Comforting and healthy, this creamy gigli pasta with broccoli and vegan white sauce hits the spot. Cauliflower and cashews blend together to make a lighter dairy-free, oil-free alfredo pasta sauce. The curly gigli pasta and broccoli florets hold onto the sauce, in this delicious Italian-inspired plant-based dinner.
Total Time45 minutesmins
Course: Pasta
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: gigli pasta with broccoli and vegan white sauce
Add cauliflower to medium saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Add cashews and garlic and gently boil until the cauliflower is fork tender.
1 whole head of cauliflower, ½ cup raw cashews, 2-3 cloves garlic
Drain cauliflower, cashews and garlic. Transfer to blender, along with salt, pepper and almond milk. Blend until completely smooth and thick.
1 teaspoon sea salt, ½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper, 1 ½ cups unsweetened almond milk
Make the pasta
Meanwhile, for the pasta, bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Cook gigli pasta according to package instructions.
16 ounces gigli pasta
Steam the broccoli
For the broccoli: While pasta is cooking, steam broccoli in microwave according to package instructions. See notes for alternate ways of cooking the broccoli, if you're using fresh.
24 ounces frozen broccoli in steam-able bags
Assemble the finished pasta
Reserve 1 cup of pasta water before draining pasta. Drain pasta and return to pot. Add broccoli to pot with drained pasta.
Turn on burner to low heat. Pour enough of the white sauce into the pasta to coat it. You may or may not have some leftover. Add ¼ cup reserved pasta water, if needed. Stir and then taste it. Adjust salt and pepper, to taste. Turn off heat. Serve hot.