I’ve been making a mess lately.
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I made this for dinner, and you’re right: it does taste remarkably like alfredo sauce! No cauliflower flavor at all. My husband gobbled it right up.
Kelley
A mess that starts with slurpy delicious noodles and ends with creamy fettuccine alfredo sauce.
I’m of the belief that Alfredo sauce is King. Even deep red tomato sauces (which are supposed to be deep and red) are at their best with the addition of a little cream. Which makes them not deep red anymore and more like a pinky-orange. Pink is fun, right? It’s just like I just try to make everything into Alfredo. That’s just what it’s like.
The truth about Fettuccine Alfredo, besides the truth that it’s the most cozy and comforting food known to humans, is that it has no business being in my life after I’ve spent the last 8 meals filling up on corn, pumpkin bars, and stuffing. And PS: thank goodness that stuff makes great leftovers considering my Gatorade and cracker sickie Thanksgiving eats. If I may digress for a second, why is stuffing so.so.so.good? And with gravy? Ugh. The glory of eating again.
Ok, so that picture. That was cauliflower.
Because this Fettuccine Alfredo is made with cauliflower.
AND, you guys. Now I am going to eat it forever.
Who knew that cauliflower puree could make an Alfredo sauce that is still really creamy and slurpy and cozy comfy good! And I can eat it anytime I want, even the week after Thanksgiving, because it’s not made with heavy cream and butter. Except there’s just a teeny bit of cream and butter, because what is Alfredo – even fake Alfredo – without cream and butter?
But come on. Considering that most of this sauce is VEG-ET-ABLES, well, I don’t know, you tell me.
Tell me I should eat it every night. I dare you.
My mom brought me some fancy noodles when she came to visit – you know, the kind they sell at specialty boutiquey food stores that make you feel like quitting your life and moving to Italy and making homemade ice cream for the rest of time? Or the kind that somehow suck your money out of your purse and plant mass quantities of artisan chocolate bars in their place? Salted Toffee Dark Chocolate, anyone?
But the noodles. They were SWEET POTATO fettuccine noodles and they were kind of spicy, like Christmas-y nutmeg spicy. Those noodles with this sauce? It was the most amazing, comforting combination of textures, flavors, and spices in one big ol’ bowl of pasta.
You would be wise to make this happen if you’re into the whole noodles and creamy sauce thing.
Healthy Fettuccine Alfredo
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
Description
This healthy fettuccine alfredo is made with a creamy cauliflower sauce that tastes just like the real thing. Simple ingredients, amazing flavor!
Ingredients
- 1 lb. uncooked fettuccine noodles
- 3 small heads cauliflower
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon salt
- pinch of nutmeg
- pinch of black pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup starchy boiling water from pasta pot
Instructions
- Chop the cauliflower. Bring the vegetable broth to a boil over medium high heat and add cauliflower. Cook until cauliflower is soft, about 15 minutes. In my experience, the longer you cook it, the smoother the sauce will be. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the minced garlic and saute for 4-5 minutes or until soft and fragrant.
- As the garlic and cauliflower are cooking, bring a large pot of water to boil and cook the fettuccine according to directions on package, reserving some of the starchy water to add to the sauce later.
- Transfer cauliflower to a blender with about 2 cups of the broth. You may need to do this in batches depending on the size of your blender. Add the sauteed garlic, salt, nutmeg, and black pepper and puree until very smooth, about 5 minutes. Once the mixture is moving, stream the olive oil into the blender. Add more broth or water if the mixture is too thick to move through the blender. You want it to turn through the blender easily. When puree is very smooth, transfer back to the butter/garlic skillet.
- Add the cream and cook over low heat. Add the starchy pasta water (or regular water if you’re not making pasta) and keep warm until ready to serve. Combine noodles and sauce in a large pot or skillet and serve immediately.
Notes
The sauce will “dry out” a little bit as it cools on the pasta. Adding a little water to the leftovers will help make it creamy again. Serving size is 1/8 of the noodles with about 1 cup of sauce.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Italian
Keywords: fettuccine alfredo, healthy fettuccine alfredo, cauliflower recipe, pasta recipe
Update #1: Many of you have asked about the size of the heads of cauliflower and noted that you’ve had extra sauce. I updated the recipe ingredients to say 3 “small” heads of cauliflower. My produce selection here in the Philippines looks a bit different than the jumbo heads of cauliflower in the states. 🙂
Update #2: Here’s a link to my more recent post with just the cauliflower sauce recipe, adapted slightly.
Going to try the cauliflower fettuccine sauce tonight
This recipe is great! I was looking for a healthier fettuccine recipe – not necessarily vegetarian. I swapped the veggie broth for chicken broth and added grilled chicken to it, I didn’t tell my son about the cauliflower base but he LOVED it! I think I’ll tell him once he finishes the leftovers – lol! As for the cauliflower I only needed two small heads and didn’t really need as much broth as stated. Overall delicious and will be making again!
I was so excited to make it today. The whole family dislike it, requested not to make it again 🙁 I wish they like it.
This was easy to make and surprisingly creamy and delicious, I can’t believe it!
So glad you enjoyed it, Esme!
I loved this!! So good! I wish you would make more cauliflower sauces— maybe in a healthy biscuits and gravy?! I guess I could try to do it but I’m sure yours would be way better!
Whoops, just realized I already made that comment! Just goes to show how much I think about that, ha!
This was so good! Is there any way you could make more recipes incorporating this sauce? Like maybe a chicken with cauliflower gravy, or a biscuits and cauliflower gravy? I know I could do it if I put my mind to it, but I also know you would do it better 😉
Great feedback, Ellen! Thanks for the recipe suggestions!
This sauce is amazing. I added it to a simple marinara and it turned into a healthy rosé! I was so happy.
Thanks for sharing, Lydia!
Hi, I’m super excited about making this for dinner. I was just wondering, do I book the cauliflower IN the stock or in water then add stock when I put it in the food processor?? 🙂
You’ll cook the cauliflower in the veggie broth and blitz it up in a food processor or blender with about 2 cups of the broth. 🙂
What?! I was shocked by how good this was. My husband loves fettuccine al fredo and I’ve only made it once for him because it is so fatty. This was the best al fredo sauce I’ve ever tasted AND it only had a few fatty elements?? I even used half and half instead of heavy cream and didn’t add the olive oil. The texture and flavor were incredible! Thank you 🙂
Yay! So glad you and your husband enjoyed this, Ellen!
I needed to increase the salt, but that’s the only modification (and I always add extra salt). All the kids had seconds (Pretty much the only time this has happened since we became plant based a couple years ago😂)
Delicious!! Fantastic! I’m truly amazed—thank you for the great recipe!
So glad to hear you all enjoyed the alfredo!
This looks really good. I love eating pasta that has vegetables. I made also a chicken alfredo, and I added mushroom and spinach to make the dish healthier. They look really good, and the ingredients are simple to use. Thanks for sharing
Enjoy, Saif!
Hi I’m Hania and I am 10 years old.It was really good! My whole family loved it!!!!!!I’m a big fan of fettuccine pasta. I’m doing a cooking unit and your recipe was the first meal I did. I also made a recipe for chocolate cake with no milk! It was delicious!
So happy to hear this, Hania! Glad you enjoyed the pasta and cake! 🙂
Why can’t you all give the nutrition values? You can’t call it healthy if you can’t prove it for people on a diabetic diet or heart healthy diet.
Hi there, Kay! You can find the nutrition info for this alfredo at the bottom of the recipe. Let me know if this helps. 🙂
I used one large head of cauliflower and the sauce was perfect for one pound of pasta. This was a nice dish. I added roasted asparagus on the side and had some cheese and parsley sprinkled on top.
HI! Sounds fantastic, but shouldn’t there be Parmesan cheese in it as well?
This cauliflower sauce and pasta is absolutely DEVINE. It turns out super silky and creamy without and cheeze. I actually only used steamed cauliflower, olive oil, 2 cup chicken stock, and some more black pepper with red pepper flakes. I topped with parm but was creamy as is. Told my brother and all friends about it. My husband who hates cauliflower ate a whole plate and went for seconds. This sauce is absolutely gold!
Thank you so much for giving us this healthy version. Cannot thank you enough.
Oh my gosh! This is sooo good! I put some (okay a lot) freshly ground pepper and parmesan on it. Though I don’t know about the healthy thingy because I’m having my third portion right now.
Tried hard to make this work. I took the trouble to make homemade vegetable stock from scratch for starters.
The recipe makes
a very large volume of sauce. In the end it tasted like cooked, pureed cauliflower. It was improved by the addition of cheese and cream but not enough to fool anyone. I would actually add this to mashed potatoes where it would probably disappear.
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