Vegan Alfredo Sauce

Cheese is great. I love it. But it's not for all occasions. Sometimes, a break from cheese makes you enjoy it more. Ever heard the saying, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder"?  I only love cheese more when I take a break.

I also have a family member with a dairy allergy, and I was making gnocchi that I wanted to share. You can't just go eating gnocchi without sauce, and to me, alfredo speaks the language of gnocchi. I spoke in my gnocchi post about the gnocchi alfredo I had in Tampa, and how that flavor and texture combination was just *chef's kiss*.

Given the allergy note above, I sought out an alternative. I have played with cheese-like flavor, using nutritional yeast in my vegan broccoli cheese soup. Nutritional yeast is still yeast, similar to the kind used to brew beer or bake bread, but is in active form. It's loaded with protein and has a cheesy flavor, perfect for sprinkling on things instead of real cheese.

But let's dig deeper, shall we? What is yeast? It's a single-cell organism. It consumes starch and sugar and creates carbon dioxide. The gas is trapped in bread, so when the gas is produced, it causes the dough to inflate. That's an incredible simple explanation for a far more complex process, but I'm not writing for National Geographic here.

This recipe isn't just nutritional yeast, though. It also contains a pretty magical ingredient. One that has been a part of a few sauces on this blog: cashews. Creamy chicken with cashew sauce and chicken korma both feature a creamy sauce that has a creamy base. 

The easiest an most effective thing to do is soak the cashews overnight. This produces the most creamy version of the sauce. But, if you are a terrible planner like I am, you can also boil some water and soak the cashews for 30 minutes. I had soaked them at room temperature in the past, but in a short time you don't get a creamy consistency unless you use boiling water.

I cooked some onions and garlic in some of the broth until the onion was soft and the liquid had evaporated. This whole process took 6-8 minutes.

I then poured the onions and 1/2 cup more broth into my small food processor and blended it until it was smooth. Then, I added some cashews, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and some of the nutritional yeast and continued blending. At this point I checked the consistency and taste of the sauce, and I was happy with it. But you can add more liquid to thin it out a bit as needed.

The result was a thick, creamy sauce. Would you know this was vegan just looking at it?

Next up: serving it over homemade gnocchi.

Trickery! This was genuinely passable. The creaminess is and always will be different than actual cheese, because cheese is thick and goopy and a pile of delight in every bite. But this was really a tasty sauce. It paired well with the gnocchi, and for sure as a dip would be stellar.

Vegan Alfredo Sauce Recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 cup cashews (I used roasted and lightly salted, but you can use raw)

1 1/2 cups water

1 - 1/2 cups vegetable broth

1 medium onion

2 tablespoons minced garlic (4-5 cloves)

2 tablespoons - 1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add cashews, remove from heat, and let soak for 30 minutes. Move to a food processor and pulse until smooth. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add onions and garlic. Add 1/2 cup broth and cook for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the cooked onions and a additional 1/2 cup broth to the food processor and pulse for 1-2 minutes. Mix in 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast, lemon juice, and salt and pepper. Add additional vegetable broth if needed, to thin sauce. Add additional nutritional yeast to taste.

adapted from the best vegan garlic alfredo sauce