An alfredo pasta that’s vegan, creamy, and high in protein sounds too good to be true.

But by far, the two most common responses you can expect to get when people find out you’re vegan are: “Where do you get your protein?” and “I could never give up dairy.”

And when you’re just starting out on a vegan diet, these types of questions can really get to your head. Can I actually become protein deficient? Am I really never going to eat dairy again?

While it may seem unusual to associate alfredo pasta with being high protein, I wanted to debunk those two points that vegans often get chastised for and show that: 1) yes, you can get ample amounts of protein from plants and 2) you can enjoy creamy dishes without cow’s milk. 

This Vegan Alfredo pasta gives you 40 – 50g of protein per serving all from plant-based ingredients. No mock meats necessary (but you can definitely add them!). 

The secret is always using a chickpea or lentil pasta (my favorite here), which has the exact same texture and taste as normal pasta but with over 20g of protein per serving.

And of course, the secret to achieving the creamiest sauce – hold the cow cream – is making my Creamy Universal Sauce alfredo-style. 

When using both hemp seeds and cashews, the alfredo sauce alone has over 15g of protein per serving. Using all hemp seeds will give you 10g more protein, but cashews give the sauce a fluffier texture. The power of nuts and seeds! 

All the ingredients in this recipe work together to give you a satisfying pasta dish that you don’t have to feel guilty about. The next time someone tries to make you feel bad about lacking protein and dairy, shut them up with this dish.