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
Hi! Looking forward to trying this for dinner tonight. Approximately how many does the recipe serve?
My substitute was agar agar instead of cornstarch. Turned out Fantastic!
Took me less than 2 minutes to make
Easy and tasty recipe. I like it because it’s much lower in fat than traditional alfredo. Thanks!
Have you tried adding vegan pesto to this to make a pesto cream sauce? If I tried this, do you think I should omit the oil as pesto has oil in it? Thanks for your input.
Hi, sorry I have not tried so really cannot predict how it would turn out. Be sure to report back if you experiment, as it sounds fun!
Turned out good! It was my first time trying an alfredo sauce recipe, vegan or otherwise. I added it to my broccoli and will be eating with pasta and marinara tonight! Thanks!!
This was surprisingly delicious! I’ve had to go dairy free for health reasons and I really missed creamy alfredo sauce. This recipe was pretty convincing! I used nutritional yeast and garlic. Highly recommend as a dairy free alfredo alternative.
My sauce broke when I added the nutritional yeast any ideas on how to recombine? It tastes great but is lumpy
Does this work with oat milk?
It should! We recommend unsweetened.
Holy hell and OMG! This stuff was AMAZING! I was dubious when I saw the ingredient list, but the number of highly rated reviews convinced me to try it. I am SO glad I did. Can’t wait to make it again.
Made this for my teen daughter with a newfound love of pasta (alfredo in particular)… Shes omni and I am vegan so I wanted to find something that should she love it enough she could also make it at her other parents home on her own.
She loved my creation! I used Kikkoman Pearl soymilk in unsweetened, Country Crock plant butter, plain flour, smoked garlic from a local fruit stand (with a small amount of garlic powder just to use up the tiny amount I had. Added Follow Your Heart Parmesan and white pepper/salt. Next time I may just attempt with Silk Heavy Cream, Country Crock plant butter or vegan ghee, smoked garlic and Follow Your Heart parmesan for a more “authentic” vibe as it still is not “Olive Garden” tier lol
We loved this recipe, and I feel like it is a great filling recipe without spending a ton of money which I love!
This blog for sure my “safe landing zone” within the recipes when I google vegan recipes, I use SO MANY of these recipes for my own cooking (only vegan in household) <3
Thank you for such kind words, and for making the recipe!
loved this recipe! I’m a new vegan (one month) and this was a good way for me to cook a meal my meat eating family can eat! They just add chicken to their plates! I used oat milk, nutritional yeast, and a nice big dash of pepper, garlic powder and some salt. So creamy! Makes you regret ever buying jarred Alfredo sauce
This is very good and super simple. The sauce thickens up extremely quick though so keep an eye on it and stir constantly.
Love this recipe! So easy to make and delicious, I added some garlic powder instead of fresh and it so good!
My family loved this vegan alfredo recipe. My daughter and I are vegan, husband and other daughter are not. Two thumbs up from everyone!
Can I substitute coconut milk and if so is it a 1 to 1 ratio? Do you think it would taste like coconut though?
I used nutritional yeast, and tried making it twice in case it was my error, but it got thick and separated both times. Any tips?