I'll admit I was a Cauliflower Alfredo Skeptic. I saw it on Pinterest and even on some restaurant menus, but I still just didn't believe it. Then one night about a year ago, I was dying for some Fettuccine Alfredo, but I wasn't dying for a 2,000 calorie dinner. In desperation, I decided to attempt to make the famous cauliflower sauce.
There was just one problem: my local grocery store was out of fresh cauliflower. No bags of precut florets, no whole heads tucked in next to the broccoli... just an empty spot with a little label that said "Cauliflower $5.49". WOOF. I wouldn't have bought it at that price, even if they'd had it in stock! I resigned myself to a bag of frozen florets and headed home.
I boiled the florets while sautéing a little bit of garlic in some butter, then tossed it all into my favorite high-powered blender with some milk, salt, pepper, and the cooking water from boiling the cauliflower and blended it until the consistency looked creamy and smooth. It certainly looked good... but how did it taste?
Creamy. Rich. Thick, but smooth. Decadent, and decidedly NOT like boiled cauliflower, this sauce has converted me. I am no longer a skeptic; really, I feel more like a Cauliflower Sauce Evangelist, telling everyone I know to give this stuff a try!
Even my husband, whose favorite food group is "Yellow Food", said it was "pretty good", which is Husband-Speak for "delicious". It is admittedly not a dead-ringer for Alfredo, but it is very, very close and very, very good. Toss this sauce with some fettuccine and top with a handful of freshly grated pecorino romano cheese for an amazing pasta dish to anchor your next meal.
Creamy Cauliflower Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- 5 cups frozen cauliflower florets roughly 15 ounces
- 6 cups water
- ½ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Bring the water to a boil in a large pot. Add the cauliflower and cook until soft, around 10 minutes.
- In a small pan, cook the garlic in the butter over medium-low for 5 minutes, or until fragrant. Make sure not to burn it, as that will make your sauce bitter.
- Drain the cauliflower, reserving ½ cup of cooking liquid.
- Add the cauliflower, reserved liquid, milk, salt, pepper, and garlic/butter mix to a blender. Blend until smooth.
Consistency was ok, no flavor at all though