Better Than Olive Garden 5-Ingredient Vegan Fettuccine Alfredo

When I was a kid, I was entirely obsessed with fettuccine alfredo. I was a pretty picky eater, so a creamy, saucy, salty, pasta dish was right up my alley. Even further, my town didn't have an Olive Garden, so I really loved their alfredo -- mostly because I could only get it on special occasions!

Vegan alfredo recipes often require soaking and blending cashews, which is delicious, but very time-consuming and complicated. This recipe has no blending required, no "weird" ingredients, and the sauce only uses one pan!

What You'll Need:

• Fettuccine or Tagliatelle Pasta
• Unsweetened Almond Milk
• All-purpose Flour
• Vegan Butter
• Minced Garlic
• Salt, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, and Chopped Parsley

How to Make Vegan Fettuccine Alfredo

This recipe is so easy it's shocking!

First, Begin Making the Alfredo Sauce

In a large pan, melt 1 tablespoon of vegan butter. Add 1 tablespoon of minced garlic to the vegan butter and cook until it becomes fragrant.

Once garlic is fragrant and toasty, sprinkle in 1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour. Using a whisk, combine it with the garlic and butter. It will become clumpy.

Slowly add in 1 cup of almond milk. Whisk with the flour mixture and then the sauce reduce until it becomes thick. 10-15 minutes.

Next, Boil The Pasta

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Be sure to heavily salt the water. Add your pasta of choice and stir until pasta is al dente, aka almost cooked through, but a tiny bit crunchy in the middle.

Using tongs or a pasta spoon, take the pasta directly from the pot of water and add it to the reduced sauce. Do not drain the pasta.

Stir the pasta into the sauce and add 2-3 more ladles of the salty, starchy pasta water. Turn the heat up and stir continuously until the noodles finish cooking and the sauce is thick.

Finally, Finish the Fettuccine Alfredo

Season the pasta in the sauce with salt, garlic powder, and onion powder to your liking. Don't be afraid to salt heavily. Traditional Alfredo gets a lot of saltiness from the cheeses used. We aren't using cheese so add more salt!

Add 1 tablespoon of vegan butter to the completed pasta and stir until melted.

Plate your pasta and garnish with fresh chopped parsley!

Ingredient Substitutions

This recipe is more for the sauce than it is for the pasta, so feel free to use any pasta you'd like to! All shapes will work, and gluten-free pasta works as well. You could even be really ambitious and make your own fettuccine at home using my fresh pasta recipe, just omit the beet powder. 🙂

If you don't have almond milk, any type of non-dairy milk will work great, just make sure that it is unsweetened and unflavored.

In place of the flour for the roux, you can create a cornstarch slurry. To do this, skip the step of adding flour and jump right to adding the milk. In a separate bowl or measuring cup, mix ½ tablespoon of cornstarch with 2-3 tablespoons of warm water. Whisk together until no clumps form and add this to the sauce. Once the sauce reaches a boiling point, the cornstarch will dramatically thicken the sauce.