Being diagnosed with PCOS, I have found myself finding every replacement there is for my favorite foods that contain gluten and dairy. So far it's been pretty hit and miss, but I finally found a recipe that I LOVE for Alfredo sauce. Anyone that has had my dairy-included Alfredo sauce knows that I take it seriously. No, I don't do the traditional olive oil based Alfredo sauce, but it is full of freshly shredded Parmesan. However, I can't have 90% of the ingredients in my very own Alfredo sauce, so I did some searching for replacements. What I've found is that cashews soaked in boiling water and salt is a great replacement for cream or cream cheese, plant-based milk is a perfect replacement for animal milk, and nutritional yeast gives whatever you use it with the flavor that you taste in cheese.

So, after some experimenting, I made the perfect replacement for my Alfredo sauce, guilt free, and totally delicious.

What You'll Need

  • 1 cup raw cashews
  • 1 cup plant milk
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 small white onion
  • Salt to taste
  • Pepper to taste
  • 1 tsp Oregano
  • 1 tsp Thyme
  • Tbs olive oil for sautéing

With any recipe, you can always make additions or take things out you don't like, think of this recipe as a base, and you can do to it whatever feels right to you. Sometimes I leave the onion out and use onion powder instead, or I will add different herbs, and use fresh herbs if I have them at the time.

How To Make It

To start, you'll want to boil 2 cups or so of water to soak the cashews. This will make them soft and easily to blend. They should soak in the boiling water for about 20 minutes. If you don't feel like draining the cashews and want to leave the water in, make sure to barely cover the cashews so you don't make it too watery. You would also use a little less milk if you left the water in, too.

Making this is a great way to empty up some of those hidden bags of cashews that have a handful or so left.

After you've got the cashews soaking, you can start preparing the rest of the sauce by cutting up and sautéing the onion and garlic. You can really cut them however you'd like because they're going to be blended into the sauce in just a bit, anyway. Diced, julienned, minced, sliced, whatever feels right to you. Throw them into a pan with olive oil and they'll be done in about 8 minutes, or until they begin to get very fragrant and the onions become translucent.

While those are cooking, you can measure out the plant milk, add in the salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, and whatever other flavors you're always looking for in an Alfredo sauce. You might love adding in some rosemary, sage, basil, or paprika.

After the cashews have soaked and the onion and garlic has cooked, add everything to a bowl or blender and blend it all together until smooth and creamy. I like my sauce to be extra flavorful, so I add extra garlic and onion powder. That might be too strong for some, so feel free to blend it together and taste it before adding in extra flavor.

Cashews, plant milk, seasonings, nutritional yeast, and the garlic and onion which sank to the bottom. Before blending.

I use an immersion blender to mix it all up, just so I can make sure there aren't any cashew chunks left. It should be smooth and creamy, without any blobs. If it's too thick, add in some more liquid, and if it's too thin, add in more onion or cashews.

Go ahead and throw all that delicious sauce into a sauce pan on the stove and let it begin to boil. While it's cooking, you can prepare your pasta or vegetables. I made a gluten free pasta with asparagus, kale from my garden, spinach, cherry tomatoes, grilled onion, and some chicken. If you're going for full vegan, it's great without the chicken, and add in large sliced mushrooms instead. Even better, use freshly foraged porcini mushrooms if they grow near you. Unfortunately, I didn't find any porcini this year, but did find some very large butter boletes!

The spinach and kale I put into the meal.

On a side note, can someone please explain to my WHY spinach and kale always cook down to nothing when I literally overfilled the pan thinking, "oh yeah, this will DEFINITELY be more than enough. Maybe even too much."

The spinach and kale I ended up with.

Finally, the last part. Add everything together! Mix it up, add in a little fresh basil, and enjoy! I have to say, it was pretty dang tasty! Even my boyfriend got two helpings of it!