I?ve always had a love/hate relationship with cream sauces. Yes, they were delicious when I was eating them. But also yes, I always felt super sick afterwards. Maybe its from all the rich ingredients, or maybe I have no self-control. Either way, Alfredo was always a bad risk-reward balance.
I created this recipe in an effort to see if I could make something to replace traditional cream sauces that was still delicious. The good news is that this is super delicious! The bad news is that it isn?t a perfect replica of a dairy-based cream sauce. But I?ve always had the opinion that trying to replicate non-vegan foods is always done in vain. You need to think of these dishes as their own food, not just an imitation of something else. Gotta respect the food!
The main ingredient for this sauce is cauliflower. There are a lot of ways that you can cook the cauliflower beforehand, but I picked steaming/boiling it (as in, I put all the florets in a pot half-full of water and stirred it a lot, so it both boiled and steamed). This makes it super easy to blend, but also puts a lot of water into the sauce. You could try drier methods of cooking the cauliflower and increase the amount of veggie stock to make it creamy. The choice is yours.
Creamy Cauliflower Sauce
A light and creamy sauce, perfect for pastas, lasagnas, or dipping. Can be modified in infinite ways for different tastes and textures.
Ingredients
- 1/2 head cauliflower
- 1 small onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 cup vegetable stock
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- wedge of lemon
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Cook the cauliflower by boiling or steaming it. While this cooks, dice the onion and garlic and saut? it until the onions are clear and cooked. A nonstick pan will stop the onions from caramelizing too much, which will preserve the white colour of the sauce.
Drain the cauliflower and put the florets into the food processor. Pulse a few times to break them down and make room in the processor for the other ingredients. Add the onion, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, nutritional yeast. Squeeze in the lemon juice from the wedge. Process on low.
When the mixture is crumbly, start adding the veggie stock a tablespoon at the time. Turn the processor up on high. Keep checking the texture as you add in the stock to make sure it doesn?t become too watery. Adjust the salt level if necessary.
Put the sauce into a secure container or jar. Allow it to sit in the fridge for a while to let the flavours incorporate, if you can.
This sauce is great in a bunch of dishes. You can throw it on some spaghetti noodles (it would be awesome with some sweet peas thrown in too), as a layer in lasagna, used like a gravy on potatoes or other veggies. Maybe even as a dip? It tastes savoury and mild, and does have a hint of that cauliflower taste still. It?s not overpowering, and as someone who loves cauliflower, I think its delicious! But you could increase the other flavours (especially the garlic and the nooch) if you wanted to disguise it more.
