The Alfredo recipe is from The Kind Life and is probably the best vegan Alfredo sauce I’ve tried thus far. The taste and consistency is perfect. The only thing I added was some nutritional yeast and some sliced mushrooms. Paired with the asparagus, it was a fantastic meal!
INGREDIENTS:
Alfredo:
1 C raw cashews
2 Tbs pine nuts
1-1/2 C water
4 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp garlic, minced
1/16 tsp nutmeg
1-1/2 tsp salt (I used 1 tsp)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 C nutritional yeast
4 C pasta (I used 16 oz of orecchiette, a.k.a “suction cup pasta)
1 to 2 C mushrooms, sliced
Asparagus:
1 bunch of asparagus, ends trimmed
1-2 Tbs olive oil
Salt
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 400. In a large bowl, coat the asparagus with the olive oil and season with salt; set aside. To make the sauce, grind the nuts in a blender until you reach a fine powder. Add the nutritional yeast, water, lemon juice, garlic, nutmeg, and salt. Blend until completely smooth—about 1 minute. Transfer to a medium saucepan and whisk over medium heat until it begins to boil. Reduce heat and let it simmer for 5-7 minutes; stir in the black pepper and mushrooms. It won’t take long to thicken up and stir it often to keep it from burning.
Transfer the asparagus to a baking sheet and as soon as you add your pasta to a pot to boil it, throw the asparagus in the oven. Incidentally, they’re both take about 14 minutes to cook.
Turn the asparagus halfway through—about 7 minutes. Cook another 7 minutes.
Perfect!
Drain the pasta and serve with sauce ladled on top. (The Eighth Grader cut up his asparagus and added it to the pasta and loved it). Enjoy!
- Alfredo:
- 1 C raw cashews
- 2 Tbs pine nuts
- 1-1/2 C water
- 4 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp garlic, minced
- 1/16 tsp nutmeg
- 1-1/2 tsp salt (I used 1 tsp)
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ¼ C nutritional yeast
- 4 C pasta (I used 16 oz of orecchiette, a.k.a "suction cup pasta)
- 1 to 2 C mushrooms, sliced
- Asparagus:
- 1 bunch of asparagus, ends trimmed
- 1-2 Tbs olive oil
- Salt
- Preheat the oven to 400.
- In a large bowl, coat the asparagus with the olive oil and season with salt; set aside.
- To make the sauce, grind the nuts in a blender until you reach a fine powder. Add the nutritional yeast, water, lemon juice, garlic, nutmeg, and salt. Blend until completely smooth---about 1 minute. Transfer to a medium saucepan and whisk over medium heat until it begins to boil. Reduce heat and let it simmer for 5-7 minutes; stir in the black pepper and mushrooms. It won't take long to thicken up and stir it often to keep it from burning.
- Transfer the asparagus to a baking sheet and as soon as you add your pasta to a pot to boil it, throw the asparagus in the oven. Incidentally, they're both take about 14 minutes to cook.
- Turn the asparagus halfway through---about 7 minutes. Cook another 7 minutes.
- Drain the pasta and serve with sauce ladled on top. Enjoy!
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It’s not necessary to soak the cashews?
Nope. I questioned that, too, but I also find that as long as I blend them for a couple of minutes, sauces come out great. Same with the cashew cheese pasta. I’m sure soaking them doesn’t hurt, but if you don’t have time for that, this works great.
Was feeling in a rut today, so your email was well-timed. Made this for dinner tonight and agree that it’s the best vegan Alfredo out there. I sauteed the mushrooms in some olive oil with garlic, salt, & pepper before adding to the sauce. Like the eighth grader, we cut up the asparagus and added to the pasta and sauce. Thanks for the recipe!
Excellent! Glad it worked out 🙂
I love asparagus— can’t wait until it’s in season, and now I can’t wait to try out this recipe!
I made this for lunch today and the meat loving but open minded husband loved it, along with the 3 1/2 year old and the baby who gobbled it up double fisted! I also sauteed the mushrooms separately because my saucepan was small, but then once sauteed I blended them into the sauce and it was delish! Thanks!
One of the first vegan foods I made was alfredo. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it came out. But that was over a year ago and I haven’t tried making it since. I obviously need to give it another shot using this recipe.
I think this one is definitely worth trying. I’ll certainly be making it again!