15-min Cashew Alfredo Sauce (Oil-free, Vegan)

If you are looking for the easiest vegan alfredo sauce recipe, look no further. Our recipe needs only 5 ingredients, not to mention it is absolutely creamy, delicious, and ready in 15 minutes since no cooking is involved. We even included 10+ creative recipes to use this cashew alfredo.

Yes, another pasta sauce. You can’t have enough pasta sauce for sure. If you need a quick lunch or dinner, a pasta dish is always a good choice. You can use different pasta and different sauce every time to make things even more interesting. Our favorite pasta sauces are vegan marinara sauce, hidden vegetable sauce, and quick spinach pasta sauce. Or you can also visit our collection for even more vegan sauce recipes. By the way, this recipe is also part of our quick vegan meals collection.

What to expect from this recipe?

The traditional fettuccine alfredo is made of mostly butter, heavy cream, and Parmesan cheese. To create a vegan (or dairy-free) alternative we substituted heavy cream with cashew cream and Parmesan cheese with nutritional yeast.

But does it taste like traditional alfredo? How can they taste exactly the same? The traditional one tastes so fatty with all the butter, heavy cream, and Parmesan. But if you are open to it, you will eat a super creamy and garlicky alfredo sauce that tastes delicious with any pasta dish.

Why is our recipe the best vegan alfredo sauce you can ever try?

• It is super simple and ready in 15 minutes.
• You only need 5 ingredients.
• It is actually a raw vegan alfredo sauce since no cooking is involved.
• It has an absolutely creamy texture if you have a good blender.

Ingredients

As promised you will need only 5 ingredients and a bit of salt and pepper. We don’t think you need any other ingredients like onion or lemon juice and certainly no olive oil or vegan butter that you may see in other recipes.

• Cashews -> They are the star of this recipe and the number one vegan ingredient you need to use if you want something really creamy. There are no other nuts or seeds that bring this kind of perfect texture. Its nutty flavor is also milder compared to other alternatives.
• Dairy-free milk -> We recommend using unsweetened nut milk, oat milk, or soy milk. Sometimes even store-bought versions taste sweet, so we usually opt for our homemade cashew milk recipe. We show you 3 ways to make it in 10 minutes.
• Garlic -> You need it and lots of it. If you only have garlic powder use ¼ teaspoon for each clove.
• Nutritional yeast -> This brings you the cheezy flavor. Alternatively, you can add vegan Parmesan cheese. We love using this brand*, but then the recipe will not be oil-free.
• Nutmeg -> You’d be surprised how much of a difference a tiny bit of nutmeg makes to the final taste.
• Salt and pepper -> Use white pepper to make keep the color closer to white.

🛒 You can find detailed measurements for all ingredients in the printable version of the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Which pasta to choose?

You can choose any type of vegan pasta like fettuccine, spaghetti, or penne. Even homemade sweet potato gnocchi if you want something unique to with this white cream sauce.

Please note that pasta, as well as, gnocchi is not gluten-free, so choose the right brand for your diet. Or go creative and use zucchini noodles for example.

Instructions

Well, this will be rather short. Would you believe it if I tell you that you can make this dreamy-creamy vegan cashew alfredo sauce in only 15 minutes?

1. Boil water in a kettle and soak cashew nuts in piping hot water for 5-10 minutes. When time is up, drain them.
2. Add the soaked cashews, dairy-free milk, garlic, nutritional yeast, nutmeg, salt, and pepper to your blender. (photo #1)
3. Blend them until smooth. (photo #2). That’s it! Your egg-free, milk-free, oil-free creamy smooth white sauce is ready!

Top tip to make it perfect

• A high-speed blender is key. If you don’t want grainy, but smooth creamy consistency, you need a high-powered blender like Vitamix. You can certainly use a hand blender (aka immersion blender) or a regular blender. However, the sauce may turn out grainier than you expect it. We took new photos for this recipe after buying a Vitamix and there was a huge difference in texture and consistency.
• How long do you need to soak? You can do overnight soaking for sure. But if you are in a hurry like most of us, boil water in a kettle and soak cashews in hot water for 5-10 minutes. If you don’t have a kettle, then boil water in a pot and cook the cashews for 5-10 minutes. While Vitamix can certainly deal with raw cashews, it is better to soak them to break down the phytic acid and enhance nutrient absorption for better digestion.

Pasta topping ideas

If you make this cashew alfredo as a pasta sauce, you can never go wrong with some veggie toppings. Our favorite ones are the following:

• Wilted spinach or kale and sauteed cherry tomatoes (pictured)
• Sauteed mushrooms or even better wild mushrooms
• Pan-fried oyster mushrooms
• Roasted asparagus and mushrooms
• Sauteed broccoli or even better broccolini
• Green peas or green beans
• Sweet corn
• Legumes (beans, lentils) like white/cannellini beans, red kidney beans, chickpeas (roasted or cooked)
• Nuts and seeds (almond slices, pepitas, pistachios)
• More vegan parmesan, or nutritional yeast
• Vegan bacon bits

Let us know in the comments what is your favorite topping!

What else to do with this sauce?

You might think that cashew cream alfredo sauce is simply for pasta, you cannot be more wrong. Sorry. 😉 We have collected some amazingly creative recipe ideas. All of the below links are guiding you to vegan AND gluten-free recipes using a cashew sauce:

• Vegan spaghetti bolognese (see below)
• Vegan cabbage lasagna (see below)
• Vegan spinach lasagna (see below)
• Vegan lentil lasagna (see below)
• Vegan ravioli by This Wife Cooks
• Pasta alfredo with sauteed radicchio by Foodal
• Creamy vegan vegetable primavera by Erica’s Recipes
• Spinach artichoke stuffed shells by Erica’s Recipes
• Garlic alfredo pizza by The Vegan 8
• Enchiladas verde by The Simple Veganista
• Roasted Brussels sprouts with alfredo dip by Skinny Fitalicious
• Zoodle salad by The Fitnessista

FAQs and substitutions

Raw or roasted?

We usually use roasted cashews especially if we cannot find raw cashews on the cheap. The sauce is PERFECT with roasted cashews. Even if you can only find salted ones, don’t worry, it will be washed off while soaking.

Which dairy-free milk to choose?

We recommend using unsweetened nut milk, oat milk, or soy milk. Sometimes even store-bought versions taste sweet, so we usually opt for our homemade cashew milk recipe. Any other milk may alter the taste too much e.g. coconut milk.

How should you store it?

You can keep it in the refrigerator for 2-3 days tops without any problem. It may thicken a bit, but that is normal. Add a bit of pasta cooking water if you use it to get the desired consistency.

I never had to freeze it as it is usually gone by day 2. If you try to freeze the sauce, let me know how it turns out.

Is cashew alfredo low in calories?

I’m not so sure. We calculated the nutritional value of this recipe by also inputting it into Cronometer. 1 serving (the whole recipe is for 4 servings) has a total calories of 260. Well, not as high as the same amount of heavy cream, but definitely not for weight loss.

Wait a minute, this is not why we love it. Raw cashews are high in protein (almost 10g per serving), high in Omega-6 (3.5g per serving), not to mention high in so many vitamins and minerals, that it is hard to keep up with them. In this recipe, you can also use fortified almond milk and fortified nutritional yeast. Therefore, if cashew doesn’t tick a box for something, these other ingredients will sure do.

Allergen info

This Cashew Alfredo Sauce recipe is meat-free, dairy-free, and egg-free. 

• Vegan – All ingredients are supposed to be vegan.
• Nut-free – Cashews are what you need to make this sauce creamy. It is really not possible to substitute them here. I heard good things about cauliflower alfredo sauce though.
• WFPB-friendly (whole foods plant-based) – It is compliant since all ingredients are whole foods and no oil or sugar is added.
• Gluten-free – You need to choose gluten-free pasta. Other than that all other ingredients are supposed to be gluten-free, but always check the packaging for cross-contamination info.
• Soy-free – Be sure to choose any milk other than soy milk, but all ingredients are supposed to be soy-free.

More vegan pasta recipes

We have a collection of more than 30 easy and delicious vegan pasta recipes, or check out the below ones:

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UPDATED: This recipe was originally posted in February 2018, but was rewritten and republished with step-by-step photos, instructions, and tips in August 2022.