Vegan Alfredo Sauce With Mushrooms

I am revisiting my creamy and velvety Vegan Alfredo Sauce with mushrooms and roasted garlic. It’s a classic recipe I first published in 2013 and many of you have made it over the years and come back to tell me about it. After making it myself for the umpteenth time this past weekend, I thought it might be a good idea to pull this recipe out from the bowels of this blog and back to the front so those of you who are new to this blog can find it. Alfredo is a creamy and rather voluptuous Italian white sauce for pasta made with lashings of butter and cream and cheese. To me, it’s always presented itself as an oxymoron. While its lush flavors scream out “eat me,” an Alfredo’s ingredient list pretty much makes it a no-no for nearly everyone except the most intrepid of eaters. As a vegan, butter and cream and cheese are also out. So when I made a vegan version of this sauce all those years ago, I improvised with cashew cream, which makes a great substitute for cream in nearly any dish. It has a pleasing sweetness, like cream, and a similar mouth-feel, which is important because you want the texture of your Alfredo sauce to be silky and smooth. The cheese is replaced here by nutritional yeast, and roasted garlic and summery herbs add an abundance of flavor. Cashews are not a low-calorie food themselves, but they are certainly way lower in calories for all those dairy products they replace in this vegan alfredo sauce. Cashews – and the fat in them – are also actually good for you, unlike butter and cream and cheese. Altogether, there are just 228 calories in a serving of this alfredo sauce, and 11 grams of protein and 3 grams of fiber, which actually makes it quite good for you, unlike the traditional version. I really love adding sage to this sauce. For one, this smoky, savory herb is plentiful in the summer months, and it begs to be used. And sage is such a lovely flavor with mushrooms which, in turn, are so perfect in pasta recipes, like this vegan mushroom pasta and vegan mushroom lasagna.

Step by step instructions

Slice the tops off two whole bulbs of garlic. Place the bulbs in a piece of aluminum foil, drizzle on some olive oil on the exposed tops, and then wrap the garlic in the foil. Roast in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes until the garlic is golden and soft and squeezes out easily from the papery skin. Soak 1 cup of cashews in 2 cups of any nondairy milk (except coconut – the strong flavor doesn’t really work here). After about 15-30 minutes, blend it until very, very smooth with 2-4 tablespoon of nutritional yeast (use more or less according to your preference), the roasted garlic, 1 teaspoon of dry oregano, salt and ground black pepper to taste. Heat 1 tablespoon of vegan butter or extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet or saucepan. Add the mushrooms along with some salt and ground black pepper. Saute for a couple of minutes, then add about 1 tablespoon of chopped sage and ¼ cup of white wine or vodka. Continue to stir fry until all of the visible moisture has evaporated. Add the creamy cashew sauce to the skillet, stir well to mix, then cover and let it cook for 15 minutes on a low flame. Season with salt if needed and turn off the heat. Stir in your cooked pasta and enjoy.

Which pasta shape works best with alfredo sauce

Alfredo is traditionally served with fettuccine, a slim, ribbon-like pasta. I had pappardelle on hand this time, so I used that and it’s what you’ll see in the pictures. While a flat ribbon shape like is a nice vehicle for the creamy sauce, you don’t really need to stick with it. Many kinds of pasta are perfect with this sauce. A conchiglie or a farfalle pasta would be great here, as would orzo. To make a meal of this, all you need is a leafy salad on the side. If possible, serve with some vegan cashew parmesan.