Hi Guys! Today we have a healthy meatless Monday recipe for you all; a simple and versatile Vegan Cauliflower Cream Sauce! Teri and I recently finished shooting a couple paleo and vegan cookbooks and the experience has totally inspired me to play around in the kitchen and try my hand at a few vegan and paleo friendly recipes myself. First up is this “cream” sauce. We tossed our sauce with pasta to make a quick and satisfying meal (that won’t weight you down!), but you can also use this as a sauce paired with different cooked proteins and even as a dipping sauce for veggies, both fresh and steamed!
I’m not going to try and convince you that this sauce tastes exactly like an alfredo sauce or a full fat cream sauce because it totally doesn’t. I will say that it’s a wonderful healthy alternative for when you’re getting a hankering for something rich and creamy, but don’t want to compromise your waistline. I like to have meals like this a few times a week, especially during the chilly fall and winter months when all I’m craving is rich, creamy, decadent foods but don’t want to gain 100 pounds by next spring! I’m no vegan cooking expert, not by a long shot ,and I know that it can be intimidating but I think this recipe is a great intro recipe to vegan cooking. It only has a few ingredients and is really easy to throw together. Plus you can adjust the ingredient amounts according to your own personal taste. Can’t find nutritional yeast or just not into it? No problem, just sub it out for any cheese alternative of your choice! Enjoy! xx, Jenny
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Vegan Cauliflower Cream Sauce
INGREDIENTS
- 2 heads cauliflower, cut into small florets
- 3 small shallots, cut into wedges
- 6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- ⅓ cup nutritional yeast
- 1 to 1 ½ cups almond milk
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- salt and pepper to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 375˚F.
- Place cauliflower, shallots, garlic, and coconut oil into a mixing bowl and toss together. Season with salt and pepper.
- Spread mixture onto a baking sheet and roast for 30 to 40 minutes or until florets are fork tender, stirring occasionally.
- Pick out garlic cloves, remove peels and discard. Add roasted garlic back to mixture.
- Pour mixture and remaining ingredients into a blender, season with salt and pepper and puree until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes. Adding more milk as needed.
- Pour puree into a saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes. Adjust seasonings and toss together with your favorite pasta and serve.
NOTES
- *Makes 2 cups Sauce
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Is it possible to make this with frozen riced cauliflower?
Yes, the time will vary for roasting it in the oven.
is this something that could be made ahead of time (over the weekend) to then heat up and toss with pasta for a quick weeknight meal? how does the consistency hold up to reheating?
Yep! It’s a pretty thick sauce and will continue to thicken. You can stir a little bit of broth or almond milk into the mix to thin it out as you re-heat
Great thank you I’m making it this weekend and I’m very excited about it
Can´t wait to try this!!!!
Only one question: we can´t eat any kind of yeast, we make our bread with baking soda, for example. Do you think I could use some probiotic instead of the nutritional yeast?
Thank you!!!
Totally! Although you can omit it completely if you wanted to and it would still be delicious!
Thanks!
This looks great! We shared it in a blog here: http://wedigfood.com/foodie-blog/vegan-cauliflower-cream-sauce. We are building a community of vegans and would love for you to hop over and leave a recipe.
loved this recipe!!! I would definately cut it in half though if you don’t have a vitamix because otherwise it makes a lot of sauce! also recommend adding more almond milk and or water for blending in a regular blender =)
This was AMAZING! I added a few extra cloves of garlic among some other extra herbs and spices plus a little extra liquid and nooch (my cauliflower heads were pretty large) My family loved it. Thanks so much for the awesome recipe! It is very versatile.
Ok. Unfortunately if u don’t have the proper blending equipment I wouldn’t suggest this recipe…. A food processes just doesn’t do this AMAZING recipe justice. I initially started with my processer and it was just thick and clumpy. I ended up filling my nutribullet up (it took a few times) and doing it that way. Also I feel two heads of cauliflower would be an very large amount . I used one and a half and it was plenty for a family of four. I also added some paprika and used coconut milk along with almond became I had some left over.i needed way more nut milk then the recipe called for and also used some of my pasta water to thin it out. As someone who recently cut dairy I miss it very much. This recipe is truly unreal. So delicious and creamy. I felt like I was eating butter and cream and now need a workout lol. If u have a good blender like a vitamix or nutribullet make this!!! It’s worth it
I made this tonight and my meat-eating relatives devoured it with lust! I felt like a superhero, so thank you! xxx
This is not a vegan recipe if heat is used!!!
Yes it is vegan, very much so. I believe you’re mistaking this for a raw foods recipe, which this isn’t.
Not all vegans are RAW vegans. Vegans don’t eat animal products, raw vegans don’t eat animal products and they don’t heat their food over a certain temperature.
This looks amazing! Does it keep well in the fridge,and for how long? And does this freeze well? I want it to last as long as possible :)
Love this recipe. I make a similar one that’s lighter but sometimes you want a bit more decadence. Question for you: if I were to replace the richness of the coconut oil with cashew cream (blended cashews and water), what do you think would be the proper conversion for the 2 Tbls of coconut oil? TIA!
Have a silly question – by ‘heads’ of cauliflower – do you mean a whole cauli?
Thank you for the recipe, as a whole foods plant based eater, and this dreary cold winter, I was looking for something ooey and gooey and cheesey… The cauliflower alone was delish and that will be my new way of making it from now on. The sauce for me was too thick, maybe because the heads of cauliflower I used were bigger, so I added additional almond milk and water. Yummy. Good tip about using it fora dip, or even a soup starter, or if you want to make a “cream” soup this could be your cream. Thank you again.