Vegan Alfredo Sauce

Name: Best Vegan Alfredo Sauce
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Ingredients: 1 cup raw cashews; ¾ cup water; 2 garlic cloves (peeled); ½ tablespoon lemon juice; ½ cup diced onion; 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast; 1 teaspoon kosher salt; ¼ teaspoon dried rosemary; ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

by Lisa Bryan

519 Comments

Updated Oct 05, 2024

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This vegan alfredo sauce is incredibly rich and creamy. It’s a cashew-based, dairy-free alfredo sauce with a deliciously savory, cheesy-like flavor. Whether you’re vegan or not, you’re gonna love it!

Vegan alfredo sauce in a glass jar next to a spoon.

The Best Vegan Alfredo Sauce Recipe

I’m so excited about this alfredo sauce recipe that I don’t even know where to start. It’s a vegan alfredo sauce. A dairy-free alfredo sauce. And a deliciously rich and creamy alfredo sauce that you’ll love even if you’re not vegan or dairy-free. Are you with me?

I’m not vegan or dairy-free (I’m what you’d consider dairy-light) but I love to create recipe options for those of you who are. Because as a gluten-free gal I know a thing or two about food restrictions and how exciting it can be to enjoy a classic recipe. Even if it is slightly modified.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while you’re familiar with my affinity for cashews and their amazing ability to morph into creamy, dreamy, dairy-like recipes. My homemade Cashew Milk, Vegan Caramel Cheesecake, Vegan Tzatziki and Cashew Date Shake are just a few examples.

Well, let me introduce you a new creamy, dreamy, cheesy recipe (though it has no cheese) – my Vegan Alfredo Sauce.

Vegan Alfredo Sauce Recipe Video

This sauce is extremely easy to make in a high-powered blender. Watch how I make it in the quick video below!

How to Make This Vegan Alfredo Sauce

There’s just three simple steps to make this recipe:

Soak the cashews overnight. They form the base of this alfredo sauce.
Add the drained cashews into a high-powered blender along with garlic, lemon juice, onion, nutritional yeast and some herbs.
Blend everything together on high until creamy and voila – a super simple and amazingly delicious vegan alfredo sauce.

Vegan alfredo sauce ingredients in a blender.

Nutritional Yeast is the Secret Ingredient

The ingredient that gives this alfredo sauce that wonderfully cheesy flavor (without any cheese) is nutritional yeast.

If you’ve never cooked with nutritional yeast before, it’s small little flakes (about the size of large sea salt flakes) of deactivated yeast which provides a nutty, cheese-like flavor. Nutritional yeast is also a significant source of B Vitamins.

How to Use This Sauce

So what do you do with this sauce? I’d start with topping it on every spiralized veggie imaginable. In fact, to get you started I’ve whipped up a Parsnip Noodle Chicken Alfredo and Whole30 Chicken Broccoli Casserole which both use this sauce. If you’re vegan, just replace the chicken with snap peas, mushrooms or another vegetable. You can also top this alfredo sauce on roasted vegetables or potatoes. So good.

How to Store It

You can store this sauce in the fridge up to 5 days. You can also freeze it for up to two months. I recommend freezing it in a silicone ice cube tray, so you can easily thaw individual portions.

I should mention that this sauce does thicken up as it’s stored in the fridge and sometimes while you’re cooking with it. If that happens and you want a thinner sauce, just add more water.

Vegan alfredo sauce in a glass jar with spoon, and blender in the background.

More Vegan Sauces and Dips

Give these other vegan favorites a try!

Vegan alfredo sauce in a glass jar with a spoon.

Best Vegan Alfredo Sauce

4.95 from 191 votes

Prep: 10

Cook: 10

Total: 20

Servings: 4 servings

Author: Lisa Bryan

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Description

This vegan alfredo sauce is a cashew-based, dairy-free alfredo sauce with a deliciously savory, cheesy-like flavor. Add it to spiralized vegetable noodles, potatoes and many other dishes.

Video

Ingredients

Instructions

Soak the cashews. Add the cashews to a bowl and cover by about 2 inches of cold water. Soak overnight (or at least 6 hours), then drain and rinse them.
Blend together. Add the cashews, fresh water, garlic, lemon juice, onion, nutritional yeast, salt, rosemary, and pepper to a high-powered blend, and blend until smooth.
Use or store. Use this vegan Alfredo sauce immediately (see ideas in the post above!) or store in a sealed container in the fridge or freezer.

Lisa’s Tips

The water used to soak the cashews is separate from the water used in blending. You’ll discard the water used for soaking.
The recipe makes approximately 1 cup of sauce.

Nutrition

Course: sauce

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Cashew Alfredo, Dairy free Alfredo Sauce, Vegan Alfredo Recipe, Vegan Alfredo Sauce

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Recipe originally posted July 2017, but recently updated.

About the author

Lisa Bryan

Lisa is a bestselling cookbook author, recipe developer, and YouTuber (with over 2.5 million subscribers) living in sunny Southern California. She started Downshiftology in 2014, and is passionate about making healthy food with fresh, simple and seasonal ingredients.