Have you seen that funny meme about how adulthood is just taking everything you love and replacing it with cauliflower? It makes me laugh every time I see it because I feel like I have cauliflower’ed so many recipes – from cauliflower gnocchi to cauliflower mashed potatoes from cauliflower stir-fry to cauliflower stuffed peppers. You would think I would be done with it, but I have one more to add to the mix, this new recipe for cauliflower stuffed shells. The thing about cauliflower is that it can take on so many different flavors, and in this recipe it’s sautéed with lots of garlic before being folded into a ricotta cheese mixture. It gets totally hidden in garlic and cheese, in fact I served this to my family recently and no one knew the cauliflower was in there. So sneaky and so tasty – get the recipe below!

Cauliflower Stuffed Shells.
Serves: 24 Stuffed Shells
 
Ingredients
  • 1lb of Large Shell Pasta
  • 1 Tbsp. of Butter
  • 2 Cups of Riced Cauliflower
  • 2 Cloves of Garlic
  • 2 Cups of Ricotta
  • 1 Cup of Shredded Mozzarella, divided
  • 1 Tsp. Garlic Powder
  • 1 Tsp. Onion Powder
  • 1 Tsp. Oregano
  • Salt and Pepper
  • 2.5 Cups of marina sauce
  • Fresh Parsley or Basil for garnish
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Bring a pot of well-salted water to a boil and cook large shells as directed to al dente, set aside and let cool until ready to fill.
  3. In a pan, sauté butter, riced cauliflower, and garlic for 5 minutes until softened and fragrant. Remove from pan and transfer to a bowl to cool for 5 minutes.
  4. Add ricotta cheese, half of the mozzarella cheese, and spices to the bowl (garlic powder, onion powder, oregano). Season the filling well with salt and pepper.
  5. Pour the tomato sauce into the bottom of a large baking dish and spread around to coat the surface. Begin filling the cooked shells with spoonfuls of the ricotta-cauliflower mixture and nestling them into the marinara coated dish. Repeat until your dish is full and sprinkle with the remaining half of the mozzarella.
  6. Bake in oven at 400 degrees for 30 Minutes, until cheesy is bubbly. Garnish with fresh herbs before serving.