Lemon Black Trumpet Vegan Manicotti
Let’s make vegan manicotti, forager style. Large manicotti pasta are stuffed with a simple almond ricotta style cheese, folded with spinach and black trumpet mushrooms. Rich and creamy garlic lemon sauce coats everything. This dish is the perfect dish for dinner parties or date night, but won’t take too long to put together.
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Foraging for Black Trumpets
I find that I develop different techniques for foraging different mushrooms. When I forage morels I crouch down in a likely location and start staring until my eyes are practically crossed and a morel suddenly appears. Foraging maitake (hen of the woods) involves circling tall oaks in a weaving, dance like pattern. For chantarelles you look down, oysters look up. When seeking chicken of the woods just wait to spot that distinctive traffic cone orange. But with black trumpets I have a bit of a weakness. They’re probably the only mushroom my partner is better at spotting than I am (not to brag, but I really am the better forager). I don’t know why I can’t seem to get a read on them, but so it goes. I am blessed with the knowledge of a couple good spots where black trumpets grow every year, so even when foraging alone I’m likely to have success. Black trumpets are in season from around July through October.
Disclaimer- use caution when foraging wild edibles, and always be certain of your identification. While I assume responsibility for the accuracy of the information provided on this site, I may not always include all the information needed to make an ID, and can’t responsible for the accuracy of your identification. Consult multiple websites, books and local experts, and when it doubt, do without.
The trouble with spotting black trumpets is they very much blend into a forest floor covered with decaying leaves, which is coincidentally where they tend to grow. Black trumpets grow out of the dirt in the proximity of certain types of trees (different trees depending on the species of black trumpet). They like wetter areas, often in the same areas as golden chantarelles. Black trumpets are a great beginner mushroom as they don’t have much in terms of lookalikes. They only mushroom I’ve seen that looks remotely like a black trumpet is other mushrooms that have started to rot. They come in shades of black, brown and grey. When young they are almost cylindrical, but as they grow the caps open up like a vase (or the bell of a trumpet) until they crack and split. They are usually around 2-3 inches tall, and grow singly or in small clusters. They either have false gills on the undersides of the caps, or they are smooth. Their aroma is distinct.
Looking for Black Trumpet Recipes? Try one of these!
- Vegan Black Trumpet Mushroom and Leek Pizza
- Homemade Black Trumpet Mushroom Salt
- Vegan Black Trumpet Arancini (Air Fried)
Looking for Vegan Stuffed Pasta? Try one of these!
- Garlic Mustard Recipe: Laminated Wild Ravioli
- Squash and Kale Vegan Lasagna Roll Ups
- Simple Homemade Vegan Pumpkin Ravioli
- Vegan Pierogi with Potatoes and Onions
- Creamy Squash Ravioli with Oyster Mushrooms
How to Make Black Trumpet Vegan Manicotti
This was actually my first time making a stuffed manicotti recipe, but thankfully it’s not hard. We made ours with dry manicotti noodles, stuffed with a soft almond cheese that had spinach and black trumpet mushrooms folded in, and topped with a creamy lemon sauce.
The filling starts by making a simple, soft almond cheese. It’s a good stand in for ricotta, so feel free to borrow that bit again for other ricotta-like needs. Start with blanched almonds- if you only have whole almonds, you can remove the skins yourself. Give them a boil (which you’re going to do anyways to soften them), and rinse under cool water. One at a time, you should be able to squeeze the skins off of the almonds. Once the almonds are free from skin, add them to your blender to bring them to their final form. You’ll need nutritional yeast and miso paste for flavor, as well as a few more common ingredients. Blend until pretty smooth, although you don’t need it to be as perfectly creamy as a cashew cheese would be.
To finish the filling off, we are going to need to sauté a few veggies. Start with a diced shallot, cooking it gently in a little oil until transparent. Next comes the black trumpets and the spinach. You don’t want to cook either of those ingredients too much- just enough to release excess liquid so they won’t make your almond ricotta wet. Once sautéed, give your vegetables a quick, rough chop before transferring into a bowl with the ricotta. Fold to incorporate.
The lemon sauce is a white sauce, thickened with flour, and flavored with garlic and lemon. Start by gently cooking the garlic in oil, until fragrant but not browned. Add a little nutmeg and the flour and start to cook. Stir frequently to avoid burning. Cook for a few minutes until all the flour is a little toasted, and then add your milk. Whisk to incorporate the flour and cook to allow the sauce to thicken. As the sauce thickens, add a little salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the heat and incorporate the lemon juice and lemon zest. Voila, lemon sauce done.
Cook the pasta as directed on the box- I only needed 10 manicottis for this recipe, but I recommend cooking a couple extra in case you have some that break. You will need a large, shallow casserole dish to finish off your vegan manicotti, lined with a little of your sauce to stop sticking. You can fill your manicotti with a long spoon, but I really recommend a piping bag with no tip. Fill your noodles and place them in the casserole dish, topped with the lemon sauce. Bake for about 30 minutes, covered, until bubbly.
Lemon Black Trumpet Vegan Manicotti
Ingredients
- 12 manicotti noodles
- Oil, for cooking
- 1 large shallot
- 1 cup fresh black trumpet mushrooms, lightly packed
- 3 cups baby spinach, packed
- 2 cups blanched almonds
- 1 cup plant-based milk (or water)
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp. miso paste
- 1 clove garlic
- ½ tsp. salt
- 3 cloves garlic
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp. nutmeg
- 2 cups plant-based milk
- Juice and zest of one lemon
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Start by making the almond ricotta. Boil your almonds for 10 minutes to soften. Drain, and add to a blender with the remaining ricotta ingredients. Blend until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed. Set aside.
- Dice your shallots and set aside. Gently clean your black trumpets. Heat a medium-sized skillet with a little oil. Add the shallots and sauté until soft and fragrant. Add the black trumpets and cook for a couple minutes. Add the spinach and cook until wilted. Remove from the heat, roughly chop, and fold into the almond ricotta. Set aside.
- Start your lemon cream sauce by mincing the garlic and zesting and juicing the lemon. Add the olive oil to a sauce pan, and gently cook the garlic until fragrant. Add the flour and nutmeg, and, stirring well, sauté for a couple minutes to cook off the flour. Add the plant-based milk, and whisk well, continuing to cook until thickened. Remove from the heat, add the lemon juice and zest, whisk to combine, and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Cook the manicotti as directed on the package. Once cooked and drained, use a spoon or a piping bag to fill the manicotti with the almond ricotta mixture. Add a small layer of the lemon sauce to a wide casserole dish and spread to cover the bottom of the dish. Add the stuffed manicotti in a single layer. Cover with the remaining lemon cream sauce. Cover and bake for about 35 minutes, until it’s warm and bubbly.
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