Light and Healthy Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce

One of my favorite dishes ever is pasta with alfredo sauce. Or just alfredo sauce...with anything. Pasta, bread, a spoon...doesn't matter. Unfortunately, alfredo is not a light sauce usually. It's full of heavy cream and butter. Sooooo not health-friendly, until now!

I've seen so many recipes on Pinterest that incorporate cauliflower into the dish. I've tried cauliflower pizza crust, but that didn't turn out so well. I still wanted to see why so many pins are focused around cauliflower. That's when I found the recipe for cauliflower alfredo sauce. I figured, what the heck, I'll try it. Plus, my husband insisted he did not like cauliflower, so I wanted to see if he really did. I found the recipe from hungrycouplenyc that seemed to fit exactly what I wanted. I made a couple adjustments for dietary purposes, but other than that, I followed the recipe. I was glad I did! I took a normally stinky vegetable and turned it into a magnificent, creamy, delicious alfredo-style sauce that was devoured by both my husband and I!

Cauliflower alfredo sauce

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
4 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of butter
1 cup cooking liquid
1/2 cup milk
Parmesan cheese

Boil the cauliflower until cooked. While the cauliflower is boiling, sauté garlic in the butter until translucent. Reserve 1 cup of cooking liquid from cauliflower and add in 1/2 cup milk. Drain the cauliflower. Add in cauliflower, butter/garlic, and liquid to blender. Purée until smooth. Add Parmesan cheese and purée. If it's too thick, add some more milk.

1/2 cup serving = 2 WW PointsPlus

I was very surprised at how creamy the sauce turned out without heavy cream or copious amounts of butter. I had to stop myself from eating the whole bowl by itself! It's a very versatile sauce. For dinner, I used it as a sauce for a pasta dish. I combined whole wheat penne pasta, broccoli, mushrooms, and grilled chicken with 2 cups of the sauce. It was awesome! So awesome that my husband went back for a second serving, even after knowing he was eating cauliflower. 

Other uses for the sauce could be as a white sauce for pizza, the base for queso, or as an enchilada sauce when you add sour cream. I used lactose-free milk in this dish, but you could also use regular or unsweetened almond/soy/rice milk to fit your dietary needs. 

I see this being added into our meal rotation for a long time to come. Try it out for yourself!