One of my most popular recipes on the website is the Cauliflower No Cheese Sauce, and this Cauliflower Pasta Alfredo uses that as an inspiration. Instead of adding nutritional yeast and turmeric to make it an orange cheese color, this recipe uses potato and raw cashews to retain traditional Alfredo sauce’s light color.
However, this plant-based Alfredo version eliminates fattening and unhealthy dairy and cheese while retaining a beautiful flavor. In addition, you create creaminess with the addition of raw cashews.
You don’t need to soak these, however, as you just toss them with the cauliflower and potatoes to soften them before blending. This saves a step. I keep my raw cashews in the freezer to keep the oils from spoiling and toss them right into the broth.
Check out these plant-based pasta dinner ideas:
- Pasta Primavera
- One Pot Penne Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce
- Classic Basil Marinara with Angel Hair Pasta
- Pasta Puttanesca with Spinach
- Vegan Oil-Free Basil Pesto with Pasta
If you’d like to keep the calories lighter, you can add 1/2 cup of non-dairy milk instead of the raw cashew and reduce the broth by 1/2 cup.
For this version of Cauliflower Alfredo Pasta, the sauce is not super thick; otherwise, it will become too sticky. The sauce tends to thicken as it cools a little and will vary depending on the size of your potatoes.
I’ve found that the sauce needs to have plenty of flavors because the pasta tends to make the sauce taste blander. Alfredo sauce is usually a subtle flavor, but if you want to pump up the flavor a little more, try adding 2 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce.
The steps to making this easy recipe are to simmer the cauliflower, potatoes, raw cashews, and garlic in the vegetable broth until tender.
Then, when cooled, toss all of the vegetables, including the broth, into a blender and blend until smooth. Now add the other spices, mustard powder, lemon juice, and salt and pepper.
I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below for this Vegan Cauliflower Pasta Alfredo! If you have a photo, post it on my Instagram page, tag me using the hashtag #plantbasedcooking in your caption, and I won’t miss it!
This recipe is Certified Plantricious because it meets the following guidelines.
The Trusted Seal for
Plant-Based Nutrition
- Must be whole food plant-based, contains no animal products
- May be minimally processed
- No added oil
- No added sugars
- No artificial additives or preservatives
- Sodium (mg) to Calories ratio, 1 ≤ 1
- Total Fiber to Calories, 2g ≥ 100 calories
Cauliflower Pasta Alfredo
Ingredients
- 1 16-oz box whole wheat fettuccine or another pasta shape
- 3 1/2 cups homemade vegetable broth or low-sodium brand
- 4 cups cauliflower florets mixed medium and small pieces
- 2 medium potatoes or 1 large peeled and cut into 1” chunks
- ½ cup raw cashews or or ½ cup unsweetened non-dairy milk
- 1 tsp mustard powder
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- ¼ cup fresh basil chopped
- salt and black pepper to taste
- See Optional Additions below in the notes
Instructions
- Bring 6 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot. Add pasta and return to boil. Lower heat and cook about 10 minutes, stirring frequently to keep from sticking. Drain and keep warm.
- While the pasta is cooking, bring the vegetable broth to a boil in a saucepan and add the cauliflower, potatoes, raw cashews, garlic, and mustard. Lower the heat to simmer, cover and cook until the cauliflower and potatoes are fork tender, about 15-20 minutes. Do not drain.
- Once the cauliflower mixture has cooled slightly, transfer the ingredients to the blender. Add the mustard, and lemon juice. Salt and pepper to taste. NOTE: If you're using non-dairy milk instead of cashews, add it into the blender, as well.
- Blend until the sauce becomes very smooth.
- Pour over the noodles in your pan and stir to distribute the Alfredo sauce. If you're addition greens peas or fresh spinach, now is the time to add them and heat through.
- Top each serving with chopped basil
I’m sorry to hear you were disappointed. It may take some time to adjust tastes and enjoy vegan versions if you’re just starting on a plant-based diet. It would have probably helped for me to mention in the post that this won’t taste exactly like traditional Alfredo which is made with dairy, butter, and cheese. We do our best making recipes similar, but I hear you and will keep tweaking to make it better.
Fake cheeses aren’t the answer either because of their high fat content. I hope you won’t give up on trying plant-based recipes because we know how good they are for our health and in most cases very delicious, at least in my book.
I paired with your Roasted Cauliflower with Peas recipe. It doesn’t taste xactly like alfredo, but it resembles it for sure. My family loved it! We will add this to our rotation for sure.
Thanks for giving it a try. I’m so glad that your family loved it! I suppose people need to reign in their expectations when it comes to vegan “cheese.” I’ll keep working to make recipes tasty.