Creamy Cauliflower Pine Nut Sauce

This Creamy Cauliflower Pine Nut Sauce is perfect for pastas and pizza sauce! Super simple, quick and versatile. We were in the mood for pasta, but didn’t want another cashew based sauce. We wanted to be more creative than using nuts. Knowing we had a huge cauliflower head in the fridge we decided to experiment and make this amazing sauce!

How to Steam Cauliflower

This recipe calls for steamed cauliflower. If you have raw, uncooked cauliflower handy it’s best to cut the cauliflower head into smaller pieces. Be sure to remove the thickest parts of the stem.

Add the cauliflower to a large pot with about 2 tablespoons of water. After, set at medium heat and cover the pot with a lid. This will allow the water to turn to steam and cook the cauliflower. Be sure to mix the cauliflower once in a while, to prevent it from burning when the water gets low.

To tell when the cauliflower is ready, stick a fork through the cauliflower/ stem. If the fork passes through easily then the cauliflower is cooked. If not, feel free to add more water to the pot and steam longer.

Using Frozen Cauliflower

Most frozen cauliflower has already been steamed. Allow the cauliflower to thaw by placing it in a pot with light amounts of water, and allow the vegetable to defrost. Then it will be ready for use.

How to Toast Pine Nuts

Using only 7 ingredients (not including salt and pepper), this sauce can be whipped up in less than 20 minutes.

An important thing to note, pine nuts taste wayyyy better when toasted.
Pine nuts contain lots of oil and have a low smoking point. Meaning that it’s really easy to burn pine nuts. Which is unfortunate because they can be pretty expensive.

For this recipe we use a dry skillet and toast the nuts using a medium low heat. This should only take about 3 minutes.

It’s important to look for the golden brown color to know when they are done toasting.

The pine nuts can also be left raw if desired. This may have a slightly more bitter taste, but will provide more nutritious benefits.

Substitutions

This recipe can be nut free. Simply remove the pine nuts, and you’ve still got an amazing creamy, white sauce.

This sauce was made specifically with pasta in mind. If you get creative and use this sauce for something other than pasta, lettuce know!

If you’re liked this creamy cauliflower pine nut sauce, check out our pasta sauce recipes below!

If you tried one of our recipes or found our articles helpful, let us know in the comments below how it turned out!

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Peace,
Luna & Nate

Creamy Cauliflower Pine Nut Sauce

Recipe by Cooking Up Vegan Course: SidesCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

9

servings

Prep time

5

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Total time

25

minutes

Creamy dairy-free garlicky cauliflower sauce great for pasta, vegetables, and pizza.

Ingredients

• 240 g 240 Small White Onion, Diced

• 4 Cups 4 Cauliflower, Steamed

• 2 Tbsp 2 Vegan Butter

• 1/4 Cup 1/4 Pine Nuts

• 1 tsp 1 Salt

• 4 Cloves 4 Garlic, Minced

• 2 Cups 2 Vegetable Broth

• 1 tsp 1 Salt

• TT to taste TT Pepper

Directions

• Begin by adding the pine nuts to a medium sized saucepan, and toast on medium low heat for about 3 minutes. The pine nuts should turn golden. Once toasted, remove the pine nuts and set aside.
• Using the same warm medium sized saucepan, add the vegan butter. Once the butter has begun to melt, add in the diced onion, minced garlic and toasted pine nuts. Cook on medium low heat, until the onions become translucent. Be sure to mix frequently to avoid burning the pine nuts.
• At this point, it’s time to mix in the steamed cauliflower and vegetable broth. Allow the mixture to cook for another 2 minutes.
• Add the mixture to a high speed blender and blend on high until smooth.
• Then season the mixture, now is the time to add additional salt and pepper if needed.
• There you have it! A delicious and easy, Creamy Cauliflower Pine Nut Sauce!

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