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Baked Ziti with Tempeh and Kale

Cheese. 

Finally, victory in my quest to make baked ziti more nutritious! Protein and green vegetables outweigh the abundance of cheese, I say.

I went overly ambitious on this one, making the ricotta cheese and the tomato sauce from scratch (with tomatoes that I canned last summer). We definitely enjoyed the fresh cheese and sauce shining through, but one could make this recipe more easily by buying those ingredients.

I made the cheese first, and it was done draining by the time I had prepped everything else.

The kale was kind of an accident because the store strangely had no decent-looking spinach when I shopped, but the kale looked great. I bought boxed baby kale and steamed it on top of the pasta pot before dumping in the pasta to cook.

I had some leftover spinach, so that went in as well.

The tempeh was excellent, lightly browned with onion and garlic and then simmered in the sauce. If you do store-bought sauce, I would still take the time to brown the tempeh and let it sit in hot sauce for a while.


The Recipe:
1 box whole wheat ziti
10 oz kale (or spinach), steamed and chopped
1 package tempeh, crumbled
6 oz mozzarella cheese
6 oz ricotta cheese
1 quart tomato sauce (I made mine with onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, oregano, basil, crushed tomatoes, salt, pepper, and sugar)
  • Cook the ziti according to instructions on the box
  • Brown the crumbled tempeh for 2 minutes in olive oil. If making sauce from scratch, do this with the onions and garlic as you would with ground beef.
  • Simmer the tempeh in tomato sauce for at least 15 minutes.
  • Dump the ziti into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Top with the sauce, then spread out the kale and cheeses on top, reserving some mozzarella. Gently fold ingredients together to combine. Top with reserved mozzarella.
  • Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, uncovered, then broil until the cheese browns.

The Verdict:
Overall grade: A-
Overall reason: Great comfort food. Not quite healthy enough for an A.
Time to prepare: 30 minutes, plus 30 minutes of baking
Husband quote: "You've riCOTTA try it!"


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