This super easy cauliflower alfredo recipe is so deliciously rich and creamy, you will never believe it isn’t FULL OF heavy cream and calories!
The Best Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce
Easy
Oil Free
Vegan
Low Carb
Dairy Free
Just 5 Ingredients
Even non vegans love this secretly healthy cauliflower alfredo sauce… That’s how good it is!
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Cauliflower Fettuccine Alfredo
The simple healthy recipe is also gluten free, nut free, sugar free, egg free, whole30, paleo, keto friendly, and soy free.
While most skinny Alfredo recipes call for cashews, tofu, or coconut milk to replace heavy cream, this sauce can also be made without any of those ingredients.
Instead it gets its creaminess thanks to the nutrition superstar cauliflower.
If you’ve never tried thickening a sauce with cauliflower, I highly recommend it.
You get a rich and creamy sauce without all the extra fat and cholesterol, and it sneaks in a vegetable serving you won’t even know you’re eating!
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The Alfredo sauce is also really great for meal prep!
Leftover sauce can be refrigerated for 3-4 days or frozen to thaw and use at a later date.
Easy Cauliflower Sauce
If you’re worried about making the lightened-up Alfredo for guests who are used to traditional heavy cream versions, be sure to scroll through the 250+ reader reviews at the bottom of this post.
Hundreds of readers have written in to say they’ve tried the cauliflower Alfredo recipe on their kids, husbands, families, boyfriends, girlfriends, friends, and neighbors, almost always with positive reviews and multiple requests for the recipe.
With just five ingredients, it’s deceptively easy to make, and the entire recipe can come together in under 20 minutes from start to finish, making it an excellent wholesome weeknight meal.
For dessert, try this Chickpea Cookie Dough Dip
Serving Suggestions
Serve the healthy vegan Alfredo over pasta, zucchini noodles, or Spaghetti Squash.
Or stir in roasted broccoli, peas, carrots, corn, diced mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic, or red peppers.
The sauce is also fantastic as a white gravy for baked sweet potatoes (here’s the best way how to cook sweet potatoes) or for lasagna or a white Vegan Pizza Recipe.
How To Make Cauliflower Alfredo:
Add all cauliflower sauce ingredients to a medium pot, and bring it to a boil.
Cover the pot and cook it on a low flame for 15 minutes, then pour it over pasta or spaghetti squash or even roasted vegetables if you’d prefer.
It also makes a delicious soup, and the cauliflower is so mild that anyone who doesn’t already know it’s in there will never be able to guess!
Above – Watch the video how to make cauliflower alfredo
Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 cup raw cauliflower florets (200g)
- 2 tsp minced garlic, or 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp butter or olive oil, or omit for fat-free
- 1 cup milk of choice
- optional 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella or nutritional yeast
- optional 1/4 cup diced shallot or onion
- Feel free to add a little Dijon mustard, lemon juice, black pepper, oregano, or rosemary if desired
Instructions
- Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce Recipe: Put all ingredients into a medium pot and bring to a complete boil, then cover and simmer 15 minutes or until the cauliflower is fall-apart tender. Pulverize with either an immersion or regular blender. Serve over pasta, or spaghetti squash, rice, roasted vegetables, or whatever you wish. Makes about 2 cups, and it gets much thicker as it sits.View Alfredo Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
More Easy Cauliflower Recipes
Can I use frozen cauliflower?
Sorry we have not tried it. Be sure to report back if you try!
This turned out delicious! I have added this recipe to my regular rotation. Thank you so much!
Can you suggest a replacement for garlic? My son is allergic
Onion powder would work! Or just leave it out and add other spices to taste.
Katie, this recipe was genius! I have been enjoying your desserts for a while but was nervous to try other dishes. But I just got diagnosed with a dairy allergy…and I LOVE cheese. This cauliflower alfredo recipe is one of the best alfredo recipes I have ever had!
I made it using almond milk, Earth Balance buttery spread, vegan mozzarella cheese shreds, and a blend of dried basil, oregano, paprika, red pepper flakes, & black pepper. I stirred in the “cheese” after it was all blended & off the heat. (This also allowed me to put real 1/4 cup parmesan in my husband’s & 1/4 fake cheese in mine.) It was divine. My husband had no idea it wasn’t regular alfredo. He was shocked when I told him it had cauliflower as the main ingredient!
Thank you so much for making it! 🙂
I’m here looking for healthy cauliflower recipes. This looks genius–I’m also checking out the Mac ‘n Cheese–but I’m absentminded and worried about cooking the cauliflower in milk long enough to make it soft without burning it. I’m not crazy about adding raw onions into the mix either. I’m going to have to play with this. You’ve got two T. of fat here. I might try microwaving the garlic and vegetables first to get them started. Sauté them in the butter/olive oil? Steam the cauliflower first? Then add it to the onion and garlic? Wish me luck.
I have to remind myself that when I eat it that it’s not loaded with butter and cream, it tastes so rich! I used nutritional yeast, pepper, and 1 tsp oregano, and put it over pasta with sauteed zucchini, mushrooms, and onions; the result was absolutely delicious. Leftovers were great too, this one is definitely a keeper.
Thank you so much for trying it 🙂
Please add me to the throng of those who totally flipped for what you’ve shared. I went full on dairy, using whole milk and the Mozzarella…I also included the optional Onion. Clearly the easiest pasta sauce to make in advance ever! When preparing the dish for serving I went full on decadence…6 oz. pasta was slathered/tossed in all of the sauce, and I plated for 2. I suppose a little of the sauce remained in the pot. We loved the flavor and this will become a mainstay. I’ll try not to think of this as a “healthy” entree….more fun to think it was rich and seductive. Thank you for sharing!
This recipe is awesome! To me it tasted just like a cashew sauce, but it’s way more affordable. I want to make cashew creamy sauces all the time but the nut is just so expensive. This is a great alternative! I used nutritional yeast. Thanks, Katie!
This was so good! I love alfredo sauce but i always feel awful after having it so this was the perfect guilt free meal. I went ahead and halved the recipe to make a smaller serving, although it is still more than enough for two people! I will say that it is not as smooth as regular alfredo but that might be due in part to my immersion blender. I also used bigger chunks of cauliflower so it took considerably longer than 15 minutes, turned out great in the end though!
Thank you so much for making it!
I’ve made this three ways now and it’s so good! The first time I used leftover roasted cauliflower and coconut milk, which I watered down. I added some lemon juice, the butter and pepper then served it over pasta with sautéed onions, peas and baked tofu. This time I tripled the batch and boiled the raw cauliflower in soy milk. I then split it in two and added lemon, rosemary and pepper to one and grainy Dijon and honey(you can use maple) and a little pepper to the other. The Dijon one is amazing and I’ll serve it over baked potatoes, chickpeas and steamed broccoli. I think the rosemary adds a great flavour to the Alfredo. I didn’t add the butter to this batch because I don’t think it needed it.