Creamy Double Pumpkin Alfredo Sauce (nut-free, dairy-free & oil-free)

Enjoy all of the pumpkin with this creamy, vegan-cheesy, double pumpkin cream sauce. Pumpkin seed cream and pureed pumpkin are blended together with savory onions, garlic, nutritional yeast, and sage to make a deliciously creamy, autumnal pasta sauce.

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Pumpkin seed cream + pumpkin puree = pure creamy double pumpkin bliss.

When fall began this year, I set out to create a uniquely creamy pumpkin sauce recipe using all different parts of the pumpkin. I’ve seen other vegan pumpkin alfredo sauce recipes which use pumpkin puree along with cashews or coconut milk to make it creamy, but I had never come across a recipe using pumpkin seeds to make the cream before, so I started experimenting.

To make this super easy to throw together, I used canned pumpkin puree and raw shelled pumpkin seeds. If you wanted, you could roast a whole pumpkin to make your own pumpkin puree and then individually remove the shells off each pumpkin seed until you completely lose your mind, but I don’t recommend going that route if at all possible. This time of the year, grocery stores tend to make the canned pumpkin puree easier to find, so take advantage of that and save yourself from a potential pumpkin-induced breakdown.

The pumpkin taste in this sauce is very subtle and the flavor that comes through the most is a rich cheesy flavor from the nutritional yeast and the miso paste. If you want to taste more of the pumpkin, you can reduce the amount nutritional yeast, but I prefer the cheesier version.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1/2 cup raw hulled pumpkin seeds or pepitas

• 1 1/2 cups water

• 1/2 cup yellow onion or shallot, diced

• 4 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 tsp fresh sage, minced, or 1/4 tsp dried

• 1 cup pureed pumpkin, canned will work well

• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast, or less if desired

• 3/4 - 1 tsp salt, or to taste

• 1/2 tsp white pepper

• 1 tsp white miso, optional

First, make the pumpkin seed cream by blending the pumpkin seeds with water until completely smooth. If you have a high speed blender there’s no need to soak the seeds, but if you have a regular blender, soak the pumpkin seeds overnight first to soften them. Once blended, set the blender with the pumpkin seed cream aside for a moment.

Next, sauté the chopped onions and garlic for about 7 minutes until browned. Stir in the sage, pumpkin puree, nutritional yeast, pumpkin seed cream, salt, and pepper. Simmer over medium low heat for another 5 minutes while slowly stirring everything together. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for a moment before pouring the contents of the pan back into the same blender. Add in a teaspoon of white miso paste (optional) and blend the sauce together until it is totally creamy and smooth, then pour over prepared pasta of choice. This makes about 27 oz of pasta sauce, or enough for 4-6 bowls of pasta. I keep mine in a jar in the fridge and use it all week.

I used whole wheat linguine, but you can use gluten-free noodles or any kind or shape pasta you’d like. It makes a great fall version of vegan mac and cheese as well!

This pumpkin alfredo sauce is a crowd-pleasing recipe that’s easy to make and perfect for pumpkin season. The pumpkin seed cream is a pale green color which makes the color of this sauce a bright almost lime-tinted yellow that is so vibrant and unique. I hope you enjoy this fall recipe as much as I do.

If you love creamy vegan-cheesy sauces, check out some of my other recipes-

• Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce

• Sweet Potato Mac and Cheese with Mushroom Bacon

• Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese

Leave a comment below if you try this out, I’d love to hear what you think of it!

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Creamy Double Pumpkin Fettuccine Alfredo (oil-free, nut-free, dairy-free)

Sweet Potato Breakfast Toast (SOS-free!)

Violet attempting to steal a strawberry

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Have you ever heard of slicing a sweet potato into bread slice shaped pieces and toasting it? I know It doesn't sound like it would be all that life changing, but ever since I started doing this I eat so many more sweet potatoes and way less bread than ever before! 

I still love a nice toasted slice of whole grain bread, and while bread certainly isn't bad for you, especially when whole grains are involved, bread is still a processed food and processed foods are almost always less healthy than plant foods in their whole, unprocessed form.

I've noticed that I don't feel my best when I eat too much bread or any other processed food and I don't have quite as much energy as when I eat whole foods like sweet potatoes. So for the past couple of weeks I've switched out toast or oatmeal in the morning for baked sweet potato slices and I feel better than ever and stay full for longer as well. I love choosing different combinations of toppings and find myself looking forward to breakfast more than any other meal of the day. 

While sweet potato toast won't replace your sandwich bread and the natural sweetness of the potatoes is sometimes questionable with savory toppings, I find it to be the perfect vehicle for sweet toppings like nut butters, dairy-free yogurt, berries, and other fruits. 

The sweet potato slices become perfectly crispy on the outside but the inside stays soft and gets super sweet.

With oatmeal, I always have to add a little maple syrup or coconut sugar, but I don't find that I need to add any sweetener to this breakfast besides fruit and it still tastes like a dessert. Actually this recipe is completely salt, oil, and sugar-free, aka SOS-free!

There are several ways in which you can make sweet potato toast, but however you make it, be sure to eat it right after it's been cooked. If it sits out for too long after you toast it, it will be a little soggy and floppy- not at all how the sweet potato toast experience is meant to be. They won't have that same quality that makes them so delicious unless you heat them back up again in the oven or toaster until crispy.

Luckily there are many options, even a make-ahead option, that will make sweet potato toast so quick and easy that it becomes your new favorite breakfast. 

Tips & Tricks

• When picking out sweet potatoes at the store, choose ones that are a bit wide and round. While long skinny potatoes will still work, I find that I can cram more toppings on a wider slice. 
• When it comes time to slice the potato, make sure the large knife you are using is freshly sharpened. Then slice off a very small piece of the potato in the spot where you want it to be balanced while you cut. This will give it some stability so the potato doesn't roll while you're cutting into it.
• Then, carefully slice it the long way into 1/4-1/2 inch thick slices. It's unlikely that all your pieces will be uniform in size and that's okay, just do your best and as long as they're somewhere near that size range you're good to go! 

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Cooking Options

Once you have your sweet potato sliced into 1/4-1/2 inch thick slices, there are a few different ways you can choose to make it into toast.

Here are a few that I've tried and tested-

Oven:

1. Preheat oven to 400℉.
2. Place slices on a wire rack or on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 20-22 minutes until the slices are lightly golden on the outside and the edges are just starting to brown. Flip them over halfway through cooking time for slightly more even crisping. Enjoy right away.

Air-fryer:

This is my favorite way to make sweet potato toast because there's no waiting for the oven to preheat and I don't even have to flip the slices over because the air fryer does such an amazingly even cooking job.

1. Place the raw sweet potato slices in the air fryer basket and cook for 18-20 minutes 390℉ or whatever setting your air fryer has for potatoes/fries. 
2. Add toppings and serve immediately after they come out of the air fryer. 

Toaster or Toaster Oven:

Yes, believe it or not you actually can put raw sweet potato in the toaster to make sweet potato toast, but it's probably not the most efficient way to do it. You would have to stand at the toaster for a long time while you keep checking on it to make sure it doesn't burn and end up putting it through a toast cycle several times before it's done.

This might not be the best thing for your toaster too as sweet potatoes can get a little sticky sometimes. So if you do want to try this method, it's best to cook the sweet potatoes in the oven first, then store them in the fridge and toss them in the toaster or toaster oven right before you eat them. 

1. Preheat oven to 400℉.
2. Place slices on a wire rack or on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender but not fully cooked.
3. Remove pan from oven and allow potatoes to cool completely before transferring to storage container. Store in the fridge for up to 5 days.
4. When you want sweet potato toast, grab a precooked slice from the fridge and put it in your toaster or toaster oven until it's crispy and golden on the outside, then enjoy right away. 

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My Favorite Toppings

• Nut or seed butter- (pecan, walnut, almond, cashew, sunflower etc.) I like to buy raw nuts in bulk and make nut butter myself in the food processor and always have a jar of it in the fridge. 
• Dairy-free yogurt- ideally sugar-free, unsweetened, minimal ingredients. My favorite brand is Forager cashew yogurt, but coconut or almond yogurt can be great as well! 
• Hemp seeds or ground flax seeds- I add these in for omega 3s when I'm using any nut butter that is high in omega 6, such as pecan, almond and cashew. When I make walnut butter which is super high in omega-3s I leave the omega-ratio-balancing seeds off.
• Bananas- available all year & perfect for when other fruits are out of season
• Berries- blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, etc.
• Other seasonal fruit- figs, plums, peaches, etc. 
• Cinnamon- cloves and nutmeg also pair well with certain fruits like apples and pears

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If you decide to try making sweet potato toast, let me know what you think of it and also what cooking method and toppings you chose to use! ☼