Healthy Alfredo Sauce

Created On: October 5, 2020 | Modified Oct 31, 2022 by Nancylynn | This post may contain affiliate links. | 29 Comments | Jump to Recipe

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This Healthy Alfredo Sauce is creamy, delicious, and full of flavor without all the extra fat and calories! This Alfredo sauce is made with almond milk instead of cream, and it’s the perfect way to enjoy your favorite pasta dinner on the 21 Day Fix. This Alfredo recipe is also great for all WW plans! This post contains affiliate links for products I’m obsessed with.

Guys…I am so pumped to finally share a Healthy Alfredo Sauce Recipe on the blog. It’s been on my list for what feels like forever, and it is finally happening!

Alfredo Sauce is one of the most calorie-laden ways to top your pasta…until now. This sauce passed many tastes tests (thanks, Mom!) despite being a much healthier, lower calorie, 21 Day Fix approved version of Alfredo. I can’t wait for you guys to try it!

Traditional Alfredo Sauce vs Healthy Alfredo Sauce

Traditional Alfredo sauce is made by heating heavy cream, lots of butter, garlic, and cheese together until it thickens into a rich and creamy sauce. While it’s very delicious, the heaviness of the dairy tends to upset my stomach…and it’s certainly not a dish that fits into the containers for the 21 Day Fix.

My Healthy Alfredo sauce, on the other hand, uses 21 Day Fix Approved ingredients, but is creamy, delicious, and full of garlicky flavor in it’s own right! I made 5 different versions of this recipe to get this right…and I think you are going to love the results!

Table of Contents

Ingredients for this Healthy Alfredo Sauce Recipe

The best part of this Three Cheese (yes, THREE) Alfredo Sauce is the simple, real food ingredients used to make it!

Garlic – fresh garlic is a must for this recipe! I love to buy the peeled fresh garlic from Costco to save me some time!
Olive oil or olive oil spray – just enough to saute the garlic
Butter, vegan butter, or ghee – you can replace this with more olive oil if you wish, but I love the flavor you get from using a little butter in the sauce. A little goes a long way!
Gluten free or whole wheat flour – traditional Alfredo sauce doesn’t use flour, but we are going to make a roux here to help thicken the sauce without using cream. Because we are gluten free, I use gluten free flour, but feel free to replace with whole wheat if that’s what you have.
Original unsweetened almond or cashew milk – As I said before, I make this Alfredo sauce with milk instead of cream. Both almond milk and cashew milk are significantly lower in calories and fat than milk and cream, but they still add creaminess to this Alfredo sauce recipe. If you have a nut allergy, you can sub 1% milk in this recipe.
Freshly shredded white cheddar cheese, packed in tight – again, this deviates from the traditional Alfredo recipe, but using freshly shredded cheddar cheese helps to thicken this sauce without cream. Just be sure to pack it in tightly,
Freshly shredded Parmesan Reggiano cheese, packed in tight – Parmesan cheese is the typical cheese in Alfredo sauce – and a little goes a long way.
Pecorino Romano cheese – this is optional, but I love the combination of three cheeses in this Alfredo sauce…and pecorino Romano gives a little extra zip of flavor.
Fresh ground pepper – enhances all the flavors – I add just a little
Himalayan or Sea salt – you might need to increase the amount of salt depending on your cheese and butter selections, but start with a small amount and go from there.
Garnish – pinch of nutmeg and fresh parsley – these are optional, but they add a little extra flavor and a pop of color to your sauce

How to make Alfredo Sauce with Milk

The first step to this Alfredo recipe is to saute some garlic – I use 5 cloves because I am a garlic freak. Then, like my other Cheese Sauce recipes, it’s time to make a roux. While a roux isn’t traditionally part of Alfredo sauce, it works well to add thickness to this healthy Alfredo.

And FYI – a roux is just equal parts fat and flour – in this case we are using butter and gluten-free flour. After the roux is heated and begins to brown, add some almond or cashew milk and whisk until it begins to thicken. This will take a few minutes, so be patient.

Next it’s time to add the cheese! For extra creaminess and flavor, I use a three cheese blend: Parmesan, white cheddar, and pecorino Romano. I lower the heat and whisk away until the cheese has melted and the sauce is creamy perfection.

Next it’s time to season the sauce. Salt and pepper are a must, but you could also add a little nutmeg and fresh parsley to add some additional depth of flavor. Taste and adjust seasoning to your liking.

And that is it! A delicious and lower calorie Alfredo sauce ready in less than 20 minutes!

How to store your sauce

We typically enjoy this yummy sauce when it’s freshly made, but if you wanted to make it ahead of time, you could store it in a mason jar or other air tight container. You could also freeze this sauce using souper cubes like my Freezable Cheese Sauce!