Dreamy Vegan Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce
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This rich, creamy, and totally dreamy cauliflower alfredo sauce recipe is 100% dairy-free. You’ll be amazed at how delicious vegan food can be!
This cauliflower alfredo sauce is EVERYTHING! Seriously, it’s a game-changer. With all its cream, butter, and cheese, regular alfredo sauce is pretty darn awesome, but my jeans are feeling a little tighter just thinking about it!
This Alfredo sauce is made from the highly skilled impersonator, cauliflower. It’s cooked with some onions and garlic, then blended into a smooth, creamy sauce with some veggie stock.
We’ve flavored it with a bit of nutritional yeast … that weirdly awesome flaky stuff that tastes a little like Parmesan cheese.
This sauce has been a lifesaver. Whip up a batch in 15 minutes, then slather it on everything from spaghetti squash to pumpkin alfredo noodles to casserole.
What does cauliflower alfredo sauce taste like?
Since we’re eat-everything-arians, we’re pretty picky about imitations of ‘real’ food. That’s why this sauce is such a dream; it’s the best knockoff Alfredo sauce ever.
Does it taste EXACTLY like cream and butter-loaded alfredo? No, but it’s unbelievably close.
It’s super creamy, even though there’s not a drop of cream in sight. The flavor is mild, with a touch of garlic and a little cheesiness, thanks to some nutritional yeast.
Troubleshooting cauliflower alfredo sauce
The sauce is too thick. This can occur if too much stock evaporates during cauliflower cooking. If needed, add a little extra stock or water to the blender.
The sauce isn’t smooth. This can happen if your blender isn’t powerful. In this case, pour the sauce through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any pieces that didn’t blend properly.
The sauce needs more flavor. When making the sauce, start with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast, then add more as needed
Ideas for serving cauliflower alfredo sauce
Pasta is the obvious choice here. Linguine, fettuccine, or even penne or fusilli all pair well with this sauce. And you can add extras like spinach, steamed broccoli, peppers, peas or any other veggie that you like. It’s also the base of my dairy-free chicken alfredo recipe.
This is also a great ‘base recipe”. You can use it to build a special dinner. Here are a few ideas:
- Add some roasted garlic.
- Pour it over steamed or roasted broccoli.
- Make some vegan mac and cheese pasta.
- Use it as a dip for nachos.
- Pizza sauce!
Dreamy Vegan Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- ½ yellow onion (chopped)
- 3 cloves garlic (crushed)
- 3 cups (12 ounces) chopped cauliflower
- 1 cup vegetable stock or water
- 1-2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (see notes)
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1-2 teaspoons sea salt
- ½ teaspoon soy sauce
- Optional: 1 tablespoon butter (vegan or regular butter both work, use what you have on hand)
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a medium-sized pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and let it cook for 3-4 minutes, or until it is soft and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the cauliflower and the vegetable stock or water to the pot, cover with a lid and let the cauliflower steam for 5 minutes, or until it is soft.1 teaspoon olive oil, ½ yellow onion, 3 cloves garlic, 3 cups (12 ounces) chopped cauliflower, 1 cup vegetable stock or water
- Transfer everything in the pot to a blender (a high-powered blender will make the smoothest sauce, but any blender will work) and blend on high until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients (starting with 1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast and 1 teaspoon of sea salt) and blend again. Taste and add more nutritional yeast and sea salt, if you'd like. If you are using the optional butter add it now and blend once more.1-2 tablespoons nutritional yeast, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, 1-2 teaspoons sea salt, ½ teaspoon soy sauce, Optional: 1 tablespoon butter
- Either use the cauliflower alfredo right away or pour it into a pan to keep warm until you are ready to use it.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.
This has become one of my go-to recipes over the last couple years. I make it so often and everyone I’ve made it for loves it! So so good, def recommend!
I LOVE this recipe. It’s a great ‘base’ recipe that can be used in so many ways. I use it to replace any white sauce or cream in soups.
I was pleasantly surprised by how good this tasted!
I served it cold with pasta and my family and I loved it. It’s such a versatile recipe so I’ll be making it again and adapting it for other recipes!
I’ve been looking for a non-dairy sub for white sauce and omg I was so surprised at how good this turned out! The only sub I made was that I used chicken stock instead of vegetable. It was so good! I could just eat a whole bowl of this.
Love it!!!
Wow! So easy and good my mom who isn’t vegan even loved it!
That’s so great to hear, Deb! Thank you for the comment!
Can you freeze this?
Yes you can. 🙂
We followed the directions as written. I doubled the recipe for a bunch of hungry young adults. Everyone enjoyed it and most went back for seconds. They agreed that it was yummy but not really an alfredo. I wonder if I did something wrong. They loved the texture but thought it could use some more flavor. I’m planning on roasting some garlic to add to the leftover sauce to see if they think that puts it over the top. Thanks for the inspiration. These kids are tough to please and they devoured it.
I think that roasted garlic would be an amazing addition!
This sauce was very tasty. Although it slightly resembled cheese sauce it was still a great tasting sauce. I had it on steamed broccoli and it was delicious. I ended up adding 3 tbsp of nutritional yeast
Happy that you like it!
I really don’t like cauliflower, I have tried it in a myriad of ways bc as a vegan I like to keep my options as open as possible. Cut to making this recipe and it was AMAZING. I finally found a way to not only eat it but LOVE IT.
I do have a question! How well does this recipe freeze? I’d like to premix a huge batch and freeze it for later, but I also didn’t want to go in blind in case it doesn’t go well 🙂 thanks!
Horray! That is the best news!!
Several readers have commented that they’ve had success freezing this sauce so it should work well for you, too!
Lovely – a total hit with my family! Worked so well. Wanted a bit of colour, so added in finely chopped spinach and parsley to the sauce. Served with bean salad, green salad, sliced jalapenos and smokey coconut chips.
I bet that it was so pretty with the parsley!
I made the sauce few minutes ago but it was so good that I just kept eating it out of the blender. Hardly any left to use at dinner. One substitution I made was add 1 1/2 Tbls. of Mocha Mix (non-dairy creamer) instead of water to thin the sauce down a little. That made the sauce even creamier and luscious.
I might have to make a little more sauce for dessert. 😉
Love it! And good call on the creamer!
Loved this recipe! I’ve made my fair share of cauliflower Alfredo sauces and this one is my favourite by far! I followed the recipe exactly, only adding in 1 tbsp of the nutritional yeast. I’ll definitely be making this again!
Love hearing that, Melanie!
This is my go-to creamy white sauce now that I’m doing my best to eat WFPB (whole food plant based). Now that I have the basic recipe down pat, I’ve been adding different flavors and experimenting. It’s amazing. Tonight I added roasted red peppers and had it with pasta and diced veggies. I made a white vegetable lasagna with it for my daughter-in-law’s birthday last week and it was a big hit as well. Good stuff. Make it ASAP (you won’t regret it). Oh and my omnivore hubs laps it up every time I serve it. That should tell you how good it is!
I definitely need to try your red pepper version. That sounds amazing!
Made this last night and WOW, amazing. It will be a staple from here on out. Thank you!
I’m really happy that you loved this recipe!
It was overly oniony but I think the mistake I made was using half of a sweet onion and they’re bigger than regular ones. In Italy it is customary to add rosemary to cauliflower sauce, so at the end I added a couple of sprigs to the sauce in a saucepan and let it infuse. It adds great depth.
Great idea about the rosemary!
Delicious!! I made this when I didn’t have any cashews for the normal sauce I make and this is now my new favourite! Such a creamy cheesy taste and is perfect for a vegan Mac and cheese pasta ?
That’s wonderful to hear!
This is delicious! I love having it with zucchini noodles.
I’m really happy that you love the recipe!