Cauliflower Cheese Sauce

Do you believe this insanely delicious cheese sauce is all made from a vegetable! Cauliflower! Cauliflower cheese sauce is light, creamy, and cheesy, this sauce is deliciousness overload!

This sauce is unbelievable! It looks like cheese sauce and you can use it just like cheese sauce, use it in mac and cheese or any other pasta, pour it over roasted vegetables, use it to dip vegetables. It’s so good that you’ll go licking the spoon straight off. Ofcourse it’s healthy!

What Is Cauliflower Cheese Sauce?

It’s actually thick puree of cauliflower that can be used as cheese sauce in any dish. The sauce is all cauliflower, with some sauteed garlic and seasoning along with cheese (which is optional and you can totally skip it if you want to make it vegan. Also replace dairy milk with vegan almond milk or coconut cream for vegan option).

To put it in simple words – this sauce is creamy, cheesy, savory healthier version of Alfredo sauce. Easy to make with minimal ingredients.

Cauliflower is bland vegetable. You want to improve it’s taste with loads of flavoring agents and well seasoning. Cauliflower cream is definitely a healthy substitute for most popular Alfredo sauce or béchamel sauce. The texture of the cauliflower when cooked and pureed turns into this unbelievable creamy, cheesy texture!

Why Should You Make This Cauliflower Sauce?

• Why not?! Right! I mean cauliflower is one amazing vegetable that can be transformed into anything you want, anything! You can turn this humble vegetable into low-carb rice, make healthier low carb fried rice, looking for snack that’s low carb?, well you got cauliflower to rescue. Make low carb cauliflower bread sticks or simply make the creamiest soup without actually adding any cream!

• When you can so many things with cauliflower, why not make insanely delicious and healthy cheese sauce? The texture and bland taste of this humble vegetable gives you the opportunity to transform it into any types of food!

• Cheese sauce made from cauliflower is healthy. It’s got all the benefits of a cauliflower – great source of vitamin C, rich in fibre and loaded with micro nutrients!

• The sauce is light, and you can use it in everything – in pastas, over roasted vegetables, for dipping, use it in soups (for thickening and taste).

• It’s ridiculously easy to make your own version of cauliflower cream sauce.  All you have to do it break down cauliflower into smaller florets, cook until tender and blend with sauted garlic, seasoning and cheese!

Ingredients For The Sauce

Vegan –

If you want to make a vegan version of cauliflower cream, skip parmesan cheese, use almond milk with coconut cream instead of regular milk and butter with olive oil.

Seasoning –

Don’t skim on the seasoning.  Cauliflower on it’s own is bland and can be boring. You need to season it well and pack some flavors too. Butter sautéed garlic helps pack flavors.

Cheese –

You can totally skip it if you want. But highly recommend it. Parmesan enhances the taste of this cheese sauce, close to real thing!

How To Make (With Step-By-Step Pictorial)

• Rinse whole cauliflower head under tap water. Remove the green stem from cauliflower head and break cauliflower into small florets. Keep aside.

Note – make sure you have equal sized florets so they cook even.

• Melt butter in a pan. Add minced garlic and saute until garlic is fragrant. Do NOT brown garlic. You only want garlic to soften a bit and release it’s oil. Immediately remove pan from heat and set it aside.

Note – browned garlic will give bitter taste to the sauce. DO NOT BROWN IT.

• In a stock pot or large pot bring vegetable broth to boil.

• Add in cauliflower florets. Cook cauliflower in broth on medium heat for about 7 to 8 minutes or until florets are tender.

• Once soften cauliflower florets from the stock. Transfer to a blender.

• Add rest of the ingredients to the blender – sautéed garlic, salt, freshly ground pepper, milk and few tablespoons of hot broth in which cauliflower was cooked.

• Blend until smooth. You can blend the sauce into velvety smooth texture with Vitamix blender!

• Add in Parmesan cheese and some olive oil (it adds more flavor to the sauce) and blend again.

• Serve over your favorite pasta. Note – cauliflower sauce by itself will have the ‘cauliflowery’ taste. Stirring it with foods like pasta (mac n cheese), pouring over roasted broccoli or vegetables works better. You can even stir it in soups to enhance taste and as thickening agent!

How To Use Cauliflower Sauce

1. The best way to use this creamy sauce is to serve it with pasta. Mac and cheese with creamy cauliflower sauce is in so many ways healthier than your regular mac n cheese made with flour and loads and loads of cheese.

• This sauce can be poured over any roasted or steamed vegetables. Vegetables overload with deliciousness!

• It’s great as a creamy sauce in casseroles.

• Use it as pizza topping, you read it right.

• Stir in in soups, an healthy thickening agents for your soup!

Does It Taste Like Alfredo Sauce?

It may look very much like Alfredo sauce, but when it comes to taste it does have that pronounced cauliflower taste. No it doesn’t taste bad at all. In fact it tastes so good with sautéed garlic, seasoning like salt and pepper and cheesy definitely with Parmesan cheese, you won’t believe how good an healthy version of Alfredo sauce can taste!

This sauce is tried and approved by kids! They couldn’t tell that it was made of cauliflower. They simply devoured a bowl of mac n cheese made with cauliflower sauce.

How To Store Leftovers?

Got leftovers? Or want to make this sauce ahead? No problem. This sauce stores well for about a week when refrigerated. So chuck those leftovers in containers with lid on and store it in fridge. This gives you all reason to make this sauce ahead and store it and use it for few days in all your favorite food.

Cook’s Tips To Make The Best Cauliflower Cheese Sauce

1. Make sure all florets of cauliflower are same size. It helps cook evenly.
2. Do not brown garlic. You want to simply saute garlic in butter until it turns little soft and begin to release it’s oil. Browned garlic will taste bitter.
3. Cooking cauliflower in vegetable stock enhances the taste of the sauce.
4. Cheese is optional but highly recommended. It makes the sauce taste so much better and cheesy just like the real stuff. Very little cheese, oh it’s still healthy!
5. You can totally control the sauce consistency to what you like. If you want velvety smooth creamy texture use a high powered blender like vitamix or blendtec.
6. To make vegan version of cauliflower Alfredo sauce, replace butter with olive oil to saute garlic, replace milk with vegan friendly milk like almond milk, and ditch Parmesan cheese.

LOOKING FOR MORE SAUCE RECIPES? TRY THESE –

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Schezwan Sauce

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