This Cashew Alfredo Sauce recipe needs only FIVE ingredients. If you’re looking for a pasta sauce that is vegan (dairy-free and egg-free), gluten-free and oil-free not to mention creamy, delicious and ready in 15 minutes, you might want to read on. We even included 10+ creative recipes to use this easy vegan alfredo sauce for.
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.
⇒ If you need an Easy 7-day VEGAN MEAL PLAN, click to download our free e-book with a shopping list.
What is vegan alfredo sauce?
The traditional fettucini alfredo is made of mostly butter, heavy cream, and Parmesan cheese.
To create a vegan (or dairy-free) alternative we substitute
- heavy cream with cashew cream and
- Parmesan cheese with nutritional yeast.
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.
We love them with our Vegan Sweet Potato Gnocchi. We even use the combination of a classic tomato-based spaghetti sauce and this vegan alfredo sauce to create our Vegan Spaghetti Bolognese recipe.
How to make vegan alfredo sauce?
Would you believe if I tell you that you can make this dreamy-creamy vegan alfredo sauce in only 15 minutes?
First, soak cashew nuts (both raw and roasted works) in piping hot water for 5-10 minutes. You can do overnight soaking for sure no problem, but if you are in a hurry like most of us, you can boil water in a kettle and soak them for only 5-10 minutes.
Next, add the soaked cashew, dairy-free milk (we usually use homemade cashew milk), garlic, nutritional yeast, nutmeg, salt, and pepper in your blender (photo #1) and blend them until smooth (photo #2). That’s it! Your egg-free, milk-free, oil-free creamy smooth cashew alfredo sauce is ready!
Use Vitamix for a crazy smooth alfredo sauce
You can certainly use a hand blender (aka immersion blender) or a regular blender. They all make a creamy vegan cashew alfredo sauce. However, if you need this sauce to be extra smooth without a single little piece to find, we recommend using a high powered blender like Vitamix. (We took new photos for this recipe after buying a Vitamix as the sauce turned out to be crazy smooth.)
⇒ If you need an Easy 7-day VEGAN MEAL PLAN, click to download our free e-book with a shopping list.
FAQs and Substitutions
Raw cashews or roasted cashews?
We usually use roasted cashews especially if we cannot find raw cashews in 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 cashew, almond, oat or soy milk. Any other milk may alter the taste too much e.g. coconut milk.
How do you store cashew alfredo sauce?
You can keep it in the fridge for 2-3 days tops without any problem. 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 our vegan alfredo sauce recipe by inputting it to Cronometer. 1 serving (the whole recipe is for 4 servings) has the 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, it is hard to keep up with it. 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.
⇒ If you need an Easy 7-day VEGAN MEAL PLAN, click to download our free e-book with a shopping list.
Toppings for vegan alfredo pasta
You can never go wrong with some veggie toppings for your vegan alfredo pasta. Our favorite ones are the following:
- wilted spinach or kale and sauteed cherry tomatoes (pictured)
- sauteed mushrooms or even better wild mushrooms
- sauteed broccoli or even better broccolini
- green peas
- roasted asparagus and mushrooms
Let us know in the comments what is your favorite topping!
More vegan alfredo sauce recipes
You might think that 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 recipes using cashew alfredo sauce that are vegan AND gluten-free (or providing a gluten-free option).
Vegan alfredo pasta sauce recipes
As it is primarily a pasta sauce, there is no surprise that most of the recipes featuring it are pasta recipes. Here is some variety you can start with:
- Vegan Sweet Potato Gnocchi by My Pure Plants
- Vegan Spaghetti Bolognese by My Pure Plants
- Vegan Cabbage Lasagna by My Pure Plants
- 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
⇒ If you need an Easy 7-day VEGAN MEAL PLAN, click to download our free e-book with a shopping list.
Vegan alfredo sauce for pizza, casserole and more…
If you would like to be a little more creative, try one of these recipes:
- Garlic Alfredo Pizza by The Vegan 8
- Enchiladas Verde by The Simple Veganista
- Vegan Scalloped Potatoes by My Pure Plants
- Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Alfredo Dip by Skinny Fitalicious
- Zoodle Salad with Creamy Cashew Sauce by The Fitnessista
This Cashew Alfredo Sauce recipe is meat-free, dairy-free and egg-free. It is also suitable for vegan, vegetarian, soy-free and gluten-free diets. It can also be WFPB-friendly (whole foods plant-based) as the recipe is oil-free.
⇒ If you need an Easy 7-day VEGAN MEAL PLAN, click to download our free e-book with a shopping list.
More dinner recipes
You can browse through our Vegan and Gluten-free Dinner Recipes or our Quick Vegan Meals collection or check out
- Vegan Spaghetti Bolognese
- Vegan Eggplant Meatballs Spaghetti
- Vegan Cabbage Lasagna
- Lazy Vegan Pot Pie
- Vegan Jackfruit Stew
SAVE THIS RECIPE ON PINTEREST FOR LATER.
You can also find a collection of our recipes here on Pinterest.
Easy Vegan Alfredo Sauce with Cashew
Ingredients
- 1 ⅓ cup Cashew nuts 200g
- 1 ½ cup Dairy-free milk (I used almond milk) 3dl
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 2 Tbsp Nutritional yeast
- ½ tsp Nutmeg
- 2 tsp Salt
- Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Soak cashew nuts in piping hot water for 5 minutes. You can do overnight soaking, but if you are in a hurry, you can boil water in a kettle and soak the cashew nuts for only 5 minutes.
- Your 5 minutes is up. Time to fill your blender. Add soaked cashew, dairy-free milk, garlic, nutritional yeast, nutmeg, salt, and pepper and blend them until smooth.
- You can serve the sauce right away. If you pour it on pasta and veggies and warm them together in a frying pan, the alfredo sauce will thicken!!!
Notes
Use Vitamix for a crazy smooth alfredo sauce
You can certainly use a hand blender (aka immersion blender) or a regular blender. They all make a creamy vegan cashew alfredo sauce. However, if you need this sauce to be extra smooth without a single little piece to find, we recommend using a high powered blender like Vitamix. (We took new photos for this recipe after buying a Vitamix as the sauce turned out to be crazy smooth.)Raw cashews or roasted cashews?
We usually use roasted cashews especially if we cannot find raw cashews in 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 cashew, almond, oat or soy milk. Any other milk may alter the taste too much e.g. coconut milk.Video
Nutrition
UPDATED: This recipe was originally posted in February 2018, but was rewritten and republished with step-by-step photos, instructions, and tips in February 2019.
Birt
I really like it. I tripled the recipe and it was a bit salty, but not beyond enjoyment.
Sherry
Just made this. Added extra garlic clove and some lemon zest and juice of almost 2 lemons to give a summer vibe. Delicious, I’m eating it with a spoon. Sautéed spinach halved grape tomatoes and portobello mushrooms in a little olive oil. Perfect 👍🏻.
Birt
I did the same, mostly. An eighth tsp garlic powder for each clove keeps the garlic from disturbing my stomach. I cooked the veggies first with tablespoons of veggie broth instead of oil.
Allyson
The overall flavor of the sauce turned out great for me, but I did not get the texture smooth like mentioned. My sauce was really grainy. Any idea what I did wrong? I used a food processor and soaked cashews in boiling water for 5 min.
My Pure Plants
Hi Allyson, to make it super smooth and not grainy, you need a high power blender. Sadly even if you soak overnight and the cashews are super soft, food processor will leave it still grainy.
Tneh Karim
I love the idea of nut-based sauces. The video portrayal is more accurate to what type of texture you will get versus the thumbnail. I’ve tried several different “milk” alternatives and for flavor almond milk wins hands down but coconut milk wins for consistency. Also, maybe it was just my tastebuds, but the nutritional yeast needed to be bumped up and the garlic toned down. The first time I made this my face smelled like garlic for days. Days!! The cashew soaking worked well and I’ve found as I continue to modify this to my particular preference. Happy saucing!
My Pure Plants
Hi, yes in the video we used immersion blender which was not powerful enough to make a smooth sauce. We re-did the recipe after we purchased a Vitamix and took new photos to showcase how smooth the sauce can be if you can use a powerful blender.
Andrea
Thank you for this recipe. The sauce tasted amazing! I did it with tomatoes and spinach as it is at the main photo. I also added baked tofu and chickpeas. So delicious! I will definitely make it again! 🙂
My Pure Plants
Hi Andrea,
Thanks for trying our recipe. Baked tofu and chickpeas sounds like a great addition. The more the merrier.
Beth
What can I substitute for nutritional yeast?
My Pure Plants
I read about white miso paste can also give some cheezy flavor, although I haven’t tried it.
Chelsea
Alternative to cashews? Allergic to nuts!
My Pure Plants
Cashews are hard to change in this particular recipe. Sorry. That is the basis.
Emily
I don’t understand how you get 75.1 mg sodium with 2 tsps of salt. Two tsps is 4600 mg divided by 4 servings would be more like 1150 mg per serving. Was 2 tsps a mistake? Would like to make recipe, but have to be very careful of sodium because of health issues. Thank you
My Pure Plants
Hi Emily, I am sorry. I recalculated the nutritional info and the sodium value should be correct now. If you need to watch your sodium level I recommend blending all ingredients without salt first. Then, you can taste it whether you need to add salt at all or not. Let us know how it goes.
Erica Schwarz
What a delicious recipe! Cashews are magical, aren’t they?
My Pure Plants
Oh, yes. Who knew?
Tisha
This sauce looks like perfection! Great Healthy alternative to canned!
My Pure Plants
Thank you
SHANIKA
I recently made Vegan Alfredo and it’s delish! This recipe looks so creamy and easy to make! Just perfect!
My Pure Plants
We tried to make it simple but tasty. 🙂
Jenn
This is an amazing sauce – it is rich, creamy, indulgent, and VEGAN! Love it! It’s my new go-to whenever I need an Alfredo sauce.
My Pure Plants
Thank you. 🙂
kim
My whole family loved this recipe! It was way easier than I thought it would be and had so much flavor!
My Pure Plants
Aw, it is really good to hear. Thanks for letting us know.
Elaine
I can’t believe you only need five ingredients for this amazing sauce. I am definitely getting them all to try this recipe over the weekend!
My Pure Plants
Yes, it is really great to have recipes with only a few ingredients. Be sure to let us know how you like it.
Laura Stein
So we made this exactly as recipe was written and it was tooooo salty. I was determined to use it as underneath the salt was a super Alfredo base. I added another cup of almond milk and extra mushrooms and yummy. First we had it just over pasta aka vegan style. Second we had it with veggie broth added unsalted of course and last but not least not vegetarian at all-sorry but we are not full vegetarian yet– made it into a Cajun sauce for chicken. Not once did my husband say anything against this lighter version of Alfredo sauce. I will make this again but will blanche the almonds longer and not just add the salt without testing first. Thank you so much.
My Pure Plants
Sorry to hear that it was too salty, but it is good to hear that you tested it in different ways. Let us know how do you like it with almonds.