and flavorful. If your family is squeamish about tofu, just don’t tell them. They’ll never suspect it here.
My Favorite Stuffed Shells Recipe
While I often use a marinara sauce with my stuffed shells, in the spirit of fall, I opted for a luscious, creamy cashew sauce. I also stuffed my shells with roasted butternut squash. This recipe has a few steps, but the creamy, cozy pasta & squash are totally worth the effort. Here’s how you make them:
- Roast the squash. Make sure to cut it into little cubes that will fit neatly inside the shells!
- Make the cashew cream. Blend together the cashews, water, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper.
- Make the “ricotta.” Saute the spinach, squeeze out any excess water, and mix it with crumbled tofu, oregano, lemon zest, red pepper flakes, and 1 cup cashew cream.
- Cook the pasta. Don’t forget to salt the water!
- Stuff the shells. Fill them with generous scoops of the ricotta and a few cubes of squash.
- Bake the stuffed shells! Pop them in the oven for 15 minutes, and you’re ready to eat.
We really love this recipe. I hope you do too!
Stuffed Shells Serving Suggestions
I like to serve my stuffed shells with dollops of extra cashew cream to really take them over the top. While this recipe is delicious on any night, it’d be especially good as a vegetarian main course at Thanksgiving or a holiday dinner. If you’re looking for something to pair it with, try any of these simple vegetable side dishes:
- Roasted Brussels Sprouts
- Simple Lemon Green Beans
- Roasted Beet Salad
- Simple Roasted Beets with Citrus
- Shredded Brussels Sprout Salad
- Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon Zest
- any of these salads
And don’t forget the apple crumble for dessert!
If you love this stuffed shells recipe…
Try these cozy casserole-type recipes next:
Or try one of these favorite squash recipes:
For more vegan recipes, check out this post with 85 Best Vegan Recipes.
Butternut Squash Stuffed Shells
Ingredients
- 1½ cups cubed butternut squash
- extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
- 16 jumbo shells
cashew cream
- 1½ cups raw cashews*, see note
- 1 cup fresh water
- 1 garlic clove
- 3½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- freshly ground pepper
filling
- 4 cups fresh baby spinach
- 1 cup crumbled firm tofu
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
- pinch of red pepper flakes
- 1 cup cashew cream, from the recipe above
- sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Toss the butternut squash with a drizzle of olive oil and a few generous pinches of salt and pepper. Roast until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes.
- Make the cashew cream: Blend together the drained raw cashews, fresh water, garlic, lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper.
- Make the filling: In a medium skillet, heat a drizzle of olive oil over medium heat. Add the spinach in increments, along with a pinch of salt, and sauté until all the spinach is incorporated and wilted. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Squeeze out any excess liquid and chop. In a medium bowl, combine the the spinach with the crumbled tofu, oregano, lemon zest, red pepper flakes, at least 1/4 teaspoon salt, freshly ground black pepper and 1 cup of cashew cream. Season to taste, adding more salt and pepper as desired.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the shells and cook according to the package directions until al dente. Drain.
- Assemble the shells. Spread ¼ cup of the reserved cashew cream on the bottom of an 11x7-inch baking dish. Fill each cooked shell with some of the filling and a few cubes of butternut squash, and place into the baking dish. Drizzle a little olive oil over the shells, cover with foil, and bake for 15 minutes, or until heated through. Remove from the oven and serve with the remaining cashew cream.
Notes
I tried this today and it was very easy for a person who really doesn’t cook! The flavors were amazing!
Hi, is the tofu supposed to be pressed ?
Hi Megan, nope, it’s not necessary here.
Can this be made ahead the night before? Or is it meant to be made and served right away?
Hi Taryn, the pasta will start to dry out in the fridge – I’d assemble it the morning that you’re going to serve it if you can and bake it as you’re ready to serve.
Easy and delicious! Even our toddler loved it! I used ricotta in the filling because I had some open that I needed to use, but I could see tofu being equally great. Also, I did a tad extra filling/squash and was able to fill 22 shells. I’m guessing the exact recipe might have filled 20 shells. Will definitely make again!
My family loved it! Half of them aren’t vegan but they didn’t miss a thang. Thank you for the satisfying recipe!
We absolutely loved this dish!! So yummy!! Will make again and again.
Really loved this recipe! I may add a little lemon zest to the cashew sauce next time or red pepper. The filling rocked
(For the sauce that tops the shells after)
Hi Jeanine and Jack! I wanted to share that I cooked this today for my daughter who is vegan, and she absolutely loved it. Thank you so much for sharing this lovely recipe. It was a superb success!
Hi Maria, I’m so thrilled that she loved the shells! Thanks for coming back to let me know 🙂
My whole family loved these! The combination of the filling and butternut
squash, with the cashew cream drizzled on top, was delicious. Thanks for the great recipe. We will definitely make these again.
Yay! I’m so glad they were a hit!
A friend made these for me last week, so amazing! Just had friends over, i am the only vegan, total raves about this dish with requests for the recipe! So delicious, da bomb!!
Yay! I’m so glad it was a hit.
About to make this but couldn’t find the shells in the store. Do you think it would be possible to make this like a lasagna with the large flat noodles and layering instead? Thanks!
(Forgot to leave the rating on my last comment)
thank you, you’re the best 🙂
I never leave reviews, but my family usually refuses to eat anything without meat and didn’t even notice with this recipe because they loved it SO much! I left out the tofu so I could fit in more of the yummy filling and butternut squash. I also doubled the recipe so that we’d have more leftovers. Without a doubt, this is a recipe that will be added to my regular rotation list. A definite HIT!
I’m so glad they were such a hit with your family!
I made this the other night & it was great! The cashews made such a great base for the “ricotta”. The squash added a wonderful sweetness. I will definitely make this again. This has become my go to cookbook.
Just made this and it was delicious!! I made 1.5x the sauce, added nutritional yeast, and subbed sunflower seeds for cashews (much cheaper and work just as well!) and poured it over top the shells before baking them off. Added extra lemon juice and garlic to the leftover sauce and made a kale caesar salad out of it. A DEVINE meal! The butternut squash adds so much to this dish. Little bites of sweet caramelized heaven. Don’t be shy with the seasoning in the tofu ricotta mixture. So so good 👌
Hi Justine, I’m glad you loved it!
Waiting to try this and truth be told I twisted your recipe up a bit. I had to use what I had on hand – so manicotti it was. Then I had to figure out how to get this stuff in those little tubes!! I blended the squash with the filling and piped it all in there. I subbed kale for spinach and carefully had that in the noodles prior to piping… just coming out of the oven… can’t wait to try!!
I hope you enjoyed it!
I have had this recipe pinned and have been dying to try for quite some time now and finally did tonight. Hands down amazing. I left out the additional salt in each step (trying to keep lower sodium and heart healthy for a family member) and it was still delish. Added a bit more garlic (in the tofu and while sautéing the spinach) to off-set any flavor loss. I also used silken rather than firm tofu and it was nice and creamy. I’m allergic to dairy and this really hit the spot. Thank you!
Hi Erin, I’m so glad you loved it!
Such a tasty recipe!
I modified it slightly- we don’t eat tofu, so replaced it with feta. Agree with comments below that ricotta would be good as well. I also used frozen spinach and warmed this with all ingredients of the filling together in a skillet.
I’m curious to know if it freezes well, so saved half to test out. The only thing I think would improve this dish is more sauce on top. Maybe more of the cashew cream, or perhaps even a runny pesto.
Hi Hailey, I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I spoon extra cashew cream on top – marinara would be delicious and I love your pesto idea too!
I’m curious whether it turned out well after freezing. I want to make it for a large-ish family gathering this weekend, and making ahead would be ideal.
Hi! I’m wondering if this doesn’t need to be vegan, so I just sub the tofu part with full fat ricotta or do I still want to make the cashew cream? Thanks!
Hi Jasmine, you can do the ricotta filling without cashew cream (it would be too watery with it). But you may want to still use the cashew cream as the sauce… unless you had a béchamel type sauce recipe you’d like to use instead. Or you could always top them with marinara – not the same look, but they taste good.
Either way, here’s a ricotta filling recipe that I like: https://www.loveandlemons.com/no-noodle-sweet-potato-lasagna/
Hope that helps!
This looks wonderful and the comments are all very positive. We have a nut allergy in the family so the cashew cream is a problem for us. Can you recommend a nut-free alternative, please?
Hi JoAnn, if you don’t need these to be vegan, regular ricotta can be used in the filling (I like this recipe: https://www.loveandlemons.com/no-noodle-sweet-potato-lasagna/) and marinara sauce can go on top instead of the cashew cream.