Vegan alfredo sauce - oil free recipe.

Wildly delicious vegan alfredo sauce recipe (Oil free, low sodium)

I have developed this recipe over the past 6 months or so. I just kept making it, revising it, and then forgetting to add it to the site. But we kept making this over and over again because it is so delicious, we always had the ingredients in the house to make it happen, and we can eat it in so many different ways. Just dip the vegetables, add it to a bowl, dress it up with some harissa, or the traditional noodle based meal – so many options. And every time this alfredo is so, so delicious. In fact, this recipe might be my all-time favorite vegan dinner to make.

Easy and cheap oil-free vegan alfredo sauce.
Easy and cheap oil-free vegan Alfredo sauce pairs well with noodles (of course) and a whole bunch of different types of vegetables. It’s an incredibly versatile sauce to have in your repertoire.

Some benefits of this recipe: it’s oil free, there’s a sunflower seed based option (see notes) which are cheaper and lower fat than cashews, it’s cheap and easy to make, and it’s so versatile. It’s also a true comfort food when paired with noodles.

This article begins with the most important part: the sauce recipe. After the recipe I will write about how we put together the pictured bowl and some other ways you can use this sauce. It might just be your next weekly staple. We make this one a couple times per month (at least).

Vegan alfredo sauce - oil free recipe.

Very Good Vegan Alfredo Sauce

This recipe has been in regular use in our household for about 6 months, over which time I have developed it into something we make nearly every week. It works with noodles, but also with vegetable bowls, as a mac and cheese replacement, and more. Creamy and flavor forward, it might become a weekly staple in your house too!
4.08 from 13 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Main Course, Sauces, Spreads & Condiments
Cuisine: American, Fusion, Italian
Keyword: cashews, nutritional yeast, onions, Potatoes, sunflower seeds
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Servings: 12 Servings
Calories: 102kcal
Author: Jen deHaan

Ingredients

Alfredo Sauce

Instructions

  • Add all ingredients to a pot on the stovetop, bring to a boil and and then simmer for about 30 minutes.
  • Pour the contents of the pot into a high-powered blender (such as a Vitamix), and blend until very smooth.
  • Add to your favorite alfredo dish (noodles, etc), or next bowl. This recipe is also good as a mac and cheese alternative. See the recipe page for serving suggestions, such as the dish that's pictured for this recipe!

Notes

Please see the recipe page for how we put this together for the photographed alfredo dish, and more great ideas!
See the recipe page for substutes and alternatives for the ingredients in this recipe
Nutrition Facts
Very Good Vegan Alfredo Sauce
Amount per Serving
Calories
102
% Daily Value*
Fat
 
7
g
11
%
Saturated Fat
 
1
g
6
%
Trans Fat
 
1
g
Polyunsaturated Fat
 
1
g
Monounsaturated Fat
 
1
g
Cholesterol
 
1
mg
0
%
Sodium
 
141
mg
6
%
Potassium
 
229
mg
7
%
Carbohydrates
 
8
g
3
%
Fiber
 
2
g
8
%
Sugar
 
1
g
1
%
Protein
 
4
g
8
%
Vitamin A
 
148
IU
3
%
Vitamin C
 
5
mg
6
%
Calcium
 
17
mg
2
%
Iron
 
2
mg
11
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Tried this recipe? Customized it?Let us know how it was in the comments!
Creamy oil-free vegan alfredo sauce
Creamy oil-free vegan Alfredo sauce goes really well with noodles, broccoli and mushrooms. How did we put this together? Read on.

Making the pictured dish with this vegan Alfredo sauce

For this very easy dish, we combined the following for 4 servings:

  • 4 servings of noodles of your choice
  • About 3 cups of chopped broccoli
  • About 1.5 cups of chopped mushrooms
  • About 1 cup of the alfredo sauce
  • Few cloves of garlic, minced

Directions: Cook the noodles on your stovetop according to package directions (drain and set aside when finished). Saute the mushrooms and broccoli on the stovetop with a tiny bit of broth and garlic while the noodles are cooking. Mix the alfredo sauce with the noodles and vegetables (more to taste), then top with a bit of our vegan parmesan (recipe), red pepper flakes and fresh ground black pepper or your other preferred seasoning.

Other ways to use this vegan sauce

This is a great sauce to mix with any roasted or steamed vegetables. It goes great in a buddah bowl mixed into vegetables, topped over a whole grain and then sprinkle some red pepper flakes or your favorite seasoning on top.

This is also a great replacement for any mac and cheese dish. I haven’t yet made a “cheese” sauce that I enjoy, so for now we are rocking this alfredo recipe all the time and make it instead of mac and cheese.

Substitutes and alternatives for this vegan Alfredo recipe

You can adjust this vegan alfredo sauce in a bunch of ways. You can make it cashew free, SOS-free, and substitute ingredients you don’t have. Here are some of the common alternatives:

Cashews

Instead of using cashews, substitute more sunflower seeds in their place. Use the same amount of sunflower seeds, and add a bit of plant-milk if the sauce is too thick (a couple tablespoons). This will make a slightly less creamy sauce (the texture is a bit different, and it has a slightly less “dense” flavor), but the sunflower seeds are more environmentally conscious, inexpensive, and lower in fat if this is a concern.

Potato

You can substitute cauliflower for the potato. The sauce will be runnier if you aren’t using potato. If you use cauliflower, add some arrowroot starch (about 1-2 Tbsp) to thicken if desired. If using potato, we just scrub and chop – we don’t peel it.

Kala namak

This ingredient adds a slightly “eggy” note, which non-vegan alfredo might have. Add this to taste. Use it to enhance the flavor overall. You can substitute 2 tsp tamari, miso, or soy sauce instead of kala namak (black salt). Or you can omit all of these for a SOS-free/sodium-free version of this alfredo sauce. Kala namak / black salt is often available at international grocery stores or Indian grocery stores. Ask in local vegan Facebook groups if you’re unsure of where to find this ingredient.

Share the vegan alfredo love

Save this recipe for later, or share it with your friends. Or with someone who will make it for you. Right?

This easy oil free vegan alfredo sauce pairs with tons of different dishes - it's based on cheap ingredients and is easy to make too!
This easy oil free vegan alfredo sauce pairs with tons of different dishes – it’s based on cheap ingredients and is easy to make too!
Jen deHaan
Jen deHaan

Jen is a plant-based nutrition enthusiast and vegan living in British Columbia, Canada. She has over 20 years experience in software, graphics, and art, including many years in Silicon Valley corporations. Jen completed the Developing Healthy Communities graduate program at Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Jen really likes dogs and dancing too.

Articles: 223

11 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    Haven’t made it YET but it gets a five based on ingredients and the fact that I KNOW it’s going to be G R E A T! Thank you!

  2. Hi—I’m looking for low-sodium, plant-based sauce recipes for my brother-in-law. I’ll give this a try! Question—what app/program do you use to get nutrition facts for your recipes?

  3. 5 stars
    So we love your recipes and things, but, I keep seeing oil free, but then, the instructions to use sunflower seeds and grind them up. I’m trying to figure out – why do you call the recipe oil free if the sunflowers ground up contain oil? So 1/2 a cup of sunflowers seeds = 6 tablespoons of oil, it just happens to be sunflower oil. Are you suggesting these recipes so that the oil is extremely fresh out of the nuts, or because you believe sunflower oil to be better than other types of oil? If it’s not a freshness thing, then, I’m confused. To me it’s sort of like saying (grab 120 olives and grind them up, and throw them in a dish) (which would be like 4 tablespoons of oil) but the dish is oil free? I guess it is waste free because you are not wasting the sunflower seeds which are probably also nutritious, but, I made another soup and was saddened to realize I was still actually eating oil, and quite a bit of it via the nuts in the recipe. What are your thoughts on this? I read the testimony of a girl who only ate vegetables and fruit and she got into really great shape and health; do you think this would happen as well with the indirect oil content? Been wondering about this. Thanks

    • Hi Alice! Nuts and seeds are not oil, they are a whole food. Oil is a processed extraction from a whole food. Many foods can have oils extracted: corn, avocado, these nuts and seeds, and more. It is fine to eat the healthy fats contained within them as a whole food. We do not eat the oil extracted from them (and no, grinding them up does not make them into an oil unless you extract the fat as oil and eat it on its own! This site does not do that though.) Just like how orange juice is not an orange with all of its fiber, nutrients, and so on. The extracted sugars in the juice behave very different in the body than eating the whole orange with the fiber.

      On this diet, nuts and seeds are consumed at around 10% of the daily fat amount or less. For more information about how this works, I recommend consulting the work of Dr. Esselstyn, Dr. John McDougall, or Michael Greger. You will find nuts and seeds supported by all of them. The recipes on this site all support eating these whole foods that contain healthy fats at around this safe rate, supported by all of these oil-free advocating doctors.

  4. Hi – Just a small question about the recipe – when it’s simmering for 30 minutes, is that with the lid off or on? I’m guessing this will have a significant impact on the final sauce texture, b/c it will affect how much of the moisture evaporates. I’m trying it with the lid on, but if that’s not right, please let me know!

4.08 from 13 votes (9 ratings without comment)

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