Healthy Cauliflower Alfredo

Hey everyone! I hope you are having an awesome Friday! I have been asked about the recipe I'm sharing today by quite a few different people... they can't believe that I made anything out of cauliflower that was even remotely edible. I guess my friends don't like cauliflower very much! Keep the faith and read on!

I posted a regular Alfredo Recipe about 8 months ago that I LOVED but the calories in it kill me. Seriously, that recipe probably has about 3500 calories or more in it.... yikes! This recipe has about 1000 in the whole dish (mostly from the pasta) so I can eat it guilt free! Not to mention, cauliflower is packed full of vitamins and minerals so it's really good for you!

This recipe is awesome, but it may take some convincing to get your guests to eat it. When I told the official taste tester what we were having for dinner he gave me a weird look and said, "Can I have a cheeseburger instead?" What a man of little faith! It's probably because of the time I told him we were having hamburgers and instead of meat I used a portabella mushroom. He was really grossed out and I think we ended up having Taco Bell that night. Whoops!

I can't take credit for this recipe, I got it from a blog called Pinch of Yum. The girl that runs this blog is a SAINT and her and her husband are working at an orphanage in the Philippines. Let's all try to be a little more altruistic in her honor shall we? I tweaked the recipe slightly because some of the ingredients in the Philippines are a little different than the ones here. I hope you enjoy (don't worry, you will)!

Ingredients:
-1 head of cauliflower
-6 cups vegetable broth
-minced garlic (I LOVE garlic so I used A LOT... original recipe calls for 6 cloves)
-1 Tbsp. Butter
-1 tsp. Salt (or you can eyeball it like I did)
-pinch of nutmeg
-pinch of black powder
-1 Tbsp. Olive oil
-1/4 cup heavy cream
-1 cup of starchy water from the water you use to boil your pasta
-package of linguine noodles (or your favorite kind!)

To start this recipe, cut your cauliflower up into pieces and boil in the vegetable broth for 20 minutes. The size of the cauliflower doesn't really matter to much, I just made my pieces the size of the cauliflower you see on veggie trays.

Next, put your boiled cauliflower in your blender with about 3 cups of the broth you boiled it in. The rest you can throw away (or give it to your dogs like I did). Blend your cauliflower and broth until the cauliflower is creamy just like Alfredo sauce. This took me about a minute because we have a really nice blender (Thanks Will & Kaci for the awesome wedding gift!), but it could take up to 5 minutes. When in doubt, blend a little longer because you don't want your sauce to be chunky.

Also, let me warn you, blended cauliflower smells ODD.... and by odd I mean bad. This further caused my hubby to turn up his nose, but trust me, once you move to the next step, the smell mostly goes away!

I forgot to take a picture of the cauliflower in the blender, but you can see a picture of it in the pan in a bit. It looks exactly the same.

After your cauliflower is blended, get your pasta boiling so it will be ready when you are done. While that's going, get a medium-large sauce pan, melt your butter, and saute your minced garlic for 3-4 minutes. Once your garlic is done, scrape it into your blender (keep your pan, you will be using it in a sec!) and add in your salt, nutmeg, black pepper, and olive oil. Blend it a little more to make sure everything is mixed.

Once smooth, add your cauliflower mixture back into the pan you used for your butter/garlic and cook over low heat (it still should be hot from boiling it). Add in your heavy cream and your starchy water from your pasta and cook over low heat until hot enough to serve.

 

This sauce may be a little darker than regular Alfredo, but it tastes just as good! Here are some pictures of the final product:

 

 

YUMMY! But now for the real test.... did the hubby like it?

Before trying it:

After trying it:

Isn't that face cute? I don't know why (eventhough I kinda do) he even doubted me! He actually said that he wouldn't have been able to tell the difference if he hadn't already known AND that he likes this recipe better than the other alfredo recipe I have. TAKE THAT TO THE BANK!

I hope you enjoy this awesome and healthy recipe!