Almond ricotta is often seen at our holiday table - mixed in with a variety of things, it’s super simple to make, flavorful, and comes in handy when you need a main meal item such as:
Lasagna (you can use your favorite pasta or try lentil pasta, or my favorite which is thin, wide zucchini noodles ~ yum! And no food coma after!)
Stuffed Shells
A dollop on top of soup
Smeared on lentil bread (check out the recipe here)
A dip with crudités
Stuffed in peppers and baked
OK, so I have been known to eat it with a spoon. You might enjoy this too :)
Note: For Bright Line Eating, since it’s mostly almonds, count .5 oz as a fat portion or 2 oz as a protein portion ~ I would do this before you add in the spinach, and count your spinach as a veggie.
On top of being easy to make, it’s also very and economical, compared to the variety of plant-based products in the stores that are expensive and filled with sometimes not the best ingredients.
The hardest task is the skinning of the almonds. Give yourself about 20 minutes for this. It’s worth it, and leaves you with a creamy white ricotta in the end, so don’t skip this step!
Here we go:
2 cups raw almonds, soaked in boiling water for at least an hour, skinned
1 cup cold water
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper, ground
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast, optional
Combine almonds, water, garlic, salt, pepper, lemon, and nutritional yeast (if using) in a high speed blender. Blend on high, using a tamper if possible (this pushes the mixture into the blades, and make the process super quick), so that the mixture ends up being very fine with no almond bits. If you don't have a tamper for your blender, then you may have to stop the blender and scrape, blend, scrape, blend.
In a bowl, combine the ricotta and spinach together. Cook as you would normally would in your favorite recipes, and enjoy! This can be made ahead of time and used a day later, but do make sure container is airtight as the almond mixture can discolor when exposed to air for a period of time.
