This is the best easy vegan Alfredo sauce recipe you’ll ever try, with no dairy, no eggs, no tofu, and no cashews required!
Creamy vegan Alfredo sauce
Imagine a classic vegan Alfredo recipe so luxuriously rich and smooth, you will want to pour it over absolutely everything.
I’ve served the recipe to both vegetarians and omnivores, always with rave reviews and expressions of complete disbelief that something this deliciously creamy could possibly be made without any heavy cream at all.
My Italian family absolutely loves it!
Also be sure to try this Vegan Cheesecake
Dairy free Alfredo recipe video
Above, watch the step by step recipe video.
The best vegan Alfredo recipe
If you are looking for a extra thick cream sauce to serve over your favorite pasta or ravioli, look no further.
This recipe is perfect for topping fettuccine, linguine, tortellini, spaghetti, rigatoni, penne, rotini, or macaroni.
It also includes gluten free, nut free, soy free options.
Or if you want to try something other than pastas, the dairy free Alfredo is also great with broccoli or roasted vegetables, gnocchi, rice, stuffed shells, lasagna, low carb zucchini noodles (zoodles), baked potatoes, or spaghetti squash.
You can even use it as a vegan white sauce for an Alfredo style Cauliflower Pizza Crust!
More vegan pasta recipes
I’ve also included my cauliflower Alfredo recipe below, or if you’re looking for a homemade Alfredo sauce with cashews, try this Cashew Alfredo Sauce.
Healthy Alfredo ingredients
Nondairy Milk: Feel free to use whatever milk you have on hand. I recommend choosing an unsweetened variety, such as almond milk, oat milk, or soy milk. Or the sauce is especially rich and creamy if you use nondairy creamer or canned coconut milk.
Vegan Cheese: The recipe works with either Parmesan cheese (such as dairy free Violife or Follow Your Heart) or vitamin packed nutritional yeast. The two ingredients have different flavors, but are both good here in their own right.
Or you can sub your favorite shredded vegan cheddar, pepper jack, or mozzarella cheese. Add this in at the very end when you turn off the heat, then stir until the dairy free cheese melts.
Cornstarch Or Flour: This ingredient adds thickness to the creamy pasta sauce without heavy cream. All purpose flour or cornstarch work best for dissolving smoothly.
Salt: Do not omit the salt. The results will lack depth of flavor. Some people also like to add a pinch of ground black pepper, spicy crushed red pepper, or ground nutmeg to their homemade Alfredo sauces.
Oil: The recipe below does call for oil or a plant based butter spread. Try Earth Balance or Miyokos vegan butter, coconut oil, or Smart Balance Light for low calorie Alfredo sauce. To make an oil free Alfredo, I substituted an equal amount of tahini once with great results.
Katie’s favorite variations
Garlic Alfredo: Add a tablespoon of minced garlic to the saucepan at the same time as the salt, before bringing the mixture to a boil.
Spinach Alfredo: Stir in a handful of raw spinach at the very end of the cooking process. This option works well with kale too.
High Protein: Make it a meal by throwing in a cup of cooked chickpeas, roasted mushrooms, green peas, vegan bacon for carbonara, or a meatless protein like baked tofu or tempeh.
This vegan pasta sauce is super quick and easy to make! But if you are looking for something even easier and faster, there are a bunch of boxed or jarred Alfredo brands on the market, including Primal Kitchen, Daiya Cheeze Sauce, Victoria Vegan, and Simple Truth Plant Based Alfredo (one of my personal favorites).
For dessert, try these Homemade Chocolate Bars
How to make vegan Alfredo pasta sauce
- To prepare the recipe in your kitchen, start by gathering all of your ingredients and reading through the instructions.
- In a medium saucepan, whisk the cornstarch or flour into the milk or creamer until it’s completely dissolved, with no lumps.
- Whisk in the salt and oil or vegan butter spread. If desired, also add two to three teaspoons of minced garlic.
- Over low medium heat, slowly bring this mixture to a boil. Stir occasionally at first with a wire whisk, then stir constantly once it begins to thicken. The whole process should take under ten minutes.
- Once your vegan sauce is thick, turn off the heat and stir in the nutritional yeast or vegan Parmesan cheese until it melts. Taste the sauce, and season with salt and pepper or other spices and seasonings as desired.
Vegan Alfredo Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 cups nondairy milk or creamer (480g)
- 3 1/2 tbsp cornstarch (28g) or 5 tbsp flour (or try this Cauliflower Alfredo Recipe)
- 6 tbsp nutritional yeast or vegan Parmesan cheese (30g)
- 2 tbsp minced garlic (30g) (optional)
- 2 tbsp coconut oil or vegan butter (24g) (for oil free, see note above)
- 1/2 tsp salt (plus salt and pepper to taste)
- 8 oz pasta or noodles of choice (optional)
Instructions
- 1. In a saucepan, whisk cornstarch or flour into milk until completely dissolved.
- 2. Stir in the salt, oil, and optional garlic.
- 3. Slowly bring the vegan Alfredo sauce to a boil over low-medium heat, stirring occasionally at first and then constantly once it starts to thicken.
- 4. Once thick, turn off heat and stir in the dairy free cheese until it melts.
- 5. Taste, and season with salt and pepper as desired.
Video
Notes
Vegan recipes from scratch
I made this for dinner over the weekend and the family loved it. Threw in some gardein to make it a full meal. Today is Monday and I have been requested to make it again for dinner from my oldest daughter who is not vegan 😁
Thanks for sharing! I was searching everywhere for a Alfredo sauce free of cashews because I’m allergic. I will be trying this soon!
OMG. This is amazing. I halved the recipe and used it for pizza sauce. I used nutritional yeast for my “cheese” and the flavors are delicious. I also added two cloves of garlic. I will be using this again.
Have you ever frozen this?
It is absolutely amazing.
Thank you so much for trying it! We haven’t tried freezing, but be sure to report back if you try it before we do 🙂
I made this recipe and it had almost no flavor. I added a bunch of seasoning and it turned into a yummy alfredo mac n’ cheese. The texture is the same as an alfredo texture.
It was creamy and thick! Thank you for making a vegan alfredo without cashews. All the other recipes I’d been finding contained cashews and we have a nut allergy.
So very easy to prepare. Delicious without being overly rich! We added sauteed mushrooms and onion to complete the meal.
Thank you for trying it 🙂
This is a great recipe! I’m going to keep it in my line-up for future dinners. 😋
Going to try this but non dairy creamer does have milk so it’s not vegan friendly.
Hi Karen, there are many brands of nondairy creamer nowadays that are dairy free and vegan. Just look for one that says vegan on the label 🙂
Do you still use corn starch if using a vegan cream (I’m using Oatly cream)?
Yes! You can try omitting it and seeing if it’s thick enough, but we have not tried that.
We are thinking our daughter who is 23 has a new dairy allergy. We are looking for new recipes to try. This was a hit. She loves Alfredo and was so disappointed to not be able to eat it anymore. Thank you for this. She wants to put in in a bottle and take it to restaurants so she can enjoy her favorite foods. 🙂
This makes us so happy 🙂
Good but I had to add more nutritional yeast than suggested and now it’s awesome.. Liberally apply that stuff
What milk suggestions give the creamiest results? We want it to be vegan of course 🙂
Hi! Creamiest would definitely be coconut milk 🙂
Unsweetened nondairy creamer, such as Nutpods, is also lovely.
Hey Katie,
Did you change this recipe? I had it bookmarked for the longest time, and remember the ingredients (hazy on the amounts) and this recipe is different. The original included vegetable stock I remember and definitely garlic and flour in lieu of cornstarch now. Is there any way I can be sent the original recipe? While I’m sure this one tastes just as lovely, I was quite fond of the original and had planned to make it for dinner this evening for some non-vegan friends. I appreciate you & the OG was delicious!
Hi Laura! I am so sorry, I’m not sure what recipe it might be but am trying to search for it. Was it this exact URL?
I had it bookmarked to my previous phone which I just got rid of, but when I went to search for it again on Google I came here since it was familiar. There’s less ingredients now, the one I used to make included:
Coconut Milk
Vegetable Stock
Flour
Non-dairy butter
Garlic
Nutritional Yeast
Man, I wish I could remember the amounts of each it was so good! I know it was yours, I remember the little pink heart in my phone’s bookmark, just like now. Was this recipe changed to fewer ingredients by chance? I really do appreciate your help – that recipe was spot on like most of the ones I’ve tried here 🙂
We looked up the previous version of the recipe from this url (as it looked from 2016 until it was changed to its current version), but I do not see vegetable stock as an ingredient. Hopefully it is what you are looking for? https://web.archive.org/web/20160731095638/https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2016/07/28/vegan-pasta-alfredo-recipe/
Just made sooo savory
I am by no means a cook, but I gave this a try and it came out wonderfully. If I can do it, literally anyone else can too. Thank you so much!