Next to my rice cooker, the crock pot is my favorite way to cook.  It’s a life saver on busy days welcoming me home with smells of dinner that has cooked all day. 

I love several meals from my crock pot but have been tweaking the recipes as I adjust to food allergies. 

Hunni’s favorite is my crock pot lasagna.  I’ve made traditional lasagna and vegan lasagna but neither of those work for my current situation.  The biggest hurdle was the ricotta.  Before I used tofu as a ricotta substitute…but soy and I aren’t friends. 

After a bit of Googling I found a few alternatives.  Almond ricotta is a popular option but almonds and I don’t get along either.  Instead I made pine nut ricotta with a few taste test and tweaks.  Pine nuts can be a bit expensive but this is worth it for a few good recipes.

Pine Nut Ricotta

When you want the texture of ricotta but no dairy or soy…there’s pine.

Prep time: 1 hour soaking, 10 minutes mixing
Makes: 2 1/4 cups “ricotta”

Ingredients

• 2 cups pine nuts, raw
• water
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Instructions

1. Soak 2 cups of pine nuts in 4 cups water for at least 1 hour.  Set a timer.  Read a book, drink some tea or hula hoop.  Or prep the rest of the meal if you want to be productive.
2. Drain the pine nuts and add them to a blender with nutritional yeast and lemon juice. 

   

3. Pulse until pine nuts form ricotta like texture.  If needed add water to the mixture 1 tablespoon at a time.  You want just enough to help the nuts break down but not become watery.
4. Tada!  You have a good dairy-free, soy-free option for ricotta to use in recipes.  I reserve it for savory recipes because of the lemon and nutty taste of the nutritional yeast.

Using my traditional recipe for vegan crock pot lasagna I subbed the whole wheat noodles for Tinkyada gluten free brown rice lasagna noodles and the pine nut ricotta for the tofu ricotta.  Everything else remained the same.  A few simple adjustments and my – and Hunni’s – favorite foods can be allergy friendly. 

What substitutes do you use when cooking?

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