My fast and easy Creamy Vegan Alfredo Pasta Bake has accents of lemon, pepper and is loaded with dairy-free cheezy flavor. Dairy free Alfredo, put it on your menu this week!..
This creamy-rich, velvet-y texture is made possible by blending soaked raw cashews.
Speedy Recipe! You can easily get away with soaking your cashews in hot water for a few hours (as opposed to having to do 8 hours or overnight as I would normally advise.) The longer you soak cashews the softer they will become, but I did a hot water soak for about 2 ½ hours and this sauce was perfection. A quick two hour soak in hot tap water and you are good to go.
My favorite thing about this dish is the BAKING part. You may be tempted to just toss your vegan Alfredo sauce with some cooked pasta and serve right away (which is, yes, amazing and delicious) but baking the pasta takes it to this comfort food, super rich, soft pasta level that is very cravable. Then to make things extra decadent, I will serve each baked spoonful of pasta with an extra drizzle of leftover Alfredo sauce. Yup. This recipe is all about that sauce!
Note: The photos show the pre-baked pasta. The baked pasta becomes super soft and marinated looking like a casserole, and then I poured extra sauce on to serve. Comfort meal.
For the pasta, you should use either spiral, penne or maybe a tubed pasta. Macaroni or ziti could even work. I used our favorite pasta ever: Kamut Spirals.
Lemons.
Nutritional Yeast.
Cashews.
Black pepper.
Pasta.
This recipe really is a breeze. Serve with a nice hearty side salad and some crusty rolls and dinner is amazing.
Creamy Vegan Alfredo Pasta Sauce
By Published 08/11/2014
Just add pasta and bake! This creamy vegan alfredo sauce is rich and lemon-y with black pepper accents. Add your favorite spiral or penne pasta, bake in a 350 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes and serve warm with extra sauce on top. This recipe will sauce about 5-6 servings of pasta, with some leftover for topping. (Add sauce amount to taste, as more sauce will mean creamier, richer pasta.)
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups soaked raw cashews (soaked for at least two hours in salted hot water)
- 1 large or 2 small lemons, juiced
- ⅛ teaspoon lemon zest for sauce + additional zest for garnish
- 1 cup almond or non-dairy milk, original or plain flavor
- 2 tablespoon white or sweet miso paste
- ⅓ cup nutritional yeast (or more if you'd like)
- ⅛ teaspoon fresh black pepper + more to serve
- optional: a few spoonfuls of the warm pasta water to thin out sauce as desired
Instructions
- You will want to pre-soak your raw cashews. You can quick soak in salted HOT water for at least two hours. The longer you soak, the better, but two hours will be sufficient.
- Add the cashews, non-dairy milk, lemon, nutritional yeast, miso, lemon zest and black pepper to a high speed blender or food processor. Blend until silky smooth. Add optional pasta water to thin sauce as desired.
- Cook pasta and drain. Toss with sauce. I like to add about 2-3 tablespoon sauce for every cup of cooked pasta. But you can add more or less sauce per pasta amount to taste. Toss well. Pour into an oven-safe baking dish and top with some additional lemon zest and black pepper.
- Bake pasta in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes, until tender.
- Serve warm with extra sauce drizzled over top. You can also add more lemon zest or pepper just before serving.
Yield: 3 ½ cups saucePrep Time: 02 hrs. 20 mins. Cook time: 00 hrs. 15 mins. Total time: 2 hrs. 35 mins. Tags: cashews,pasta,entree,alfredo sauce,dairyfree,vegetarian,kamut
Kathy Patalsky says
Yes the lemon juice is blended.
Danny says
I am a brand new vegan. I'm also a dude. That combination pretty much makes me the village idiot around here. So with that in mind, please try to stifle your laughter when I ask.......I'm just supposed to add the lemon juice to the blender and not literally the juiced lemons, right? I mean, common sense would seem to indicate that that would be the case but the recipe instructions above are a bit unclear for a village idiot and it wouldn't be the first time my "Y" chromosome has led me astray.
Thanks!
Kelsey says
This was unclear to me, too, but I would guess just the lemon juice should be blended or else there would be no need to zest the lemon and have that listed as a separate ingredient. Right? I don't know. I'm going to try with the juice 🙂
Shannon says
This was really good -- perfect texture -- but I'm looking for something a little more rich and savory, and a little less zesty. Any suggestions? I was thinking of adding some garlic and salt, upping the nutritional yeast, and maybe subbing EB butter for the miso, but I wanted to see if there were any changes you might recommend.
KristenParks says
Made this tonight--it was excellent! Total comfort food 🙂
RockMyVeganSocks says
mmm I've been making the same old boring marinara-baked pasta. This will be a welcome change. I love marinara, but this sounds really good.
Kathy Patalsky says
Thank you! And thank you for All your sweet comments! So glad you found a few recipes you like 💗👍
JenH says
Made this tonight and it was so goooood! Thanks for the recipe. I added mushrooms, onions, and peas before baking it. Hubby loved it too.
Debi359 says
Ah great! Thanks 🙂
Debi359 says
I'm allergic to soy products so the Miso paste is out for me. Any suggestions on a replacement,or is it crucial? Thanks, this sounds wonderful.
brittany says
Debi, you can easily sub a few tablespoons of tahini. Quality tahini has a tang similar to miso!
Carie says
You can get soy-free chickpea miso!
Joanna Strycharz says
Where can I get white miso paste? Specialty markets?
Kathy Patalsky says
Whole foods sells! Most natural foods stores. I have even seen in a few mainstream stores. In fridge section.
Joanna Strycharz says
Excellent! This will be dinner on Friday night!
brittany says
I have also seen it at a few Asian markets 🙂
Diane Hallgarth Hamilton says
Sounds great, but as a single person, I would only use a little sauce. How long will it keep or can you freeze it?
Kathy Patalsky says
I would simply halve or even quarter the recipe as opposed to freezing the sauce. But that being said, higher fat foods freeze best so this will likely freeze very well for a sauce.
Lillian Fiest says
Wow, thanks Kathy for your speedy response! I'll give it a try. Thanks for all your delicious recipes!
Lillian Fiest says
Kathy, is there any other nut you could use instead of cashew?
Kathy Patalsky says
You could do walnut or even Brazil nut. They have pretty moderate flavors. You may have to soak those overnight though to soften. They will also be a bit less creamy but still delicious.
The Peace Patch says
I've just been thinking of making a crushed chip-topped pasta casserole but this is even better! I've never tried kamut spirals so this is a great excuse to give them a go. Many thanks...cheers! 🙂
GlutenFreeHappyTummy says
oh my i could really go for a plate of this right now! yummmm
marisa24 says
How many oz of pasta does this go with?
Kathy Patalsky says
We did 12 oz between two people with a lot of leftover pasta and leftover sauce. But the recipe is delicious next day for leftovers.
You could easily cook 15oz of pasta with the recipe as shown.
It just also depends how creamy and rich you want your dish. 12oz of pasta using all the sauce will be very creamy and rich. If you want a lighter pasta, halve the sauce recipe for 12oz.
Laloofah says
We are making this for the first time right now, and were baffled about
the pasta amount too so were glad to see this comment! Perhaps you could
add something like "your choice of pasta" to the list of ingredients
along with a note about the recommended amount so it appears in the
recipe where no one will miss it. Thanks! Looking forward to this, I
love the combo of pasta, lemon, and nooch!