When cashews are involved you just know it’s gonna be goooood, and this quick, easy and oh-so-delicious, homemade oil free Vegan Cashew Alfredo Sauce is just that and SO much more! Rich cashews create an ultra decadent and creamy sauce that is perfect for your favorite pastas and veggies. It can be whipped up in just about 20 minutes, which is a total bonus, and perfect for those busy week nights. We paired this velvety sauce with hearty gluten free pasta, refreshing zoodles, and tasty baby sweet peas, and topped with sunflower shoots for a fabulous comfort meal. It is sure to absolutely delight your taste buds, making it this week’s awesome Whip It Up Wednesday recipe. Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, no highly processed ingredients and gluten free.
Ameera here!
This week’s Whip It Up Wednesday is our absolutely amazing Vegan Cashew Alfredo Sauce. It’s everything an Alfredo dish should be, creamy and full of rich satisfying flavor. Look no further, this dish is fast, easy, and utterly delicious!
Whip it up Wednesday
As you already know, every Wednesday, we feature a quick and easy recipe that can be “whipped up” in 20 minutes or less. This recipe can be made in about 20 minutes which really helps speed things up in the kitchen.
Our Vegan Cashew Alfredo Sauce is perfect for those days when you need to whip up something relatively inexpensive, but tastes like a million bucks!
Tender Baby Sweet Peas and Oodles of Zoodles
Adding tender baby sweet peas is the perfect touch to this dish. You can typically find these smaller tasty baby sweet peas in the frozen food section. They are smaller than your normal pea, but packed with a lot of delicious flavor. We just love using them in this dish.
In addition to these tasty peas, we added zoodles (spiralized zucchini.) The zucchini adds such a lovely refreshing quality. Then topped this lovely dish with some sunflower shoots, and you’ve got a super comforting and healthy dish. Both the zucchini zoodles and sunflower shoots are optional.
Plus, you can mix and match your favorite roasted, steamed, or boiled veggies that you’d like. It is super versatile and perfectly adjusts to fit your preference.
This post contains affiliate links, and we may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures! For more information, see our disclosures here.
Calling Dibs
Dad devoured this meal. He said it was one of the best meals we had ever made and gave it a perfect “10” which is super rare. He “demanded” (more like begged) that he should be able to claim dibs on any leftovers since he had made several store runs for us. We graciously conceded that his multiple runs to the store can be cashed in as dibs on leftovers. LOL
We hope you give this deliciousness a try. It is crazy awesome!
We hope you enjoy our new Whip It Up Wednesday quick and easy ideas! If you try it, we would love to know if you enjoy it as much as we do!
Products Used:
- 8-quart ceramic/enamel lined Dutch oven or similar large stock pot to cook the pasta
- Medium sized stock pot to cook the zucchini
- Large non-stick skillet or similarly large skillet to cook the Alfredo sauce
Vegan Cashew Alfredo Sauce
- Prep Time: 7 minutes
- Cook Time: 13 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 Servings 1x
- Category: Sauce, Dinner
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
When cashews are involved you just know it’s gonna be goooood, and this quick, easy and oh-so-delicious, homemade oil free Vegan Cashew Alfredo Sauce is just that and SO much more! Rich cashews create an ultra decadent and creamy sauce that is perfect for your favorite pastas and veggies. It can be whipped up in just about 20 minutes, which is a total bonus, and perfect for those busy week nights. We paired this velvety sauce with hearty gluten free pasta, refreshing zoodles, and tasty baby sweet peas, and topped with sunflower shoots for a fabulous comfort meal. It is sure to absolutely delight your taste buds, making it this week’s awesome Whip It Up Wednesday recipe. Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, no highly processed ingredients and gluten free.
Ingredients
Cashew/Zucchini Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup raw cashews *
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup zucchini, peeled, ½ inch diced pieces (measure 1 cup after zucchini has been diced)
Alfredo Sauce Ingredients:
- 1 medium white onion, finely chopped
- 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
- 2 Tablespoons flour (of choice)
- 1 ½ cups unsweetened plain plant milk
- 2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 Tablespoon miso *
- 1 teaspoon ume plum vinegar (optional)
- 1 Tablespoon dried onion flakes
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoon sea salt (+/-) *
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Other Ingredients
- 12 oz. pasta (of choice)
- 1 cup frozen baby sweet peas
- 1 small zucchini, spiralized/zoodled, unpeeled (optional)
Optional Toppings:
- Italian microgreens
- Sunflower shoots
- Vegan Parmesan Cheese (we didn’t use)
Instructions
Pasta Boil Instructions
- Fill a large stock pot full of water. Add some sea salt to the water. Bring the water to a boil then add the pasta. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking. Note: You want to coordinate the completion of the pasta cooking time with the completion of the Alfredo sauce. If unsure, then just wait to put the pasta into the boiling water once the Alfredo sauce is done. Just turn the Alfredo sauce down really low or remove from the stove. Boil the pasta until el dente, then transfer the cooked pasta into the Alfredo sauce. Save about 1/4 cup of hot pasta water as you may (or may not) need a little pasta water to thin out the Alfredo sauce.
Cashew/Zucchini Boil Instructions:
- In a medium-sized sauce pan, place 1/3 cup raw cashews, 1 cup water, and 1 cup diced zucchini. Boil for 10 minutes, then set aside to slightly cool until ready to add to the pot. Note; Do not drain the water. You will add it to the Alfredo sauce along with the boiled cashews and zucchini.
Alfredo Sauce Instructions
- In a large ceramic/enamel lined skillet (or nonstick skillet), add the finely diced onion, sauté over medium-high heat for 5 to 7 minutes until the onions are tender. If needed to prevent sticking, add a splash of vegetable broth or water.
- Add the minced garlic and sauté for one minute.
- Sprinkle the flour over the sautéed onions and garlic and then sauté the flour for a few minutes. They will look like flour covered lumps, that is fine.
- Next add the remaining Alfredo Sauce Ingredients, including the boiled zucchini, cashews and water from earlier. Stir to combine, then cook for a few minutes to incorporate. (Note; This will look a little strange at first).
- Then take the Alfredo mixture and place it into a high-speed blender and blend on high for one minute to make the mixture creamy and smooth. You may have to do this in several batches, then return to the cooking pot.
- Next gently fold in the baby sweet peas, spiralized zucchini zoodles and cooked pasta. Cook for a minute or two. If the sauce is too thick, add a teaspoon of the reserved hot pasta water at a time until it reaches the consistency you desire.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
*Ume Plum Vinegar: Ume Plum Vinegar is perfect for this recipe as it has that deliciously tangy flavor. It is relatively inexpensive. We use it quite frequently and it worth requesting it from your local grocery, or ordering off of Amazon in our humble opinion.
*Cashew Substitutes: You can typically substitute cashews with other nut and seeds, silken tofu, or white beans with the understanding that the flavor and texture will change accordingly. We have not kitchen tested any substitutions.
*Miso: We used Miso Master Organic Mellow White Premium Lite Miso, Certified Gluten Free. Miso really lends itself to balancing flavors when you don’t use oil. You can also substitute with chickpea miso for a soy free version.
*Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
*Storage: Refrigerate and use within 5 days.
This post contains affiliate links, and we may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures! For more information, see our disclosures here.
If cashews are not well tolerated, do you think macadamia nuts would be the best alternative for your recipes that have cashews? Thank you!
Hi there Rachel 🙂
Yes, macadamia nuts would be a great substitution for the cashews. Keep in mind, macadamia nuts can have a richer/buttery flavor, so you may not need as much. We have not substituted with macadamia nuts, so you’d have to test the amounts to fit your personal preference. Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
I’m back! All I really need are your recipes.
It’s very good! It’s Very Thick and creamy. I like that The recipe only required 1/3 c of cashews instead of 1 c and still turned out creamy.
I’m going to add more peas and maybe more zucchini when I eat it over the next few days.
I used a gluten free spiral pasta and it worked out fine.
Thanks for another good recipe.
Hi there Cindy 🙂
Aww, yaaay!! Your kind words mean so much to us! We are so thrilled to hear that you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you so much for your wonderful feedback and for taking the time to write. We appreciate you and your support!
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
Just wanted to say I tried this last night for myself and my omni husband who I’m trying to get to eat more plant based with me. He said he could eat it every day. Winner! It was really simple and very tasty. Thanks!
Hi there Ali 🙂
Woo hoo!!! We are so thrilled to hear that you and your husband enjoyed this recipe. We loved that he said he could eat it every day – *doing a happy dance*! We appreciate you sharing your awesome feedback and for taking the time to write.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
omg I just made this it was amazing
Hi there Carrie,
YAYYYY!!! We are thrilled that you enjoyed this recipe.
Thank you so much for taking time to leave us a great review.
-Ameera and Robin