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.
This was so much better than I expected. The 5 yo said it was her favorite meal ever and my husband even liked it. Thanks!
No matter what I did I could not get rid of that weird cauliflower texture?? So I ended up straining through cheesecloth and I’m about to cook the liquid with cornstarch to thicken.
Flavor is really good!!!
I haven't made a cauliflower sauce before - but this looks so creamy and something I would love. The only thing I could want with this is cheese!
Wow, I never would have guessed this was made from cauliflower. I have to try it!
I too am super skeptical of cauliflower ... but if you say it is good, I may be willing to try this out. Bonus that it involves pasta because I <3 pasta.
It makes a really good loaded non-potato too. And a lot of other goodies. Cauliflower basically has no taste so it just tastes like what ever you put in it but it is full of nutrients. You can make just about and kind of bread out of it and there you go an easy way to stay on track with the no carb diet.