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The Creamiest Roast Cauliflower Pasta

Roast cauliflower pasta

This nut-free and vegan pasta sauce is pure wizardy. It relies on a combination of roast cauliflower, wine and garlic to produce a wonderfully savoury and smooth sauce.⁣

This recipe is just perfect for using up less than perfect looking heads of cauliflower. If you’re cauliflower is starting to go a little bit withered, fear not. Just roast that sucker and blitz it into this decadent, but healthy, pasta sauce.

Roast cauliflower pasta profile

It’s always a struggle to find a thick vegan white sauce that doesn’t involve nuts. Normally, most recipes advise blending soaked cashews to achieve a rich sauce. However, I made it my mission to find a nut-free alternative to a cashew alfredo.

After experimenting with lots of different techniques, I think I’ve cracked it – roast blended cauliflower. Who knew this white brassica could add such a rich and deep flavour to a pasta dish. This recipe tastes amazing and using blended cauliflower for the sauce means it has way less calories than fatty cashew based sauces.

So now you can enjoy an (almost) guilt-free creamy pasta dish. Thanks cauliflower, you rock!

When to eat Cauliflower

Cauliflower is widely available throughout the year. It’s super easy to grow and store. So don’t worry about having to switch out this brassica champion. Enjoy year-round.

The Creamiest Roast Cauliflower Pasta

This nut free creamy cauliflower pasta is pure wizardy. Roasting and blending the cauliflower makes a wonderfully savoury and smooth sauce to use with any pasta.
Roast cauliflower pasta
4.62 from 13 votes
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 4
Course Main Course, Pasta

This meal is around 84% less polluting than the average UK meal.

Eating this recipe will save around 2.47 KG CO2e per person.

That’s equivalent to the emissions produced driving 20.39 KM in a modern car.

How do I calculate this?

Ingredients

  • 1 Large Head (around 1kg) Cauliflower
  • 2 Medium Onions (peeled and diced)
  • 4 Cloves Garlic (peeled and diced)
  • 200 ml White Wine
  • 300 ml Plant Milk (I've used oat milk, but almond or soy should work fine)
  • 1 Teaspoon Mustard Powder
  • 4 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast
  • 1/2 Teaspoon White Pepper Powder
  • 2 Tablespoons Plain Flour
  • 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
  • Small Bunch Parsley (finely chopped)
  • 300 g Pasta (cooked to packet instructions)

Instructions

  • Preheat your oven to 200˚c/390˚f (fan oven).
  • Loosely chop your cauliflower into 2-3 inch pieces, stem and all. Then place onto a large baking tray. Cover with a tablespoon of olive oil and season with salt. Place into the oven for 20-25 minutes until the cauliflower is nicely soft and has lost some of it's moisture. Don't be tempted to over roast the cauliflower as you'll loose the nice white colouring to the sauce.
  • Whilst your cauliflower is roasting, you can prepare the rest of the ingredients for the sauce. Heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Toss in the garlic and onion and cook for 2-4 minutes until the onion is nicely soft.
  • Increase the heat of the frying pan and pour in the white wine. Reduce the wine until it has all but disappears and just coats the bottom of the pan.
  • Now tip in the plain flour, mustard powder, white pepper and nutritional yeast. Stir the onion and garlic in the pan so that they are evenly coated in the spice mixture. Cook for a further minute.
  • Pour in the plant milk and bring the pan to the boil. Stir the onion mixture as the milk heats up so that there are no clumps of floury onions sticking to the bottom of the pan. Boil the mixture until it nicely thickens and can coat the back of a spoon. Remove the pan from the heat until required.
  • Once the cauliflower has roasted, place it, along with the white wine sauce into a blender. Whizz the mixture until smooth.
  • Pour the cauliflower sauce back into a large saucepan and bring it back up to heat. Remove from the stove and season to taste. Tip in the cooked pasta and chopped parsley and stir to combine. Serve immediately.

Hi i'm Hugo

I started Lowly to help more people discover sustainable food. Planet-friendly food doesn’t have to be bland and boring. My recipes celebrate how diverse and flavourful it truly is.

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