Friends, are you ready for some next-level alfredo pasta? I know – who isn’t? Let’s do this!
The base and inspiration for this recipe is sweet potato noodles!
I’ve only shared a few veggie noodle pastas on the blog (Carrot Noodle Chickpea Bolognese, Zucchini Pasta with Lentil Sauce and Noodle-Free Pad Thai). But, because it’s summer and I’ve found myself in an abundance of zucchini and potatoes, it seemed like the right time to share another “pasta-free” pasta dish!
This recipe is easy to make, requiring just 8 ingredients and simple methods to prepare.
The base is spiralized sweet potato noodles, which cook up quickly until tender and provide the perfect amount of sweetness to offset the garlicky, cheesy cashew alfredo sauce.
This garlicky alfredo sauce is on point! Cashews blend with both roasted and raw garlic (a trick I perfected in my Best Ever Vegan Mac ‘n’ Cheese recipe), nutritional yeast, salt, and almond milk. Arrowroot adds a little more thickness to the sauce but isn’t necessary.
Yes, that’s it! So easy and so creamy, garlicky, and delicious. Look at that thickness though!
I hope you all LOVE this veggie noodle pasta. It’s:
Garlicky
Creamy
Savory-sweet
Satisfying
Versatile
& Insanely delicious
This would make the perfect weeknight meal when you’re craving something healthy but satisfying. To quicken the process, you can also roast your garlic and soak your cashews ahead of time, which would make this more of a 20-minute recipe!
If you aren’t into sweet potatoes, you could sub other veggie noodles such as zucchini or your favorite gluten-free pasta. And if you’re into pasta, be sure to check out our Spicy Red Lentil Pasta, Chickpea Bolognese, Garlicky White Wine Pasta with Brussels Sprouts, Eggplant Lasagna Roll-Ups, and Roasted Red Pepper Pasta.
If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo #minimalistbaker on Instagram. Cheers, friends!
- 1 cup (120 g) raw cashews
- 1 whole head garlic (for roasting // see instructions)
- 2 cloves raw garlic (omit for less garlicky flavor)
- 4-5 Tbsp (12-15 g) nutritional yeast
- 1/2 tsp sea salt, plus more for roasting garlic
- 2 tsp arrowroot starch (or cornstarch) // for thickening
- 1 1/2 - 2 cups (360-480 ml) unsweetened plain almond or rice milk, + more as needed
- optional: pinch red pepper flake (omit for less spicy)
- 3 large or 4 small-medium sweet potatoes (~525 g // organic when possible, peeled and spiralized)
- 1-2 Tbsp (15-30 ml) coconut or avocado oil (if avoiding oil, sub water // plus more for garlic)
- Pinch sea salt
- Fresh chopped parsley
- Sautéed kale or Kale Chips
- Crispy chickpeas (store bought or DIY)
- Vegan Parmesan Cheese
- Red pepper flake
- Add cashews to a small mixing bowl and cover with very hot water to soak for 1 hour. Then drain thoroughly and set aside (or soak overnight or 6-8 hours in cool water).
- In the meantime, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (204 C) and slice off the very top of your whole head of garlic. Place on a piece of foil, drizzle with oil (optional) and a pinch of salt and loosely wrap. Bake directly on the oven rack for 45 minutes - 1 hour or until fragrant, tender, and slightly golden brown. Then remove from oven to let cool.
- If serving with kale chips or sautéed kale, prepare now and set aside until serving.
- While cashews finish soaking, peel and spiralize potatoes using a veggie spiralizer on the thinnest blade, or if you don't own a spiralizer, you can use a vegetable peeler or julienne peeler instead. Set aside.
- Add soaked and drained cashews to a high-speed blender as well as roasted garlic. To extract garlic cloves, squeeze from the base upwards and the softened cloves should easily slide out. Then add remaining ingredients: fresh garlic (omit or reduce if you don't like a strong garlic flavor), nutritional yeast, salt, arrowroot starch, and 1 1/2 cups (360 ml) almond or rice milk.
- Blend on high until creamy and smooth, scraping down sides as needed. Taste and adjust flavor as needed, adding more fresh garlic for zing/kick, nutritional yeast for "cheesiness," salt for saltiness, or a pinch of red pepper flake (optional) for heat. The sauce should be creamy, smooth, and pourable. If too thick, thin with a bit more almond milk (I used 2 cups (480 ml)).
- Transfer sauce to a large, rimmed pan or pot and heat over medium-low heat until it just starts to bubble. Whisk as it heats, as it will thicken. Once bubbling reduce heat to low and simmer to keep warm. The sauce will thicken, so thin with more almond or rice milk as needed.
- Heat a separate large rimmed skillet or pot over medium heat. Once hot, add 1-2 Tbsp oil (or water) and add potato noodles. Season with a pinch of salt and toss with tongs to coat. Cover to let steam. I added a couple of Tablespoons of water to my pan to help them steam. But be careful not to add too much or it can make the noodles soggy. You need just a little moisture to help them soften. Continue cooking, gently tossing occasionally until tender.
- Add your sweet potatoes to your sauce and gently toss to combine. If adding kale or other add-ins, add at this time.
- Serve as is or garnish with fresh parsley, crispy chickpeas, kale chips, vegan parmesan, or red pepper flake.
- This dish is best when fresh, as the noodles tend to get soggy after reheating, but the flavor is still delicious! If storing for later, I recommend keeping kale and other toppings separate. Will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days. Reheat on the stovetop or microwave.
*I prefer the above linked spiralizer by Inspiralized. But this Spiralizer looks great, too!
This looks great! My husband kicked the carbs out of his life, so we don’t really eat pasta anymore. Love to make food outside the box! The use of veggies as pasta feels like clean eating, with extra veg and yummy sauce to go bathe it in! Mmm… Gotta LOVE it!
I really appreciate your blog and for being a go to reference for the nights that I have no idea what to cook. Thank you for all your efforts!
So kind – thanks Jeanne!
Sorry, but sweet potatoes are full of carbs!
Thanks! I’ll just sub zucchini/yellow squash. It’s a new path for us.
This looks amazing! I totally need to try this the next time we have sweet potatoes in the house!
Paige
These noodles are an incredible idea as I hate pasta but what can I substitute nuts with??
It wouldn’t be exactly the same, but I think northern beans would work to replace the cashews. Use canned and skip the soaking process.
You can try something more like my traditional mac n cheese sauce! https://minimalistbaker.com/best-vegan-gluten-free-mac-n-cheese/
Great recipie! Is there a spiralizer yoi prefer/recommend?
Thanks!
I link to two above!
If I only have roasted unsalted cashews, will they still work?
I’m not sure, but I only always use raw.
Yes, that will work as well.
Can’t wait to try this!! Thank you for all your great recipes. I’m currently hooked on your quinoa taco meat! I’ve made 2 batches this week! No more veggie ground beef from Trader Joe’s for me😉
Spiralized sweet potatoes are wonderful, but I have a feeling that this cashew sauce would be delicious on anything. Heck, I’m tempted to just throw it on a salad when it gets to hot to turn on the stove!
What if ok don’t have a spiralizer!
😭😥
Ideas?
Vegetable peeler!
Yay! Yes!
Thank you!
This looks wonderful!! Will cows milk work fine, as well? Thanks!!
I think so, yes.
Hi! Love your page and have made so many of your recipes. If I wanted to use actual cheese, could I just omit the nutritional yeast?
I would still add it for flavor, personally. But let me know what you try!
How do these hold up as leftovers? Wondering if I could make them tonight and pack leftovers for my kid’s lunch tomorrow.
Hi Dana, first of all compliments for all your recipes, I litterally adore all of them. Unfortunately, only English speakers have the chance to enjoy them and I know for sure that many Italians would be more than willing to try them. I’d like to open the doors of your kitchen to my compatriota so I’d like to translate them into Italian, for free of course! If you think the idea might like you, let me know how to contact you.
The whole family (even the baby!) LOVED this! Yum yum!!
Thanks Meagan! So glad you enjoyed it. Next time can you please leave a rating? It’s super helpful for us and other readers!
I made this tonight and just a heads up it has a REALLY overpowering garlic flavor if you use the full head + 2 cloves. If I were to make it again, I would only use 2 cloves total I think. I like garlic but this was too much for me!
Thanks for the feedback, Cat. Did you roast the full head of garlic as I suggested?
Roasting garlic definitely takes the edge off of the garlic flavor and makes it sweeter, which is why I still added two cloves fresh garlic to the sauce. The end result was delicious, and the flavor wasn’t overwhelming for me for me.
Also, I called this recipe “Garlicky” Sweet Potato Noodle Pasta to best communicate the flavor. Perhaps next time – as you suggested – reducing the raw or roasted garlic would be helpful for you.
Made this recipe tonight, it was soooo delicious. We only put 4 cloves of garlic and it was garlic-y enough for us!!
Thanks Camilia! So glad you enjoyed it. Next time can you please leave a rating? It’s super helpful for us and other readers!
Whoa, was this lick-the-bowl good! I used a whole head of roasted garlic (yum) and that was plenty delish for us. My only regret was not roasting the kale beforehand…by the time I taste-tested the sauce I just couldn’t wait.
Lovely! Thanks for sharing, Susan! xoxo
WHAT THE HECK DID I JUST EAT?
This recipe has single-handedly convinced me that I can handle going “healthy” – this is THE MOST DELICIOUS THING I’ve had in forever!! I cannot believe how stupid addictive this is, I’m actually considering making an entire second plate! Thank you so much for this recipe, you seriously might have just changed my life, I’m so excited to try more of your recipes!
Yay yay! Thanks for sharing, Anon! xoxo
I can’t believe you made a recipe tailored for my tastes personally! So thoughtful! ;)
Actually though I have a question – I don’t have a spiraliser, but for your chickpea bolognese recipe, the carrot noodles are done by long peels. Do you think that strategy would work well here? So penciling this in next time sweet potatoes are on sale!
Oops, never mind, you suggest as much in the recipe! Will let you know how this goes! :D
I recently stalked up on roasted lightly salted cashews. Would this work or should I stick with raw cashews for the sauce?
Hi! You need raw cashews for this recipe!
I absolutely love the sound of this recipe and can’t wait to try it! You are absolutely my number one, most favorite vegan blogger of all. I love your creative, delicious, recipes and how quick and easy they are to put together. Thank you for sharing your talents!
Very good. Different. The sauce is out of this world. I find sweet potatoes to be a bit too sweet, so the kale and spicy garbanzos help balance that.
I am drooling!! We are moving and my Vitamix is in a storage box until we can move into our house… Our temporary corporate housing’s kitchen supplies are *a-hem* limited to say the least. So alas, it will have to wait:( But I am pinning this to make asap!!! YUM!
I decided to finally buy a spiralizer because I had to try this! So good! It was also my first time roasting garlic, and I thought the flavors were perfect.
Don’t have nutritional yeast…any creative substitutes I could try?
Hi! There really isn’t an alternative so you can just leave it out!
Unfortunately we found this recipe to be way too garlicky – maybe I should’ve left out the fresh garlic. I also had some problems with getting the sweet potato noodles “al dente”. Some noodles ended up too firm and some were too soft…
Nutritional yeast alternative?
Hi! There really isn’t an alternative so you can just leave it out!
Loved this recipe! I didn’t have raw cashews laying around so I ended up using raw walnuts and soaking them instead. Probably a different flavor, but tasted pretty good!
Made this last night and thought it was really good. Omitted the raw garlic per the reviews and missed having it there, haha. Next time I’ll make it before tweaking it as I should have!
Hi ! I’m roasting the garlic now and will make for dinner tonight. How do I store the garlic until tonight ???? Refrigerator??? Keep in foil? Or pop the garlic out and then store in frodge ?
Wow, wow, wow. Just made this. I’m actually peaking right now, so I’m writing from a cloud. And I’m soo, sooo high from the flavor and this PERFECT combination of the right stuff. Thank you so kindly! I can’t even!
My partner and I are both plant-based educators, and recommend your site so much because it’s truly a rare gem. We’re so grateful to have you as an adjunct teacher! You have made best use of the opportunity to reach out the masses. Many, many blessings!
With so much love and gratitude, from a fluffly blue cloud,
Jhon
This is a wonderful recipe, Dana! I’m a garlic lover, so this sauce was right on the money for me. It’s inspired me to incorporate more roasted garlic in my cooking. I don’t have a vegetable spiralizer, so I just chopped up sweet potato and roasted it in the oven along with the chickpeas.
Thank you for your innovation. This is truly the BEST SAUCE EVER!
OMG, the sauce is to die for! It is SUPER ULTRA GARLICKY if you use all of the garlic — my mom and I both LOVED it, but we’re the kind of people who chop up raw garlic and eat it on toast, if that tells you anything. Normal humans might omit the two raw cloves. Love the method of roasting the whole head though; it was super easy and came out so fragrant and yummy. I’ve never done sweet potato noodles before — the sweet potato flavor was a bit overpowering for me. Might make more sauce next time, or just put it on regular noodles. But, there will definitely be a next time for this sauce…
I have a questions. It says 4-5tbsp of yeast but 1 tbsp is already 12 grams. I reckon it’s meant to be 4-5 tsp? Thanks in advance
It’s tbsp. The yeast is a big component of the sauce because it adds the cheesy flavor.
Yet another way to enjoy sweet potatoes – you’re amazing! Need to try this pan steaming method ;) thanks girl. Hope you two are having a blast in Iceland! xx
This was just as delicious as you promised! I added broccoli to the mix (because that’s what I had on hand) and we really liked it! I think I should have started the broccoli first instead of putting it in at the same time as the potatoes – it took a little longer to cook and so the noodles were a bit mushy, but still yummy.
QUESTION: we had extra sauce – I refrigerated it – do you think it will keep? Is there another recipe you use it with? I have some ideas, but just asking.
I am a new fan of your blog and thank you so much for all you do to make it easy and enticing to cook vegan/vegetarian meals!
Hi Mary! The sauce should keep, you could try the sauce on other pastas!
Hi Dana,
The recipe looks great. Can’t wait to try. I was wondering if you had ever experimented with kelp noodles. I had an amazing dish with them at a restaurant in Miami, with a cashew peppercorn sauce. I would love to see your take on kelp noodles!
For those Canadians out there, I believe the use of “Sweet Potato” here is actually our “Yams”. Depending on where you haul from, the Food Market industry changes the names of these “vegetables” all the time.
We have only recently removed meat from our diets and stared trying new recipes– this one was a success! We love the fajita and stuffed pepper recipe from Minimalist Baker but this is a whole new flavor and a great addition to our meals! We were worried about the garlic– it wasn’t too much for us and was a great “zing” flavor.
I loved the flavor. We like garlic so I doubled the roasted garlic. We used zucchini noodles instead of sweet potatoes. I added 1-2 tbls lemon juice to the sauce (thought it needed the acid). I also stirred in a few handfuls of fresh spinach which wilted and a large container of roasted baby heirloom tomatoes
Made this tonight and loved it! One question: how long did you steam your sweet potato noodles? I did mine too long I assume because they shrunk quite a bit and started falling apart – no longer the beautiful spirals the spiralizer made – but I felt before they weren’t really “tender.” Maybe I should’ve done chunkier spirals?
Thanks!