Oil-Free Vegan Creamy Cauliflower “Alfredo” Sauce–Not Just for Pasta

Eat More Vegetables–With Sauce!

A great way to enjoy more vegetables, is to top them with a delicious sauce. This Creamy Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce is a delicious plant-based, oil-free, way to elevate plain steamed vegetables while adding even more nutritional density and not many additional calories. Traditional Alfredo sauce is delicious to many, but is loaded with butter, cream and cheese–a disastrous combination for heart health and the waistline too (not to mention impacts on the cows and the environment).

This Creamy Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce is completely plant-based, vegan, oil-free, low calorie and heart-healthy. It tastes rich and decadent but is actually a great weight loss food, especially when paired with vegetables! I absolutely love this sauce on vegetables, and yes it is really good on pasta too!

Here is how I made it:

I started with a one pound bag of frozen cauliflower. I may have mentioned, a few times, how much I love stocking up on frozen vegetables!

I cooked the frozen cauliflower in enough water to cover the florets, until fork tender. Frozen cauliflower has been blanched and just needs a couple of minutes to cook. If you are planning to have the sauce on pasta, rather than or in addition to vegetables, start your pasta cooking first, before cooking the cauliflower and making the sauce.

When the cauliflower was tender, I drained it, reserving some of the cooking water, and transferred the cauliflower to my Vitamix Blender. I love this blender. See my post on the Vitamix Blender here http://table-karma.com/kitchen-essentials-vitamix-ultimate-blender/.  I you don’t have one yet, you can order one here http://amzn.to/2sv46T3. In the meantime, any blender should work for this recipe, because of the added liquid.

After you have emptied the cauliflower from the cooking pot, use the same pot (no need to wash it)  to steam whatever vegetables you will be having–steam to desired tenderness. For a recent breakfast, I steamed some frozen broccoli florets and some mixed vegetables together in the same pan. Again, I have to remark that it is so convenient to have these frozen vegetables on hand.

While the vegetables were streaming, I finished the Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce. This Alfredo sauce is so easy to make! Once you have transferred the cooked cauliflower to the blender, you simply add the rest of the ingredients and blend. That’s all!

Into the blender, I added:

2 cloves of garlic (garlic powder would also work–about 1 teaspoon),

1 tablespoon of Hemp Seeds (get them here  http://amzn.to/2x6zNt0),

2 tablespoons of Nutritional Yeast (get it here http://amzn.to/2xKInKY),

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice,

1/4 cup of the reserved cooking water  (start with a little, blend and then adjust thickness with more water as desired). I like to keep the sauce thick.

Salt and Pepper to taste–I always recommend good sea salt–get it here http://amzn.to/2fJ22X , and white pepper is nice in this sauce–get it here http://amzn.to/2xPZTiE.

Then I blended everything–Voila, Alfredo!

I plated up the vegetables and added the sauce. I like to add a little hot sauce on top!

Another Version–With Pasta!

Here is another vegetable combo that I loved with the Alfredo–frozen broccoli and frozen mixed bell peppers. I steamed these vegetables and combined them with pasta shells for a creamy pasta dish nutritionally amped up with vegetables.

 Delicious!

Eat more veggies!

 

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