Recipe: Creamy Cauliflower Sauce (+ Video) (2024)

By Tiffany Published January 25, 2023 • Last Updated: January 25, 2023 33 Comments

This delicious recipe for Creamy Cauliflower Sauce is so easy, versatile, naturally gluten-free, and vegan-friendly. Use it in rice recipes, dairy-free mac and cheese, or pasta dishes like my recipe for pasta primavera.

Cauliflower seems to be all the rage nowadays…

Apparently, you can make just about anything with cauliflower.

• Cauliflower rice
• Pizza crusts
• Tortillas
• Cauliflower mashed potatoes
• Tater tots
• Breadsticks
• Hummus
• Muffins
• Even cauliflower brownies…

And I happily ignore them all because I. Hate. Cauliflower.

Then one day, while browsing a few of my favorite blogs, I stumbled across a recipe that used cauliflower as a sauce.

Again, I ignored it.

But my head couldn’t quite shake the idea of turning cauliflower into a sauce. I already hide beans and all sorts of odd vegetables in my spaghetti sauce, so the concept of hiding cauliflower wasn’t foreign.

In fact, it sounded kinda fun. An intriguing challenge in a way. I could take this awful vegetable, add some parmesan cheese and seasoning, and trick myself into thinking it was something delicious…

Which would be a feat considering I loathe the vegetable, remember?

Creamy Cauliflower Sauce

My first experiment was a garlic rice dish. I made the cauliflower sauce, mixed it up with fresh rice, and sprinkled it with dried garlic, salt, and black pepper. I added a little bit of shredded cheese too because cheese is awesome and cauliflower isn’t.

The end result was a creamy rice dish that could have been passed off as “cheesy rice,” except that it was cauliflower that gave it that texture and flavor, not cheese.

Cauliflower sauce tastes like cheese? Say what?!

Ok, so it’s not exactly like cheese. But it’s pretty close when you season it up and mix it with other stuff like nutritional yeast.

By itself, it tastes like pureed cauliflower. Not cheese. Just a heads up if you hate cauliflower too.

Now that I know the awesomeness of cauliflower disguised as cheese sauce, I’m always looking for ways to use it for dinner. Because eating more vegetables is a good thing. And cauliflower is CHEAP!

Here’s What You Need for Creamy Cauliflower Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 head of cauliflower

Supplies

• Steaming basket
• Blender or food processor

How to Make Creamy Cauliflower Sauce

With only one ingredient, this is the easiest recipe ever!

Step 1. Chop the cauliflower and stems.

Step 2. Steam for 5-10 minutes in a steaming basket.

Step 3. Puree cauliflower in a blender (like this one) or a food processor (like this one).

Step 4. Divide into 1 cup portions and freeze if not using immediately.

Recipe Tips

• In my opinion, it’s wise to make this sauce thick because you can always thin it out later with milk, vegetable broth, chicken stock, or water. By itself, this sauce is pretty bland, so expect to add seasonings of some sort, even if it’s just salt and pepper with a little olive oil.
• Don’t worry if you don’t have a steaming basket. Just bring a pot of water to a boil, add the cauliflower, lower to medium-low heat for 5-10 minutes, and remove with a slotted spoon. Voila!

White Cauliflower Sauce Questions

How to Use Creamy Cauliflower Sauce

The best part – each serving can be flavored to suit whatever you’re cooking. You can buy one head of cauliflower and potentially end up with different flavored meals:

• I use it as the base for my Pasta Primavera. A perfect way to eat up all those summer veggies!
• Roasted garlic, butter, salt, and pepper for roasted garlic cauliflower Alfredo sauce
• Garlic and dried Italian seasoning for Italian dishes
• Cumin and taco seasoning for Tex-Mex meals (make your own taco seasoning with this recipe!)
• Season with the dried herbs from this Greek salad dressing for a creamy Greek-inspired sauce

Think of all the dairy-free dishes you can make that usually call for heavy cream or lots of cheese – Now you can sneak in one cup of this creamy cauliflower sauce instead!

• cheddar cheese sauce for vegetables
• cheesy enchilada sauce
• white sauce on pizza
• macaroni and cheese
• cheese dip for nachos and vegetables
• in casseroles, quiches, frittatas or stratas

More Ways to Prepare Cauliflower & Veggies

• How to Freeze Cauliflower Rice
• Instant Pot Steamed Vegetables
• Rich and Creamy Mashed Cauliflower
• Carrot and Sweet Potato Fritters

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Watch How to Make Creamy Cauliflower Sauce

Creamy Cauliflower Sauce

Print Recipe

★★★★★4.8 from 6 reviews

This delicious recipe for Creamy Cauliflower Sauce is so easy, versatile, naturally gluten-free, and vegan-friendly. Use it in rice recipes, dairy-free mac and cheese, or pasta dishes like my recipe for pasta primavera.

• Author: Tiffany
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 10 minutes
• Total Time: 20 minutes
• Yield: 2–3 cups 1x
• Category: Sauces/Condiments
• Method: Blender
• Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale

• 1 head of cauliflower

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

1. Fill a large pot with water and bring it to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, chop the cauliflower into quarters. Chop off the florets and cut the stems into approximately 1″ pieces so that the cauliflower cooks uniformly.
3. Place chopped cauliflower into a steaming basket and steam for 5-10 minutes, until the stems can be easily poked through with a fork.
4. Remove cauliflower from the basket, and place it in a blender or food processor. Puree the cauliflower until it is smooth, adding water only if necessary.
5. Divide into one cup portions and freeze if not using immediately.

Notes

• In my opinion, it’s wise to make this sauce thick because you can always thin it out later with milk, vegetable broth, chicken stock, or water. By itself, this sauce is pretty bland, so expect to add seasonings of some sort, even if it’s just salt and pepper with a little olive oil.
• Don’t worry if you don’t have a steaming basket. Just bring a pot of water to a boil, add the cauliflower, lower to medium-low heat for 5-10 mins, and remove with a slotted spoon. Voila!

Nutrition

• Calories: 11

Keywords: creamy cauliflower sauce