This Gluten-Free Vegan Vegetable Rigatoni with Creamy Cauliflower Sauce is an easy and healthy recipe. It's the perfect plant-based meal that's dairy-free, ready in about 15 minutes, and is a kid-friendly dish!
Here's Why This Recipe Works
My top 3 favorite reasons:
- It's A Kid-Friendly Plant-Based Meal
- Can Be Prepared In About 15 Minutes
- Made With Clean, Real Food Ingredients
You can feel good about making my healthy, plant-based recipe because it's vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, and oil-free.
How To Make This Recipe: Step-by-Step Instructions
Karielyn's Expert Tips + Ingredient Substitutions
Here are some of my expert tips to make this recipe perfectly:
Rigatoni: Feel free to use your favorite gluten-free pasta shape as a substitution. For example, shells, elbow noodles, and penne all work well.
Peas + Carrot Mixture: I use a 1-pound bag of frozen peas + carrots to save time.
Cauliflower: You will need raw cauliflower that has been cut into bite-size floret pieces which will make it easier to blend in your Vitamix. I've used a 1-pound bag of frozen organic cauliflower florets, as well as fresh, and they both work fine.
Almond Milk: This can be substituted with your favorite non-dairy milk with the exception of sweetened milk since this is a savory recipe. Homemade almond milk is my favorite but another great option is Joi Organic Almond Milk which is made with 100% organic almonds.
Cashews: Make sure you use "raw" cashews and not "roasted + salted". In addition, if you have a little extra time, an optional step is to soak the cashews before adding them to your Vitamix. Simply add the cashews to a bowl filled with filtered/purified water and let them soak for about 30 minutes, then rinse and drain. This will make the cashews soft and the sauce extra smooth.
Zucchini: Peel the zucchini and cut into smaller pieces before adding to your Vitamix.
Turmeric: I added this to give the sauce a "golden" color, but it can be omitted if you prefer.
Cayenne Pepper: This was added to give the sauce a little spicy flavor, but it can be adjusted or omitted.
Himalayan Pink Salt: This is my salt of preference, however, it can always be substituted with sea salt.
Serving Size: This recipe will make (8) servings of pasta. Nutritional information is calculated for ⅔ cup which is (1) serving.
Want More Healthy Plant-Based Dinner Recipes?
Check out these:
- Vegan Stuffed Pepper Soup
- Zucchini Boats with Creamy Garlic Sauce
- Spicy Turmeric Twice Baked Potatoes
- or my CLEAN EATING Cookbook with 75+ plant-based recipes made with clean, real food ingredients just like this one that you will love!
Did You Make This Recipe?
I'd love to hear about it! Please give it a rating and leave a comment below...it would make my day! 🙂
Gluten-Free Vegan Vegetable Rigatoni With Creamy Cauliflower Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
For the pasta:
- 1 pound organic gluten-free rigatoni (16-ounce bag)
- 2 cups organic peas +carrots mixture
For the sauce:
- 3 cups organic cauliflower (cut into floret pieces)
- 2 cups homemade almond milk
- 1 cup organic raw cashews
- 1 cup organic zucchini (peeled)
- 1 ½ cup nutritional yeast
- 2 cloves organic garlic
- 1 teaspoon Himalayan pink salt
- ¼ teaspoon organic turmeric powder
- 1-2 pinches organic cayenne pepper powder
Instructions
Prepare the pasta:
- Prepare the pasta according to package directions.
Prepare the sauce:
- While the pasta is boiling, add all ingredients for the sauce to a Vitamix and blend until creamy and smooth.
- Taste and adjust the seasonings to your preference.
- For the Sauce
- Put all ingredients for the sauce in a blender and blend until well combined and creamy.
- Taste and if needed, make adjustments with pink Himalayan salt, cayenne pepper, turmeric and nutritional yeast.
- To Assemble
- Strain the pasta and return it back to your pot.
- Add the cauliflower sauce, peas and carrots and stir until well combined.
- Warm on low heat just long enough to warm the sauce up and serve immediately.
- Best when served hot.
Recipe Notes
Copyright Notice
The instructions, notes, and photographs for this recipe by Karielyn Tillman of The Healthy Family and Home™ website are copyrighted material. This copyrighted work is protected and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International License and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) and cannot be legally used without my written permission.
Evajean says
This was very good. I was even able to get my husband to try it and he liked it as well. That in itself wins big points!
Thank you Karielyn. 🙂
Karielyn says
Hi there Evajean! I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed it and even better, that it was husband approved! I have a picky husband so it's a happy day in my house when I get husband approval too lol!
Thanks so much for trying out the recipe and for taking the time to let me know you liked it...I really appreciate it 😉
dejana says
this was amazing!
I just have a quick question for next time, should I have steamed the cauliflower before hand?
I have a pretty strong blender but I wasn't sure it could do the cauliflower raw
Thank you
Karielyn says
Hi there Dejana! On this recipe, I didn't steam the cauliflower before hand but actually used a frozen bag of raw cauliflower and just put it in my Vitamix and it blended it up just fine. If you have a high speed blender, it should be fine if it will blend the cashews and zucchini in addition to the cauliflower.
However, I have another cauliflower sauce recipe I use (that I deviated from to make this one) and on that one I do lightly boil the cauliflower before adding it to the Vitamix.
So you can do it both ways, but if you use the frozen cauliflower, keep in mind that you will definitely need to warm it up before serving!
Thanks for your question and I hope you enjoy it 😉
Georgia says
This was great, especially since my son is allergic to dairy (nuts too but i just left out the cashews and modified slightly and sub coconut milk for almond). How does this reheat? if i was to make it again earlier in the day would it still be good to heat up later in the afternoon? I don't cook with cauliflower often.
Thanks!
Karielyn says
Hi there Georgia! You could also increase the amount of zucchini to replace the cashews because the zucchini doesn't really give it a flavor, but helps with the creamy texture. Coconut milk is another great idea too!
I store any leftover sauce in an air tight glass container in the refrigerator.
To reheat, I would use low heat on the stove top and keep a close eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn. I don't use a microwave so I don't know how it would do if it were microwaved.
Thanks for your question and hope you enjoy it 😉