Eric is in love with this creamy cauliflower pasta dish. I mean, in love. In fact, he asked if we could make it together on Valentine’s Day. Who am I to deny a grown man cauliflower? Plus, creamy pasta and Valentine’s Day go hand and hand. Chocolate too, of course. I’d say it’s a win-win.
Traditional Alfredo sauce is mostly made up of butter, cheese, and often, cream. Decadent? You betcha. Hiding a super healthy vegetable? Not so much. I’m happy to say this cauli-power sauce brings us both decadence and nutrition. To be honest, I was super skeptical to try the blended-cauliflower-as-pasta-sauce trend and I wasn’t rushing to try it out. But after whipping up a version in my kitchen, I went crazy for this stuff. And by crazy, I mean standing over the pot of pasta and spooning it into my mouth uncontrollably. Yea that happened. It’s downright irresistible just like you’d hope a creamy pasta to be. Of course, soaked cashews can create a fine alfredo sauce too, but it’s great to have a change from nuts. All you have to do to make this sauce nut-free is swap the almond milk for a nut-free non-dairy milk of your choice. Fun, right?
This sauce makes a lot (3 cups!) which means you can happily drown the pasta with the sauce. No skimping here! It is cauliflower after all. I stirred the sauce into whole grain spelt ribbon pasta which was quite tasty. I gravitate toward meals that leave me feeling good and this certainly made the cut. Not bad for a decadent-tasting pasta, I say.
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Cauli-power "Alfredo"
Yield
4 servings (makes 3 cups sauce)
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
This vegan “alfredo” sauce tastes decadent, yet is super light and energizing thanks to the sneaky cauliflower base! The nutritional yeast lends this sauce a rich "cheesy" flavour, while the blended cauliflower creates a creamy, luxurious base. This alfredo sauce is lovely served with pasta, but you can also enjoy it stirred into your favourite roasted or sautéed veggies. I love sautéing seasonal vegetables to serve along with the sauce over pasta. In the photo, I topped my bowl with a lovely spring veggie trifecta of leeks, asparagus, and peas. Thanks to Pinch of Yum for inspiring this tasty recipe!
Ingredients
- 4 heaping cups (460 g) cauliflower florets (1 small/medium cauliflower)
- 1/2 tablespoon (7.5 mL) extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 heaping tablespoon minced garlic
- 1/2 cup (125 mL) unsweetened and unflavoured almond milk*
- 1/4 cup (20 g) nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon (15 mL) fresh lemon juice, plus more for serving
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, to taste
- 3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt, or to taste
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, to taste
- 1 package (350 g/12 ounces) fettuccine or rotini pasta**
- Fresh minced parsley, for garnish
Directions
- Place cauliflower florets in a steamer basket and steam, covered, for 10 to 15 minutes until fork tender. (Alternatively, you can boil the cauliflower in a pot of water for 8 to 15 minutes until fork tender. Drain well before proceeding.)
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain well and add it back to the pot. Set aside.
- Add the oil and minced garlic to a small skillet and sauté over low heat for 4 to 5 minutes until softened and fragrant. Be careful not to burn.
- Add the cooked cauliflower, sautéed garlic, milk, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to a high-speed blender. Blend until a very smooth sauce forms. Adjust seasonings to taste.
- Add the cauliflower sauce to the pot with the pasta and stir well. Heat over low-medium until heated through. The pasta will tone down the flavours of the sauce so it’s important to taste the mixture and add more seasonings (salt, pepper, lemon, etc.) to taste before serving.
- For serving: Divide the warm pasta into bowls and top with more salt and pepper (to taste), along with a squeeze of lemon and some fresh minced parsley. Feel free to add your favourite cooked veggies such as broccoli, peas, leeks, asparagus, butternut squash, etc.
Tip:
* It’s very important that you use an unsweetened and unflavoured non-dairy milk in this recipe (nothing with vanilla or added sugar, please!).
** If you’re only preparing a couple servings, feel free to cook less pasta and save leftover sauce for another time. The alfredo sauce will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for at least a few days.
To make the alfredo taste extra decadent, add a tablespoon or two of vegan butter to the sauce.
Make it gluten-free: Use gluten-free pasta.
Boost the protein: Use a legume-based pasta such as chickpea pasta.
Make it nut-free: Use a nut-free non-dairy milk (such as soy milk) instead of almond milk. Be sure to use unsweetened and unflavoured milk.
Nutrition Information
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Thank you so much for this recipe. I made it with vegan butter and 1/4 cup more almond milk. Served over portabella mushrooms and quinoa pasta. Big hit!
Where do the mushrooms in the picture get incorporated in the recipe..?
Delicious! Thanks for this recipe. I added spinach and thought it blended nicely. Also, I loved that this was an easy enough dinner for me to prep even with 2 young kiddos hanging around. I made the sauce during naps and kept it in the fridge until dinner. Worked great!
this sauce is the business. thanks for the recipe!
My response was literally – Holy S*** it really worked!! Love it thanks for the great recipe – sorry for the vulgarity!
This is seriously amazing! I wish I didn’t put off making this for as long as I did. Stop what you’re doing and start cooking this up!
Delicous. Did it twice, once with peas, mushrooms and zucchini, and the other time with spinach and brocoli. Both yummy. The yeast gives a great cheesy feel, and it’s fast. Crowd pleaser, will do it again! :)
This was so delicious! I couldn’t believe how good it was!
Found this site from a co-worker, as I am “Veg-curious.” I will be taste testing this on my unsuspecting family. I love the idea of healthy decadence…LOL.
Very AWESOME pasta recipie ( and I am a growm man:) )
Totally loved it and discovering this blog!!
Thanks David! :) I hope you enjoy many more to come
My family of 6 (the baby did not eat this) just finished eating this dish. It was delicious! I cannot believe this recipe was void of cream and cheese. I did modify it a bit: 6 garlic cloves and 1 1/2 tsp. of fresh lemon juice. My children 12, 10, and 4 loved it. This recipe will be a weekly entree plus it was EASY PEASY to make. Thank you!
I’ve made this several times and adore it. I’ve taken to substituting roasted garlic. Today I used it as the base for a tomato “cream” sauce with roasted tomatoes and it is delicious. So glad I found your blog. Love the cookbook too!
Absolutely amazing! Tried it on both corn pasta and carrot/zucchini ribbons and LOVED it!! It came out way more creamy than I though it would. Thank you!
I came across this recipe after steaming a cauliflower without deciding in advance what sort of sauce I would make for it (Karfiol* is a favorite vegetable, and I was looking for a change of pace). Making a sauce FROM it rather than FOR it seemed like just the sort of thing I was in the mood to try. I made it with only minor changes: (a) I steamed the cauli, simply because I could use the rice cooker for that and not tie up a burner; (b) I used a potload more garlic, and skipped the garlic powder; (c) I added half of a large sweet onion to the saute, and skipped the onion powder; (d) I doubled the lemon juice to brighten the flavor; (e) I decided that the subtleties of a nice sea salt would be lost in a sauce this intense, so I used ordinary salt. The result was more than satisfactory! The texture of the sauce was velvety; it had the mouth “feel” of a much richer sauce. The nutritional yeast provided some of the flavor richness that one would have gotten from cheese, and probably was a lot of the reason this tasted like an Alfredo sauce rather than just like cauliflower puree. The cauliflower flavor was discernible, but did not dominate. When I served it, my wife pronounced it to be “comfort food of a high order,” and was surprised that it had so little fat. Although we ordinarily do eat dairy products, we have a family member whose irritable bowel seems to be helped by avoiding milk — so this will be a particularly nice recipe to have in the repertoire. It’s also nice that it’s pretty easy to make. I’d recommend it without reservation.
*”Karfiol” is the Austrian word for cauliflower; we often call it by that name in our Austro-American family, and I like the punning ring of “Karfiol-fredo” as a name for this dish!
I made this in a regular old blender with chocolate almond milk (unsweetened) and old cheddar cheese instead of the nutritional yeast and it was still delicious! I will add more pepper and I just saw the comment about pesto so I might add some of that too. Thanks Angela for the awesome recipes!!! My favourite food and recipe blog hands down.
Very good!
I am sad to report that this was a huge disappointment. I am not vegan, though I have a dairy allergy, so I am no stranger to “cheese” sauces made with vegetables, raw cashews, nutritional yeast, etc. This tasted like pureed cauliflower and there was nothing cheese-like about it. It wasn’t far off from many mashed cauliflower recipes, which tasted pretty “meh” when paired with pasta. I am truly shocked that reviewers are raving about this recipe. The Creamy Chard Linguine from Isa Chandra Moskowitz is much much more alfredo-like and remains my vegan “cheese” sauce standard. I will not be making this again.
I was vegan years ago, but ate mostly junk food. Now, in my 40s, I’m embracing a healthier, plant-based lifestyle for health reasons (for me and my kids). Your recipes are so very good. Never a dud, and exactly the kind of food I love to eat. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I should add that I’m down 25 lbs and have improved my cholesterol numbers :)
Made this pasta tonight, was pretty happy with it.
I probably added too much lemon juice (half of a large lemon, not measured), it ended up being pretty lemony. I added in some sauteed crimini mushrooms, asparagus, onions, and spinach. It wasn’t exactly an “alfredo”, but still a tasty creamy sauce.
Could you tell me the calories, carbs, and sugars for this recipe? Only the sauce not the noodles! Thanks!