Broccoli Ricotta Cannelloni

This broccoli ricotta cannelloni recipe is utterly delicious. Full of flavour and very filling as coconut flour crepes are used in place of pasta.  It’s one of those meals that makes you want to lay back and think of England! (British humour.  I'd apologise but don't want to....).

We had this for lunch one day and it was so filling I am surprised that the Chief Taster managed to go back to work without a “power nap”.   It kept me going all day and I could not manage an evening meal.  The lemon in the crepe filling gives an added level of flavour.  Lemon and broccoli go well together so there is not big surprise there.

I am having fun with my coconut flour crepes recipe and looking at various ways to fill them apart from the obvious cook them, sprinkle them with lemon juice and sweetener.  As they are so flexible due to the coconut flour I thought that they would make a great pasta substitute.  I’ve used them for a lasagna cake, so stuffed them like some cannelloni.  

We used to eat spinach stuffed cannelloni with a tomato sauce in our pre low carb days but I wanted a slight twist on this.  It helped that my fridge was full of broccoli and had a lack of spinach.  So, I blitzed up a bowl of broccoli rice, added ricotta cheese with a dash of lemon and voila!  A tasty stuffed cannelloni was made.

Although we enjoyed this broccoli cannelloni dish on top of a tomato sauce you could eliminate this to cut down on the carbs, and perhaps use a cheese sauce instead.  Or bake the stuffed crepes with the Mozzarella cheese on top.   We enjoyed the sauce but it is not a necessity, however delicious it was.

Broccoli Ricotta Cannelloni

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Course: Main Course, Vegetarian

Author: Angela Coleby

Ingredients

Crepes

• 3 tablespoons (21g) coconut flour
• 5 eggs
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tablespoon butter

Sauce

• 2 garlic cloves peeled and chopped
• 1 onion peeled & chopped
• 1 cup tin tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons basil, fresh
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Filling

• 300 grams broccoli cut into florets
• 1/4 cup (25g) Parmesan cheese grated
• 300 grams ricotta cheese
• 1 lemon rind and juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oit
• 1/2 cup (56g) Mozzarella cheese for topping grated

Instructions

Crepes

• In a bowl, mix all the ingredients except the butter together. Either whisk or use a hand blender until the mixture is smooth.
  
• Heat the butter in a medium sized frying pan on a medium heat.
  
• Gently pour a small amount of the batter into the pan until you have a circle. You can rotate the pan whilst you pour to get a larger crepe. I just pour about one sixth into the pan and just watch it form into a circle naturally.
  
• Cook on one side for about 1-2 minutes until bubbles appear in the crepe, then flip over to cook for a further 1-2 minutes
  
• Repeat with the remaining batter.
  

Sauce

• Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan on a medium heat and add the onion. Saute for 5 minutes until soft.
  
• Add the garlic and cook for a further 3 minutes. 
  
• Add the tinned tomatoes, breaking them up with a spoon and add the basil. Season with salt and pepper.
  
• Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for at least 20 minutes.
  
• Remove from the heat and using a hand blender blitz until smooth. Or place the sauce into a blender.
  

Fillilng

• Rice the broccoli by placing the florets into a food processor and blitzing until it looks like green breadcrumbs.
  
• Heat one tablespoon of oil in a frying pan and add the broccoli, lemon rind and juice and cook for 3-5 minutes until the broccoli is soft and cooked. Not too mushy though.
  
• Remove from the heat and stir in the ricotta, Parmesan cheese, salt and black pepper until combined.

Assembly

• Preheat the oven to 180C/350F degrees
  
• Lightly butter a baking dish.
  
• Spoon half of the tomato sauce over the bottom of the baking dish.
  
• Place a couple of tablespoons of the broccoli and ricotta mixture into a crepe and roll into a “cigar”.
  
• Place the filled crepe on top of the sauced lined baking dish.
  
• Repeat until the baking dish is full of stuffed crepes.
  
• Spoon the remaining sauce over the crepes.
  
• Sprinkle the Mozzarella cheese over the sauce (Parmesan would work too)
  
• Bake for 15 minutes.
  
• Eat and enjoy!

Notes

Serves 2 – 3 people  (6 filled crepes)

Nutritional info per filled crepe "cannelloni" :  282 Calories, 15g Fat, 16g Protein, 13g Total Carbs, 4g Fibre, 9g Net Carbs

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