TikTok Vegan Feta Pasta

Jump to Recipe

For someone that doesn’t even have a TikTok account, I somehow seem to find out about these recipes going viral on the app. This one is traditionally done by roasting tomatoes with garlic and olive oil with a block of feta in the center. Since we don’t eat cheese made from someone else’s breastmilk in this house, I knew I wanted to make a vegan version of this. I found a handful of vegan versions online and have come up with mine for you to try below.

This “feta/ricotta” needs a couple of hours in the fridge if you want it to be a solid block like traditional feta. If you don’t have the time to allow the cheese to solidify, that’s just fine. You can just drop dollops of the cheese all around the tomatoes when you pull the tomatoes out to stir at 15 minutes. I didn’t originally plan on letting the cheese cool, but I ran out of time making this before work, so I let the cheese set while I was away. I have seen it done with the Violife vegan feta block, but it isn’t tangy enough for me. I also wanted to make the cheese from scratch to make the most of the recipe. Let me know in the comments below if you used the Violife version and what you thought of it.

I went with mini heirloom tomatoes because I like the look of them, but you can use any mini tomato you want like cherry or grape. I also went heavy on the tomatoes because I love them roasted, feel free to use less to have a closer tomato to cheese ratio.

I like the chew of the gluten-free pasta, so I used Trader Joe’s Organic Brown Rice and Quinoa Fusilli pasta for this dish. Their red lentil pasta is also a good one. These seem to cook fast too; I pulled the pasta at like five minutes, so they didn’t get mushy.    

I added spinach to this dish because I like finding a way to get greens into any pasta dish, I make to feel a little better about a carb heavy meal. Basil or kale would also be great in this dish if you wanted to add them to the mix.

The best part about this meal is it is cheap and easy to make, but mostly it is high in protein, fiber, Vitamin C and K, and potassium without the cholesterol, high sodium, and saturated fat that comes from animal cheese.

The leftovers are also amazing and make great a great lunch for work the next day. This can be kept in the fridge for up to a week in a sealed container.

Hope you like and I want to hear what you think in the comments below.

Thanks for reading,

Jessica

Tik Tok Vegan Feta Pasta

Print

With ImageWithout Image

Yield: 4-6

Author: Jessica Morton

Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 35 MinInactive time: 3 HourTotal time: 3 H & 50 M

Ingredients

“Feta” Cheese Ingredients

• 1 package firm tofu
• 4 TBSP Refined coconut oil (if you use unrefined it will taste coconutty and it’s not good)
• 4 TBSP lemon juice
• 1 TSP Apple cider vinegar
• ½ Cup soaked cashews
• 1 TBSP Herbes de Provence (optional but recommended)
• 2 TSP Garlic powder
• 1 TSP TJ’s Onion salt
• ½ TSP Dried dill
• 3 TBSP Nutritional Yeast
• Salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste

Remaining Ingredients

• 2-16 ounce heirloom tomato packs
• 6-7 Garlic cloves, smashed and roughly sliced
• 3 Cups fresh spinach
• 1 TBSP Herbes de Provence
• 3 TBSP olive oil
• Sprinkle of TJ’s Umami seasoning
• Fresh cracked TJ’s lemon pepper
• Garnish with fresh chopped parsley, basil, and vegan parmesan cheese. I like Violife vegan parmesan cheese.

Instructions

“Feta” Cheese Instructions

1. Blend all the “feta” ingredients together using a food processor or blender and set aside. Season to taste.
2. Feel free to refrigerate in a Tupperware container that is the size of a block of feta. Cool for at least two hours and the cheese will firm up into a block.

Remaining Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (204 degrees C)
2. Place tomatoes, sliced garlic, 2 tablespoon olive oil, pinch of sugar, umami seasoning and lemon pepper in a deep baking dish and mix well.
3. Sauté the spinach in a large pan with a little water just long enough to wilt it down and cook through. Keep stirring it until all spinach is cooked through and drain.
4. Bake tomatoes for 15 minutes, remove baking dish, add spinach, and gently stir it all in with the tomatoes.
5. If using the cheese right after being made, drop dollops of it around the tomatoes.
6. If using cheese, you let sit and harden in the fridge, move all the tomatoes and spinach to the edge of the baking dish so you have a large enough space in the center for the cheese to go.
7. Take a butter knife along the edges to release the block from the container.
8. Slowly turn the container over and let the cheese fall into your hand. Do this while over the baking dish so you can gently lay the block down into the blank space you made in the center of the dish.
9. Move all the tomatoes and spinach around the block to even everything out. Drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil all over the tomatoes and cheese and put back in the oven for another 15-20 minutes. The tomatoes should be bursting and any that will burst with the pressure of a fork on it.
10. Cook pasta, drain, and rinse. I made this while the cheese was cooking and just let it rest while it finished. I rinsed it occasionally to keep them from getting sticky.
11. Once tomatoes and cheese are cooked, pull from the oven, and mix it all together well. Crush the tomatoes with the back of your wooden spoon or a fork to help make a sauce out of them.
12. Add cooked pasta and stir well. The water released from the tomatoes is the perfect amount of liquid to thin out the cheesy sauce.
13. Garnish with fresh parsley and/or basil and vegan parmesan cheese.
14. Leftovers hold for up to 5 days in a sealed container in the fridge.

Notes:

**Inactive time is if you let the cheese set in the fridge to harden. Ignore this if you are just going to dollop the cheese onto the tomatoes to save time.