Vegan Fettuccine Alfredo with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Fettuccine Alfredo is an Italian pasta dish that combines butter and parmesan cheese to create a creamy sauce.

We "veganized" this recipe so the whole family could enjoy it and it has become a favourite at home. It's creamy, nutty, packed full of yummy flavours and really nutritious. The perfect meal when you are looking for a hearty and simple recipe to please the whole family.

Sun-Dried tomatoes add a nice salty punch of tomato flavour to our Vegan Alfredo sauce. We live in Spain, and we get good quality, juicy tomatoes all year around. But the best tomatoes are the ones you can find during the summer months in local markets. During winter, we prefer using Sun-Dried tomatoes to still enjoy this delicious ingredient at its best.

At home, we love creamy sauces and knowing how good you can make a vegan creamy pasta, I would never go back to the heavy cream, butter or cheese sauces. To substitute the dairy ingredients, you can use a wide variety of products such as soy cream, oat cream, or any other plant-based milk or cream. To make our creamy sauces, we choose a homemade cashew cream using soaked cashews. It’s healthy, packed full of protein, easy to make and it gives your sauces such a delicious nutty flavour. Check our Butternut Squash Pasta or Vegan Creamy Mushroom Pasta for more vegan creamy pasta dishes using cashews.

How to make Vegan Fettuccine Alfredo with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Ingredients

Our recipe uses mostly pantry ingredients, which is perfect when you don't have loads of fresh ingredients waiting for you in the fridge!

Dried Fettuccine Pasta. Fettuccine is the perfect pasta to capture the creaminess of the sauce. When you finish your plate, no sauce should be left on it. If your sauce is sleeping down your pasta, that could mean that you chose the wrong type of pasta. Make sure to choose a vegan fettuccine if you want to make the dish 100% vegan, as some fettuccine pasta may contain egg.

Cashews. We use pre-soaked cashews to make the cream of our Alfredo sauce. Leave the cashews soaking overnight in room temperature water. You can leave the cashews soaking the same day, just make sure to use warm water so they will soften faster.

Yeast flakes or nutritional yeast. To give our sauce a cheesy touch, we use yeast flakes. We love adding yeast flakes when making pasta sauces as it’s a good source of vitamin B12 and gives your sauces a delicious cheesy flavour.

Sun-Dried Tomatoes. We use Oil-Packed Sun-Dried tomatoes. They can be added in the sauce straight from the jar as they don't need to be rehydrated. If you are using dry sun-dried tomatoes, you'll need to rehydrate them before adding them into the sauce. Just leave the tomatoes in warm water for a couple of minutes before using them.

Onion and garlic. To add flavour to our sauce, we use yellow onion and garlic as in most of our recipes.

Fresh basil. To finish the dish, we add some fresh basil. Pasta and pizza are just better with a bit of fresh basil or other aromatic herbs on the top! It adds flavour and a nice contract of colour.

Kitchenware

Hand blender or food processor. To prepare our creamy sauce, you'll need a good blender as the cashews need to be blend to a smooth consistency. We use our NutriBullet for this step but a good hand blender or food processor will work as good.

Pan or pot. To cook the sauce, we use our cast-iron pot or pan.

Step by Step Method

• Leave the cashews soaking overnight in room temperature water or in warm water for at least 20 minutes.
• Cook the pasta following the packet instructions. Save some pasta water to add at the end.
• Prepare the cashew cream. Drain the water from the cashews and rinse with some water. Transfer them into a blender and add 400g of water and the nutritional yeast. Blend for a couple of minutes until you have a smooth consistency.
• Finely chop a white/yellow onion. Crush or finely chop the garlic. Heat some oil in a pan or pot to medium heat and add the onion. When starts to soften, add the garlic and stir to combine the ingredients.
• After 3-4 minutes, slice and add the sun-dried tomatoes. Keep cooking for about 2-3 minutes and then add the cashew cream. Turn the heat down to low and let the sauce reduce for a couple of minutes. The sauce will thicken fast, so remove it from the heat when it reduces to the perfect consistency.
• Add the cooked pasta into the sauce and adjust by adding a little bit of pasta water to get the perfect creaminess.
• Sprinkle some finely chopped fresh basil on the top, and serve.

What can I use if I don't have Sun-dried tomatoes?

You can find Sun-Dried tomatoes in many supermarkets or online, but if you want to make this recipe and you don't have them at hand, there is still hope!

If you don't have sun-dried tomatoes, you can use can plum tomatoes, draining any excess of water. Chop them into small chunks and add them in the sauce.

Another option is to add tomato paste to still get that nice punch of tomato flavour without adding sun-dried tomatoes.

Serving Suggestions

Our Vegan Fettuccine Alfredo with Sun-Dried Tomatoes can be served as a main dish for lunch or dinner or even served in smaller portions as a first course.

We like serving this creamy dish with a green leafy salad to add freshness to the meal and some crusty bread to enjoy those last bits of sauce. Have a look at our Winter Salad with Broccoli and Pomegranate.

If you want to add some more ingredients to the dish, we strongly recommend adding pine nuts and Kalamata or other good quality black olives. Add some chilli oil or chilli on the top if you enjoy spicy food.

Keep any leftovers in the fridge for 1-2 days. Reheat in a pan or using a microwave.

How to make Vegan Fettuccine Alfredo Nut-free

We use cashew cream for our recipe, but we know that nuts represent an allergen problem for many people. As well, many schools won’t allow packed lunches containing nuts.

To make this Alfredo pasta nut-free, substitute the cashew cream for oat cream. We use it in many of our recipes and it works really good when making this sauce too.

If you tried our recipe, please leave a comment or tag us on Instagram. We are always happy to see your creations!