A creamy, tasty treat for any pasta you make!

Pasta is an easy, comforting dinner choice for any night of the week. Add a little butter, salt, and pepper to keep it simple. Otherwise, choose from many different toppings like Aioli, Marinara, Cheese Sauce, or Pesto. But if you want something different, this Vegan Garlic Alfredo is it!

`It has a creamy garlic flavor with bright notes from the lemon zest and the fresh parsley. It pairs so well with any vegetable you have alongside it on your dinner plate, too. It’s also good with sautéed mushrooms mixed in.

The ingredients are basic and easy to find, and the recipe comes together quickly. While boiling water for pasta, you can make this sauce and have it ready quickly!

Here are the pictorial steps for a visual walk-through:

Add 1 1/2 cups diced onions and 4 minced cloves of garlic to 1 cup vegetable broth. Cook on medium heat until the liquid is evaporated. It takes about 8 to 12 minutes.

Assemble all the rest of the Alfredo ingredients and start boiling a large pot of water for the pasta. Any pasta works. Shown in this recipe with fettuccine.

Don’t forget to zest your lemon before squeezing it!

Perfect! The onions and garlic are done!

Now blend it all on high speed for a couple of minutes until smooth and creamy.

Drain the pasta, blend in the sauce, and garnish with parsley, lemon zest, salt, and pepper.
MMmmmm, So good!

thehamptonsvegan

Vegan Garlic Alfredo Sauce

A creamy, garlicy, delicious sauce for any pasta you have.

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Prep Time 15

Cook Time 10

Total Time 25

Servings: 4

Course: dinner

Cuisine: Italian, vegan

Ingredients Equipment Method

Ingredients

1 !/2 cups diced onions
4 cloves minced garlic
2 cups vegetable broth, separated in 1/2
1/2 cup raw cashews
5 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (about 1/2 of a lemon) (Zest lemon before juicing)
zest from lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
8 – 12 ounces pasta of choice (I used fettucine)
1/4 – 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Equipment

high speed blender

Method

Add diced onions and minced garlic to a medium sized saucepan with 1 cup of the broth. Cook over medium heat until all liquid has been cooked off. (About 8 – 15 minutes.)
While onions and garlic are cooking, set a large pot of water on stove and bring to a boil.
While water comes to a boil and onions and garlic are cooking, add cashews, 1 cup broth, nutritional yeast, lemon juice and salt and pepper to blender jar.
When water is boiling cook pasta according to directions on box.
When onions and garlic are finished cooking, add them straight into the blender with the other ingredients and leave it there until pasta has cooked and then drained.
Now, blend ingredients in the blender for a couple minutes until everything is smooth and creamy. Put pasta back into it's cooking pot and pour the sauce over it, gently folding it all together.
Garnish with fresh parsley and lemon zest, and more salt and pepper to taste.

So many uses for Pesto!

Jump to Recipe

basil leaves — It all began with a little basil.

pesto ingredients — Then basil and their friends get together.

Pesto is one of those necessary recipes that everyone needs to have. And this recipe is also vegan. Plus, it can be frozen for a quick dinner.

It’s wonderful to mix into pasta or to add another level of flavor to your food. Or mix it into your vegan mayo for a great sandwich spread. Also, it gives a depth of character mixed into your vegan ricotta recipes. And my favorite way to indulge my pesto urges is in Pesto Pasta Primavera.

I usually just chop up some carrots, some broccoli, and whatever other veggies I have on hand. Maybe I’ll use brussel sprouts, red peppers, or zucchini. Then I roast those in the oven while boiling penne or farfalle pasta on the stove. Of course, any type of pasta will do!

Sometimes I might sauté onions and mushrooms in a skillet, as well! Then I take out my freezer stash of the green goodness, mix in a couple of tablespoons of the pasta cooking water, and mix that into my cooked pasta.

Add that to your dinner plate surrounded with all the veggies and you too can enjoy an easy dinner of Pesto Pasta Primavera!

Pesto all year!

There’s just something about pesto that makes it feel like a spring or summer day. Maybe it’s the bright green color or perhaps it’s the basil scent. But it’s great not only to eat this when basil is abundant in the spring and summer months but also when all the leaves are off the trees and the grass has turned to brown.

The long dark cold days of winter need a burst of vivid green! And we need to taste and smell the aroma of plants long past gone. So thank you, freezer, for bringing me a connection to the seasons that I miss when they’re gone (aka summer), by keeping my pesto for me! And thank you, blender, for helping me mix this little taste of plant life happiness into my favorite green sauce whenever I want. So three cheers for Posh Pesto! Wait, actually, four cheers!! One for each season of the year to eat this treat! Oh yeah.

Oh the Possibilities

I’ve read many an article about this green sauce. (Yeah, I sound like a pesto-nerd, I know) But the point is, there are plenty of possibilities! According to Cooks Illustrated, bruising the basil leaves, either with a mortar and pestle or with a rolling pin inside of a gallon plastic bag, imparts a bigger basil taste. Tried this and I’m not sure I tasted the difference. Also, I think the bruising contributed to a less green outcome. Probably won’t do this tip again! (And why the gallon plastic bag, anyway?)

Cook’s Illustrated also recommends blanching the basil leaves to preserve the bright green color. They say 30 seconds in boiling water, then remove and dry. Another site recommends only 5 seconds in boiling water, then plunging into an ice water bath. Haven’t tried this one as one of the reviewers said the flavor was lost.

Ina Garten (fellow Hamptonite!)’s tip to store basil is to rinse the basil leaves in water, spin them dry, then store them in a plastic bag with a damp paper towel in the fridge to help them stay green for several days.

I’ve also heard, to store basil, treat it like a flower by placing it in a jar of water and covering it with a plastic bag over the top to act as a greenhouse effect.

Posh Pesto Please!

There is a bundle of basil advice and a plethora of pesto possibilities swirling around out there so we hope you give our recipe a try. And let us know how it goes!

Best basil wishes for all your pesto pursuits!

It sits atop our Elegant Eggplant Parmesan

vegan eggplant parmesan — Elegant Eggplant Parmesan made vegan

we often add it to our Lovely Luscious Vegan Lasagna

view of magnificent marinara sauce in the lovely luscious vegan lasagna — Lovely Luscious Vegan Lasagna

and it gives a nice addition to the flavor of Ricotta Replica, too!

And how about a little Posh Pesto mixed into our Pilaf recipe?! Yum!