Whole30, Keto, Nut-free, Egg-free, Freezer-friendly with Vegan option!
I adore getting veggies into a delicious sauce. It’s such an easy way to give a meal a veggie boost, in a creamy little package. Steamed cauliflower is also an excellent thickener for sauces. With a good high-powered blender (mine is a Vitamix), this sauce gets silky smooth and no one noticed it was loaded with veggies (it passed the boy test x5 – and they don’t like cauliflower!)
I love that there are so many fresh and frozen veggie noodle options that you can serve this with for a quick meal – my favorite are carrot (pictured) or sweet potato noodles. The frozen steam-in-a-bag carrot noodles I can find locally at my Walmart or Winco were a really simple option for this!
Don’t have chicken? It’s also delicious with sliced cooked sausage stirred in as well.
Need a vegan option? Leave out the chicken and serve over chickpea pasta (Banza is my favorite!) for a protein boost. So many options for this sauce!
Whole30 Chicken Cauliflower Alfredo
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup olive or avocado oil, divided
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 1" pieces
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
- 3/4 teaspoon pepper, divided
- 1/2 medium sweet onion, diced
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
- 3 cups fresh or frozen riced cauliflower
- 1 1/2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 cup full-fat canned coconut milk or other dairy-free milk of choice
- 4 cups of cooked noodles of choice zoodles, spiralized carrots or sweet potatoes for Whole30, or other GF pasta if not on Whole30
- Optional: 1 pound steamed broccoli I use steam in a bag freezer broccoli for this.
Instructions
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the cut chicken breast and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
- Cook chicken until lightly browned on the outside and no longer pink in the middle, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once cooked, set aside.
- In the same pan, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 1-2 minutes.
- Add the riced cauliflower to the saucepan and sprinkle with yeast, basil, remaining 1 t salt and 1/2 t pepper, and oregano. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and translucent, about 8-9 minutes.
- Transfer the onion cauliflower mixture to a blender, add coconut milk, and blend at a high speed until very smooth. This works best in a high powered blender to get this nice and silky smooth.
- Combine cooked chicken and sauce, stirring in steamed broccoli if desired, and serve over hot noodles of choice.
This was delicious! I definitely had my reservations, but it exceeded expectations!!!
I wonder if I could just add a whack of parmigiana to the recipe – I’m not DF but love the idea of a cauliflower-based sauce to replace all that butter and cream. Seems like it could be a good compromise. Nooch is good, but I think the combo of parm/nooch would be even better.
My kids loved this recipe! They had no idea there was cauliflower in it at all. So yummy and simple. I will be making this on a regular rotation.
WOOT WOOT! Undetectable veggies for the WIN! So happy your family enjoyed this one, thank you!