A versatile vegan pumpkin alfredo sauce made with cashew cream, pumpkin puree, and seasonings like Dijon mustard, garlic, and nutritional yeast.
So, now that we all know how to make pumpkin puree, let’s put it to good use, shall we?
People have been raving about Pinch of Yum’s Pumpkin Alfredo, and while it looks and sounds delicious, the recipe calls for 2 cups of heavy cream. I have nothing against moderate amounts of heavy cream from a nutritional standpoint, but many of us are opting to either eliminate or drastically reduce our dairy consumption for ethical, environmental, and often health reasons.
There had to be a better way to make pumpkin alfredo, so I recruited a little help from the humble cashew to whip up an ultra creamy, comforting, and cozy pumpkin alfredo sauce.
As you probably know by now, soaked cashews and water can be blended together to create a very convincing substitute for heavy cream. In this pumpkin alfredo sauce, you’ll start by making a simple cashew cream with some flavour boosters in the form of salt, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, and Dijon mustard. Then, you’ll add the pumpkin puree, sauteed garlic, and a pinch of nutmeg. Blend, transfer to an airtight container, and enjoy it in all sorts of different applications. Of course, it’s delicious on pasta, but the sky is the limit. Mix it into cooked quinoa or rice, spread it on a wrap, or dip steamed vegetables into it.
The only thing to remember when making this vegan pumpkin alfredo sauce is that you will need to soak your cashews beforehand. You can either soak them in cool water for 4 hours, or boiling water for 1 hour.
You really can’t go wrong with this delicious dairy-free pumpkin alfredo sauce. And in fact, the next recipe that I’ll be sharing incorporates it, so stay tuned for that!
I know I sound like a broken record, but if you make this recipe, let us know how you liked it by leaving a comment and rating below, and post a photo to Instagram with @upbeet.kitchen and #upbeetkitchen.
Enjoy!
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Vegan Pumpkin Alfredo Sauce
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
Description
Creamy, luscious pumpkin alfredo sauce without a lick of dairy! Perfect on pasta or other cooked grains, or as a cheesy sauce on steamed vegetables.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 5 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 cup raw cashews, soaked and drained
- 1 cup filtered water, plus more as needed
- 1 tsp fine sea salt, plus more to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 ⅓ cups pumpkin puree (homemade or store-bought)
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
Instructions
- Warm the oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the chopped garlic and saute until lightly browned. Set aside.
- Place the drained cashews, water, salt, pepper, nutritional yeast, Dijon mustard, and lemon juice in a blender. Blend until very smooth and creamy.
- To the cashew cream, add the sauteed garlic, pumpkin puree, and nutmeg. Blend again until smooth and creamy, adding more water, as needed, to form an alfredo sauce consistency. Taste and add additional salt if desired (I ended up adding about ¼ teaspoon more salt).
- Transfer the sauce into an airtight glass jar and cover until ready to use.
Notes
Make sure to soak the cashews for 4 hours in cold water or 1 hour in boiling water before beginning the recipe.
The sauce keeps, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. You can also probably freeze the sauce for future use.
Refrigerated sauce thickens considerably. To thin, simply whisk in some water or unsweetened non-dairy milk.
If you are serving the sauce on pasta, warm up the alfredo sauce in a separate saucepan, then pour over just-cooked pasta noodles right before serving.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
Keywords: vegan pumpkin alfredo, vegan pumpkin alfredo sauce, dairy-free pumpkin alfredo, vegan alfredo, savory pumpkin recipe, pumpkin sauce, vegan cheese sauce
I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend so far! Saturday is my rest day, so I’ve been doing a whole lot of relaxing. I made pumpkin spice lattes for everyone this afternoon (using the recipe that I posted on my highlights last week), and we’re all going bowling tonight. Wish me luck on the bowling, haha.
Looking forward to meeting back here soon with the recipe I hinted at earlier in this post!
Pssst: Pin this to your boards for later:
Lauren
Tis is very tasty and made a perfect cream sauce for my pasta dinner!
★★★★★
Allison
Awesome! Glad you enjoyed it!