Vegetable Baked Ziti
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Vegetable Baked Ziti is a simple weeknight meal your whole family will love. Loaded with veggies and cheese, it’s delicious and quick to make!
We love taking classic Italian-American dishes and making them a little lighter and more nutritious. This vegetable baked ziti hits on all of the flavors you expect in a cheesy baked ziti recipe while adding in some sweet and crunchy vegetables.
The parmesan cheese, mozzarella, and ricotta combined with the al dente pasta, red peppers, yellow squash and zucchini make for the perfect bite in a meal that comes together in less than an hour.
Your friends and family will absolutely love this easy meal!
Tyler’s Tips for the Best Veggie Baked Ziti
- Cook your pasta al dente, almost slightly hard as it will continue to cook in the oven and soak up all of the amazing flavor from our sauce and vegetables.
- Add more vegetables if you want to hide them into a delicious meal for your family. Try blending the tomato sauce with two cups of spinach before mixing all of your ingredients together. It’s an easy way to add more veggies and nutrition without altering the flavor too much!
Ingredients:
substitutions
Olive Oil: You could use avocado oil, but we really recommend extra virgin olive oil.
Vegetables: The garlic and onion can be substituted with dried garlic and onion powder if needed. We love the flavor of the peppers, squash, and zucchini but you could try using mushrooms and eggplant as well! We also love Chicken Veggie Skillet, for a vegetable packed dinner.
Pasta: Whole wheat ziti is our favorite for this recipe but you could also use rigatoni, bowties, penne, or even cavatelli! We have not tried gluten-free pastas as the consistency can vary but it might work as a substitute.
Tomato Sauce: Low salt tomato sauce is ideal, you can use whole tomatoes or crushed tomatoes as well but they would need to be blended so it does not impact the consistency.
Cheese: The classic baked ziti dish has a combination of mozzarella, parmesan, and ricotta and we don’t recommend removing any of the three. Asiago cheese can be use in place of parmesan and if you can’t find ricotta then cottage cheese could be an option but the texture may vary.
Basil: Fresh basil brings an amazing fragrant flavor to this dish but you could try chopped parsley as well!
How to Make Vegetable Baked Ziti Recipe
- Sauté onions and garlic in oil for 3 minutes. Add the veggies to the pan and cook for 3 minutes.
- Cook pasta until al dente, drain, and return to pot with veggies, tomato sauce, 1 cup of mozzarella, ricotta, parmesan cheese, basil, black pepper, and salt. Stir together to combine.
- Pour the pasta mixture into a large baking dish. Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella cheese on top.
- Cover and bake at 350° for 30 minutes. With 3 minutes left, remove the cover and turn the oven on broil to achieve crispy edges.
What to Serve with this Recipe:
This baked vegetable ziti recipe has the vegetables and carbs covered, but if you are looking for some added protein as options, we highly recommend: Baked Chicken Cutlets, Chicken Parmesan, Chicken Piccata, and Chicken Scarpariello.
storage
Storing: The vegetable baked ziti will store well in airtight containers for up to 4 days.
Freezing: We do not recommend freezing this recipe as it will not reheat well afterwards, the pasta will get very mushy.
Reheating: This healthy veggie baked ziti reheats best at 400 degrees in an oven or toaster oven, it can also be reheated in the microwave or on the stovetop.
other healthy Pasta recipes:
Vegetable Baked Ziti
Ingredients
- 1 lb whole wheat ziti
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ cup diced onion
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 2 cups diced red bell pepper
- 2 cups quartered yellow squash
- 2 cup quartered zucchini
- 1 ¾ cups low sodium tomato sauce 16 ounces
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella divided
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons fresh basil chopped
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and prepare a greased large oven safe baking dish (13×9 or 11×7).
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Boil the ziti until al dente. Cook for 3-4 minutes less than the time the package recommends. Remember, the pasta will continue to cook in the oven and soak up the sauce along the way!
- While the pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil over medium heat in a sauté pan.
- Sauté the onions and garlic for 3 minutes or until soft and translucent.
- Add the red peppers, yellow squash and zucchini to the pan and cook for 3 minutes or until gently softened. Do not skip this step, it's important to gently cook the vegetables to release some liquid.
- Drain the pasta in a colander and return to the pot it cooked in.
- To the cooked pasta, add the sautéd vegetables, tomato sauce, 1 cup of mozzarella, ricotta, parmesan cheese, basil, black pepper, and salt. Stir together to combine.
- Pour the pasta mixture into a large baking dish (13×9 or 11×7) Sprinkle the remaining cup of shredded mozzarella cheese on top.
- Cover the dish and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
- With 3 minutes left, remove the lid and turn the oven on broil to achieve crispy, cheesy edges.
I halved this recipe, cooked a pound of ground beef with the onions and garlic. I used only zucchini and not yellow squash. I used cottage cheese instead of ricotta cheese. Baked only 15 minutes. We all liked it a lot.
So simple yet so delicious! Great way to use the zucchini and summer squash overload that happens this time of year. Adding the peppers gives it a great flavor boost. It’s a must try!
Cut this recipe in half except the veggies and it was delicious! A perfect summer dish.