Healthy Alfredo Pasta

Who doesn’t love a creamy alfredo sauce? My kids love it, but traditional Alfredo sauces sure don't love us back - full of cream, dairy, and other inflammation-triggering ingredients. 

Well, this is a healthy version that tastes just as good (if not better, in our opinion!), creamy with plant protein, garlic goodness, healthy fats, and protein. 

​I use cashew to add some protein and healthy fats but you can substitute it with some cooked cauliflower or sunflower seeds if you have a nut allergy.

Hemp seeds are probably one of my favorite seeds – it is a great source of plant protein (containing all 9 of the essential amino acids, the ones that your body cannot synthesize), omega 3 and fiber (great for gut health!) It is expensive though, I buy mine at Costco.

I usually roast my garlic when I meal-prep for the week ahead with some root veggies, so during the week it literally only takes me 15-20 minutes to whip this deliciousness up. This is the most consuming step of the recipe as it usually takes 40 minutes to roast garlic :)

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup cashew soak in water for 4-6 hours or JOI cashew butter [affiliate code platefulhealth20]

• 1/2 cup hemp seeds

• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast

• 3 heads of garlic

• 1 tbsp sauerkraut (omit if you don't have any)

• 1/2 cup soy or almond milk 

• 1 tbsp white miso paste 

• pasta of choice 

Instructions

1. (If you haven't meal prepped roasted garlic) Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Slide about 1/2 inch off the top of the heads of garlic. Drizzle about 1tsp of olive oil over the tops, then wrap it in parchment paper (I prefer this to aluminum foil because I don't like Aluminimum in contact with my food)
3. Bake the heads of garlic in the oven for 40 minutes. 

4. Cook the pasta according to the instructions. 

5. When the garlic is done, take it out and leave it to cool. 
6. Squeeze the garlic cloves into a blender, and then add the hemp seeds, soaked cashews/or JOI cashew concentrate, sauerkraut, nutritional yeast, plant milk, miso. Blend until smooth.

7. Drain the cooked pasta and save 1/2 cup pastsa water.

8. Stir the pasta into the alfredo sauce. Add the pasta water to thin it out if it's too thick. 

9. if you wish, add some EVOO, salt and pepper to taste, and garnish with chopped parsley. 

Enjoy!