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This creamy cauliflower sauce is a like a healthy alfredo sauce using cauliflower as a base. It has less calories and all the benefits of this healthy veggie!

Creamy Cauliflower Sauce
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Ever wanted a healthy version of a white pasta cheese sauce? Meet the answer: creamy cauliflower sauce! Alex and I just added this to our repertoire, and it was a big hit (and our kid couldn’t get enough). Why make sauce with cauliflower? This sauce is like a healthy alfredo sauce, but unlike the traditional version, you’ll feel light and vibrant afterwards! The standard cheesy pasta often feels too rich and I end up with an upset stomach. This cauliflower sauce is much lighter. Even better, you get all the nutritional benefits of cauliflower.

Looking for a plant-based or vegan cauliflower sauce? Go to Vegan Alfredo Sauce.

Creamy cauliflower sauce

What’s in this cauliflower sauce?

Now, there are lots of variations on creamy cauliflower sauce! Some recipes are vegan or dairy free, but many use milk and cheese too. This version has dairy, so it’s not fully plant-based. If you’d like a vegan version, go to Vegan Alfredo Sauce instead! This one is a lightened up version of alfredo sauce using mostly cauliflower to cut down on richness, but it still has the traditional Parmesan cheese. Here are the ingredients in this cauliflower sauce:

  • Cauliflower: it’s sauteed, then cooked in veggie broth
  • Garlic: Both fresh and a little powder, to get that classic flavor!
  • Butter or olive oil: for sauteing the cauliflower
  • Veggie broth: most recipes call for milk, but this uses broth to keep it lighter
  • Parmesan cheese: just ½ cup of Parmesan cheese brings big flavor
  • Oregano & salt: to round out the flavor!

When you try this sauce, you’ll be surprised how savory and delicious it tastes!

Blender with sauce

What does the Parmesan do?

If you’re wondering: the Parmesan cheese adds some necessary richness to this creamy cauliflower sauce. This helps it to coat the pasta! Using only cauliflower makes for a watery texture, and it doesn’t cling to the noodles correctly. If you’d rather omit the cheese, go to our Vegan Alfredo Sauce instead.

Cauliflower nutrition

Making a cauliflower sauce instead of alfredo doesn’t just cut down on calories: it adds lots of nutrients too! You get all the nutrient-density of 1 head of cauliflower in this sauce. Here’s a breakdown of cauliflower nutrition (source Harvard Medical School):

  • 1 cup of chopped cauliflower has only 25 calories and 5 grams carbs
  • It’s a great source of Vitamin C!
  • Cauliflower is also a good source of Vitamin B and potassium.
  • Cauliflower is high in fiber (1 cup has about 10% of your daily needs).

Important: cook your pasta to al dente! (Please.)

When you add this cauliflower sauce to your pasta, you’ll notice it will be slightly looser than the standard pasta sauce. For this reason, you should make sure you cook your pasta perfectly to al dente! Mushy pasta with a loose sauce is not so appetizing! Here’s how to cook pasta to al dente:

  • Check the package instructions, then start tasting a few minutes before. The timing listed on many packages results in rubbery pasta.
  • Catch the pasta right when it goes from crunchy to tender. It should still be slightly firm inside–but not crunchy! When it’s just tender enough but still firm, drain it immediately! Even a few seconds can be the difference between mushy and al dente pasta.
Cauliflower sauce on pasta

How to serve cauliflower sauce

Great question! You don’t have to only serve cauliflower sauce with pasta. Here a few other ideas for serving it:

Is there a vegan variation?

There is! Our Vegan Alfredo Sauce uses cauliflower and blended cashews to make a luscious, creamy sauce. Head to that link for the recipe!

This cauliflower sauce recipe is…

Vegetarian and gluten-free. For vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free, to go Vegan Alfredo.

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Creamy Cauliflower Sauce

Creamy cauliflower sauce
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4.5 from 4 reviews

This creamy cauliflower sauce is a like a healthy alfredo sauce using cauliflower as a base. It has less calories and all the benefits of this healthy veggie!

  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: About 4 cups (8 servings, enough for 1 pound pasta) 1x
  • Category: Sauce
  • Method: Blended
  • Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale
  • 6 garlic cloves
  • 1 small head cauliflower (1 1/2 to 2 pounds), enough for 6 cups florets
  • 4 tablespoons butter or olive oil
  • 2 cups vegetable broth
  • ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder
  • ½ teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • ½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese, plus more to taste

Instructions

  1. Mince the garlic. Chop the cauliflower.
  2. Heat the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the cauliflower and saute for 4 minutes until lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for 1 to 2 minutes until fragrant. Add the vegetable broth, garlic powder, oregano, and ½ teaspoon kosher salt. Bring to a simmer, then cover and cook 6 to 7 minutes on medium high heat until the cauliflower is tender when pierced with a fork.
  3. Carefully transfer the contents to a blender and blend on high until a smooth sauce forms. Add the Parmesan cheese and additional ½ teaspoon salt, and blend again. Taste: if you’d like more cheese you can add a little more, but we like adding a little extra Parmesan to the pasta when we stir in the sauce. Serve immediately with 1 pound pasta. (You can also refrigerate for up to 1 week: warm on the stovetop before serving.)

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About the authors

Alex & Sonja

Hi! We’re Alex & Sonja Overhiser, authors of the acclaimed cookbooks A Couple Cooks and Pretty Simple Cooking—and a real life couple who cooks together. We founded the A Couple Cooks website in 2010 to share seasonal recipes and the joy of home cooking. Now, we’ve got over 3,000 well-tested recipes, including Mediterranean diet, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, smoothies, cocktails, and more!

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13 Comments

  1. Monique says:

    This was so tasty. I made it for my 10-month old baby and she loved it. The whole family ended up eating it and tastes just like an Alfredo sauce. I did add one extra thing though – about 1/2 cup of plain Greek yogurt.






  2. Taylor Cunningham says:

    Absolutely excellent! I could eat the sauce just by itself!






  3. Sharon Sage says:

    Tonight I made the “Cauliflower Sauce”. My husband & I loved it! It was sooooooo yummy and we’ll definitely have it again. I didn’t add extra parmesan, but it was still DELISH! We had it on penne pasta.






    1. Alex Overhiser says:

      So glad you enjoyed!

  4. Mich says:

    I loved this. My family didn’t. There aren’t any surprises w it – it tastes as you would imagine it from the recipe. For me 5 stars, for my family 2 so I’m averaging at 4…. Watered it down the next day w some water and ate leftovers as a soup.






  5. Laura says:

    Can you freeze this sauce?

    1. Alex Overhiser says:

      Yes! It freezes well.

  6. Kerrie says:

    Can you sub the Parmesan with nutritional yeast ?

  7. Ashley Harris says:

    Do you jar this and save it too??

    1. Sonja Overhiser says:

      You can store it refrigerated for up to 1 week! We updated the recipe accordingly.

  8. Suzanne says:

    This looks so good! Is it good on other things too?

    1. Alex Overhiser says:

      Yes, it’s a delicious sauce on anything! Stays for a few days in the refrigerator.